An American Tragedy (1931) User Reviews (38)

Social Significance over Sex

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 18 April 2017]

Like all the studios Paramount did not believe in idle hands. In between Marlene Dietrich projects, Josef Von Sternberg got assigned to do this adaption of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Of course Paramount's second adaption of this story A Place In The Sun is far better known.

Paramount was never known as a studio which did films with a message of social significance. Interesting to speculate what the results would have been had this been done at Warner Brothers. Von Sternberg did do a good piece of film making. But the story died at the box office. I suppose the story of a man trying to marry upward to secure a better place in society and the tragedy resulting just wasn't of interest to Depression audiences.

Whether it was or it wasn't Paramount sold the next one with sex, the love story of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor heating up the screen. That went over big in 1951.

In this story Phillips Holmes is the ne'er do well relative of factory owner Samuel Griffiths who gives him a job in his factory, but keeps him at a distance socially. More than anything else Holmes wants acceptance from the upper crust.

At the factory he drifts into an affair with fellow worker Sylvia Sidney, but when he sees rich Frances Dee she's the ticket to all he's ever wanted. But Sylvia's now pregnant, what's a guy to do?

Dreiser's thoughts about class and class distinction are carefully preserved here. Yet in the most class conscious era in American history this didn't go over with the public. I guess even in those times you need a little sex to get people to the box office.

All the leads performed well and I also would commend Irving Pichel as the prosecuting attorney. This part was also a milestone for Raymond Burr who did it in A Place In The Sun.

An American Tragedy holds up well for today's audience which is also thinking about class distinctions and upward mobility today.

AN American TRAGEDY (Josef von Sternberg, 1931) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 18 May 2011]

A classic American novel (by Theodore Dreiser) that was twice brought to the screen by master film-makers but, while both were reasonably well-received (the second – George Stevens' A PLACE IN THE SUN {1951} – being even allotted 'masterpiece' status in some quarters), they were also criticized for failing to bring out the essence of their source material! For the record, I had watched the latter version ages ago but will be following this one with it – so, a direct comparison will certainly prove interesting; incidentally, I own two copies of the rare 1931 film and, while I obviously watched the one with superior image quality (acquired only hours prior to the viewing!), I still had to contend with a muffled soundtrack that occasionally rendered the dialogue unintelligible.

Anyway, Sternberg was deemed the wrong director for this subject matter and, to be honest, the plot does feel somewhat dreary here – though the climactic trial undeniably compels attention (with the film's "Pre-Code" vintage being identified via a discussion of the soon-to-be taboo subject of abortion!). Incidentally, I have just stumbled upon the script which the great Soviet film-maker Sergei M. Eisenstein supplied, since he had previously been entrusted with the project for his American debut – which would subsequently never come to pass! Again, it would be fascinating to evaluate the two versions side-by-side but I do not have the time to go through the latter right now; if anything, I would love to check out Sternberg's celebrated autobiography "Fun In A Chinese Laundry" (which I also recently got hold of) to go along with my current retrospective of his work!

As was Sternberg's fashion, the visual aspect of the film rather eclipses narrative concerns. Though the contemporary setting here precludes his usual emphasis on ornate sets and expressive lighting, he still employed one of Hollywood's most renowned cameramen in Lee Garmes (especially noteworthy are the ripple effect throughout the opening credits and his trademark use of sustained dissolves during scene transitions). On his part, the latter managed to externalize the protagonist's conflicted feelings by way of the various milieux in which he moved: mission, factory, hotels, high-society circles, country-side, courtroom and, finally, prison.

This was just as well because stiff leading man Phillips Holmes (who looks an awful lot like Andy Warhol "superstar" Joe Dallesandro!) seems overwhelmed by the complexities of the role, which rather compromises audience identification with his plight! Incidentally, the script's attempt to pass this off as a problem picture was bizarre, to say the least – that said, the whole moralistic angle (which I do not think is present in the 1951 adaptation) led to a predictably serene conclusion, in which the anti-hero accepts the meting out of justice as his only possible fate. Even so, Dreiser was dissatisfied with how the film turned out (apparently ignoring the potent sociological element, he objected to the script's focus on the murder investigation) and took Paramount to court!; though his arguments were ultimately overruled, the studio still ordered considerable re-shoots…and, ironically, it was now Sternberg's turn to express dismay and he even went so far as to disown the released version!

One of the two women with whom the protagonist is involved is played by Sylvia Sidney (this was made the same year her brief major period – including films for Mamoulian, Vidor, Lang, Hitchcock and Wyler – kicked off): she is excellent, with some even suggesting the actress deserved an Oscar for it!; her death scene is very similar to the botched murder attempt, also occurring during a would-be innocent boat ride, in another classic by an equally gifted film-maker i.e. F.W. Murnau's SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS (1927). The other girl is Frances Dee – whose essentially small part, however, is obviously much reduced in comparison to that of Elizabeth Taylor's in the (lengthier) remake but also to Sidney's here; she is excluded, for plot purposes, from the latter stages of the film – but it must be said that the overall compactness of sequences vis-a'-vis the remake was not an artistic choice but merely the prevalent style of the era! Also on hand to fill in the roles of the two formidable lawyers in the case (incorporating an unprecedented re-enactment of the accident, complete with boat and passengers!) are District Attorney Irving Pichel and Defense Counsel Charles Middleton.

A Place in the Shade

[wes-connors · 7/10 · 9 July 2010]

This lesser-known version of Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" (1925) was more successfully filmed by director George Stevens as "A Place in the Sun" (1951). It opens with the dedication, "to the army of men and women all over the world who have tried to make life better for youth." This references a theme present in the novel, but it really isn't placed properly, here. We jump to a scene establishing the fact that handsome protagonist Phillips Holmes (great as Clyde Griffiths), working as a bellhop in Kansas City, is attractive to young women. Visually, this is unnecessary.

More important to the story is that Holmes' character had the difficult childhood noted in the opening. This is conveyed, next, with the introduction of his prayerful mother (a good performance by Lucille La Verne). But, the connection is lost, and Holmes is left carrying an empty character. The "tragedy" isn't what happens to his character - instead, it becomes what happens to poor girlfriend Roberta "Bert" Alden (another good performance, by Sylvia Sidney). This doesn't mean director Josef von Sternberg's "American Tragedy" is a bad film, just one that doesn't achieve its potential.

******* An American Tragedy (8/5/31) Josef von Sternberg ~ Phillips Holmes, Sylvia Sidney, Frances Dee, Lucille La Verne

Excellent Phillips Holmes

[drednm · 25 June 2007]

This seems much closer to the facts of Theodore Dreiser's great novel than the soapy 50s version, good in its own way, with Montgomery Clift.

Even with florid Josef von Sternberg directing, the film follows the basic plot of the novel although there seem to be a few holes. Still, the courtroom scene is electric and makes this all worth it. I also like the casting of Phillips Holmes as Clyde. Holmes is able to capture the bizarre passions and inability to really care that embody Clyde. His subtle performance in the courtroom scenes, as he slowly breaks down and loses any sense of truth under the barrage of lawyers, is quite excellent. His voice goes higher and thinner as he becomes just a frightened boy answering the stupid questions posed by the sadistic and ambitious lawyers.

Sylvia Sidney is quite good as the tragic Roberta, and Frances Dee captures the haughty attitudes of the wealthy of that era. Charles Middleton and Irving Pichel play the lawyers. And Lucille LaVerne plays Clyde's mother.

This was a big hit in its day and helped establish Holmes and Sidney as stars. Holmes had a relatively short starring career and died in WW II but he made several memorable films with Nancy Carroll.

An American Tragedy (1931) v. A Place In The Sun (1951)---A Cast Comparison

[malvernp · 7/10 · 6 July 2021]

Clyde Griffiths/George Eastman (Phillips Holmes v. Montgomery Clift). Unknown today, Holmes was the son of the better recognized Taylor Holmes (see e.g. Nightmare Alley). In AAT, his youthful good looks, amateur-like acting style and inexperience in film were used to advantage by director Josef Von Sternberg in creating a shallow, weak, amoral young man whose internal behavior compass hardly ever was functional. As he drifted from one crisis to another, it became increasingly evident that he would not grow as a person into a decent human being. Holmes brought Griffiths to life in a plausible and natural way. Clift seems to have created his George Eastman character internally as a cerebral rather than emotional effort. It is a carefully constructed performance--quite the opposite of the understated one played by Holmes. As Clift became George, he somehow also morphed into a sympathetic and pathetic character--a victim of his social class. I have always felt that Clift developed an essentially unrealistic character while Holmes WAS Clyde Griffiths.

Roberta Alden/Alice Tripp (Sylvia Sidney v. Shelley Winters). These roles were presented as very different characters in the two versions of the story. Sidney gave us a sympathetic and likable young woman who was attractive and appealing. On the other hand, Winters played Alice as an annoying, shrill and off-putting person who also happened to be physically unappealing. Some of this emphasis had to come from Winters and not just the script. We certainly liked Alice less than Roberta, and this had to affect how we reacted to what happened to each woman. George Stevens directed a film that was more melodramatic than AAT, and the Alice character was drawn to reinforce that emphasis. Sidney and Winters were both highly competent actresses, but Sidney was better at generating empathy from the audience. We react with a greater sense of loss upon learning what happens to her on the lake that fateful day.

Sondra Finchley/Angela Vickers (Frances Dee v. Elizabeth Taylor). The presentation of these two characters is probably the starkest difference between the two versions---not so much in terms of how each is drawn but in their overall emphasis and significance to the plot development. Dee's Sondra is essentially a minor player, who has a few scenes to establish herself and then disappears from the latter part of the story. On the other hand, Stevens lavishes considerable viewing time and memorable camera closeups on Taylor---who was then in her early twenties and at the peak of her extraordinary beauty. Dee was a lovely and talented actress to be sure, but for whatever reason, she was not given the opportunity to present herself to full advantage. The romantic chemistry between Taylor and Clift was obviously positive, whereas Dee and Holmes merely played scenes together that did not project anything like the same emotion. Clift and Taylor went on to become good friends in real life. As far as we know, this did not happen to Dee and Holmes.

District Attorney Mason/District Attorney Marlowe (Irving Pichel v. Raymond Burr). Pichel went on to become a well known character actor and later a credible director. Burr reached the peak of his popularity a few years later playing Perry Mason on television. Both actors used their opportunity to play the District Attorney in a rather florid and stylized manner that at times seemed almost "over the top." It is interesting to watch Burr chewing the scenery in APITS, and contrast that performance with his measured and contained efforts as defense attorney Mason. And compare Pichel's histrionics here with his subsequent modest effort in Dracula's Daughter (1936).

Mrs. Asa Griffiths/Hannah Eastman (Lucille La Verne v. Anne Revere). La Verne is virtually unknown today, but she will always be remembered as the voice of the Wicked Queen in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937). She also had a memorable bit as one of the more vocal harridans of the Guillotine watching crowd in A Tale Of Two Cities (1935). Revere was a popular character actress for many years, and specialized in playing strong maternal roles. She was Blacklisted shortly after appearing in APITS, and was not seen in another Hollywood film until 19 years later in 1970. Both were fine here in their respective roles.

AAT And APITS are so different that it is quite difficult to compare them with each other. In this respect, we can draw an analogy to the two film versions of Waterloo Bridge. The earlier one (directed by James Whale) was simpler, grittier and more true to the original source material. The latter one (directed by Mervyn Le Roy) reflected higher production values, a glossy melodramatic story line and a "smoothing of the rough edges)". Take your pick!

not von Sternberg's best

[fillherupjacko · 7/10 · 4 March 2010]

Clyde, a poor boy whose mother runs a home for the needy, attains a job as a bell hop. From the very first he wants more; he's trying to break a date to see a ritzy dame who has taken a shine to him carrying her bags. Ma don't approve of his new friends though – "Boys and girls like that are the only friends I've got" – and after he's involved in a drink driving accident he sets out for New York (Mum's praying here is ludicrous. A sentimental note out of keeping with von Sternberg films.)

Now Clyde has risen to foreman of the stamping department in his uncle's Samuel Griffiths collar and shirt factory. These are the best scenes of the film – the depth in the composition of the shots is incredible – with the girls squeaking away on their stampers and flicking their hair as Clyde walks passed.

Sylvia Sydney catches his eye and is very Dietrich like in her mockingly wry approach to Clyde with "I hope you like the collar business" and "You really seem happy Mr. Griffiths" as he pulls a sulk when she won't let him come to her room. If it's not the sensual sound of the water – the film is divided into chapters with dream-like, ominous shots of the water – it's the sound of the girls stamping away, all examples of von Sternberg recording sound in an artificial manner. Listen to the bit where the newsboy is chanting "bad results of accident."

Most of which von Sternberg directs in a perfunctory manner. He isn't interested in the effect that social conditions have on people's motivations/ actions (surely the theme of the book). In his films, people are only roused from their world weary inertia because of their own feelings.

In short, von Sternberg is unsuited to the material. With such an unwieldy novel to film there are too many scenes where he simply points the camera at the actors (like almost every other director does) in boring scenes necessary for plot advancement. Compare this with the contemporaneous Shanghai Express, a film conceived and written by von Sternberg which never fails to be visually compelling, and the Scarlett Empress whose visual quality is unprecedented, perhaps in the whole of cinema.

Why I Prefer This Version

[disinterested_spectator · 6/10 · 20 May 2017]

"An American Tragedy" is a novel by Theodore Dreiser. It is a long complex novel, but in its essentials it boils down to this: boy meets girl, boy gets girl pregnant, boy meet another girl he likes better, boy kills the first girl, boy is executed for murder.

They have names, of course: the boy is Clyde, the first girl is Roberta, and the second girl is Sondra. Now, Clyde doesn't actually kill Roberta. He planned to drown her and make it look like an accident. He gets her out into the middle of the lake in a rowboat, knowing she cannot swim. But then he thinks he cannot do it. But then he thinks he will. He might as well be picking petals off a daisy: "I kill her, I kill her not, I kill her, I kill her not." Anyway, she ends up falling overboard and drowns just as he was thinking, "I kill her not." Notwithstanding all the planning he put into this murder that he changed his mind on at the last minute but which had the same result anyway, his identity is discovered, he is tried for murder, convicted, and executed.

This first film adaptation, released in 1931, has the same title as the novel, and the three principal characters have the same names. The second adaptation, made in 1951, has a title that is different from the novel, "A Place in the Sun," and the characters have different names. Don't ask me why. In most respects, the second adaptation is a much better movie. It was directed by George Stevens, starring Montgomery Clift as Clyde = George; Shelley Winters as Roberta = Alice; and Elizabeth Taylor as Sondra = Angela. (For the sake of consistency, I will continue to the use the names in the novel.)

But in one respect, this first adaptation is better, and so much so in this respect that I prefer this version to the second. In the movie "An American Tragedy," Roberta is played by Silvia Sidney. We readily believe in her naïve innocence. She seems like the Roberta of the novel, a woman we like and feel sorry for. As noted above, however, in "A Place in the Sun," Roberta is played by Shelley Winters. I don't know what Shelley Winters was like as a person, but her screen persona simply is not the sweet, innocent virgin for whom we are supposed to have sympathy because she was taken advantage of by a man. On the contrary, she seems suited for roles in which she is a hardboiled broad, as in "Alfie" (1966) or "Bloody Mama" (1970). As a result, when she is taken advantage of by a man in a movie, we are more likely to think she is dumb than naïve.

Partly as a result of this difference, we are sad when Silvia Sidney's Roberta drowns. As for Shelley Winters' Roberta, however, we know we are supposed to feel sorry for her, and we do a little bit, but the fact is that we never really mind when Shelley Winters dies in a movie. For example, the fact that she drowns in "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) does not spoil our sense that the movie has a happy ending. A third movie in which Shelley Winters drowns is "The Night of the Hunter" (1955), murdered by her newlywed psychopathic husband, played by Robert Mitchum. Now, Robert Mitchum's character, Harry Powell, is supposed to be as bad as they come, so you would think they would have allowed him to kill a more likable actress, like Jane Wyatt, for instance, so that we would really think Harry is evil. But they picked Shelley Winters to be his victim so that we would not spend the rest of the movie feeling sorry for her.

In other words, if "A Place in the Sun" had starred an actress to play Roberta who would have been more believably innocent and whose death would have been more disturbing, then we would have been appropriately outraged that Clyde would have even thought about abandoning her, let alone make elaborate plans to murder her, just as we are when we read the novel. But with Shelley Winters playing the part, her death really seems to be no great loss, and we end up feeling sorrier for Clyde, played by the likable Montgomery Clift, than we do for Roberta.

Long trial scenes drag down a movie with good performances from Sidney and Dee

[gbill-74877 · 6/10 · 11 September 2017]

Based on the 1925 Theodore Dreiser novel of the same name, 'An American Tragedy' tells the tale of a young man (Phillips Holmes) who is nice enough on the surface, but is in reality slimy and weak. He's not a likable figure, and despite an upbringing from virtuous parents, lacks a moral compass. He flees the scene of a fatal hit-and-run early on in the film, and then uses a young factory worker (Sylvia Sidney), getting her pregnant. He lies to her about marrying her while pursuing an affluent woman (Frances Dee). It's a love triangle where we clearly feel empathy and attraction for the two women, and dislike for the man.

The film is strongest in the scenes with Sidney or Dee, both of whom are beautiful and turn in strong performances, perfectly tuned to their characters. Where the film falls down is in its last 30 minutes, where the trial is far too long and has few moments of real interest. It's meant to be riveting as the District Attorney (Irving Pichel) and defense attorney (Emmett Corrigan) raise their voices dramatically, but instead it's tedious and dated. One wonders if the trial scenes were elongated following a successful lawsuit brought by Dreiser, one which distressed Director Josef von Sternberg so much that he disowned the picture. It's certainly the weakest part of the film, which is a shame given Sidney and Dee's performances.

A face in the crowd wants his place in the sun

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 6 July 2013]

It's interesting to compare this precode era adaptation to the glossier seemingly bigger-budget production, 1951's "A Place in the Sun". People today will likely not remember the stars since so much of their work was done at 1930's Paramount and is never shown anymore. Practically all of the action is centered on working class girl Roberta (Sylvia Sidney) and Clyde Griffiths (Phillips Holmes), who wants what he wants when he wants it. Frances Dee as the rich girl Clyde falls for later in the film barely gets any lines at all as compared to Elizabeth Taylor in the corresponding part in the 1951 film. In fact the whole tale is spartanly told.

Clyde's past is filled in more in this film, along with more about his mother and the fact that she realizes she failed Clyde by concentrating so much on her mission work and thus exposing Clyde to all of the darkness in life with none of the normal attention and happinesses that most children experience, thus making Clyde selfish and hungry for the good things in life.

Clyde gets a break when he runs into the wealthy side of the family, gets a job in their factory, and ultimately works his way up to supervisor. But the family is more oblige toward him than noblesse, as they invite him up to visit them at their house - more for the sake of appearances than anything - and study him like a specimen rather than treat him like a guest. Through all of this, Clyde is stoic and unsurprised at their behavior. You get the feeling he'd do the same if he was in their place.

Clyde selfishly but not maliciously pushes Roberta, one of the assembly line girls in his charge, into a relationship and ultimately into sharing a bed, and apparently this intimate relationship goes on some time until he meets a bigger better deal in the person of Sondra Finchley. Don't expect the sizzle and warmth of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor here. Here Frances Dee and Philips Holme barely smolder, but that is probably intentional just to feed the impression that this guy truly can't love anybody.

Here Roberta is an unlucky girl that you grow to like as you even meet her family at one point. In Place in the Sun Shelley Winter's rendition is that of a clawing nagging harpy, causing you to somewhat sympathize with Clyde. Here there can really be no sympathy for the guy - he really is a coward, always trying to get what he can out of life here and now, running from the consequences, lying to himself as well as everyone else.

When the pregnant Roberta refuses to just disappear and insists on marriage, Clyde tears himself away from his summer vacation with his new socialite girlfriend long enough to plan a murder that will look like an accidental drowning. Does he want the good things in life enough to do even the foulest of deeds? Watch and find out. And you will find out, because what happens in the boat is clearly shown from beginning to end.

One very interesting moment in this film not included in the remake: You see the jury deliberate and two jurors are tending toward voting not guilty. The other ten threaten the two holdouts, basically saying that they will find it impossible to make a living in that town if they "side with that murderer". In the production code era you would never be allowed to question the integrity of the criminal justice system in such a manner.

This film is an interesting commentary on class consciousness centered on a wrong guy ultimately brought to accidental justice by an equally wrong criminal justice system. Highly recommended.

A decent if flawed adaptation

[rdoyle29 · 7/10 · 17 July 2017]

This first film adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel is an extremely troubled release ... first disowned by Dreiser, and then disowned by Josef von Sternberg when Dreiser successfully sued to have footage put back into the theatrical release. In a sense, it's a very faithful adaptation, following the plot of the book more closely than George Stevens's "A Place in the Sun". It still feels pretty truncated as the book's plot is jammed into an hour and a half. As a pre-code film, it's allowed to not skirt around the themes of abortion, murder and erotic obsession. It's one glaring fault is that Phillips Holmes seems completely unable to gain much audience sympathy and thus the movie's main character comes off as a completely amoral monster.

No one will be allowed in during the thrilling "canoeing" scene!

[lfjeff63 · 4/10 · 16 November 2006]

"An American Tragedy" is based on the novel by Theodore Dreiser, which was based on a real murder in 1906, and its subsequent trial. While watching this, I had to remember that the acting style of those days were much more stylized and melodramatic than the method system used today. Having said that, Philips Holmes, who plays our protagonist, Clyde Griffiths, really wasn't all that good. He seemed pretty stiff to me. Sylvia Sidney played Roberta Alden, the girl he gets pregnant and then ends up accidentally killing. Her acting was much better than the rest of the cast. The first half of the film drags, showing Clyde lonely at his job supervising women in a factory. Then he meets Roberta and they get involved. After Clyde gets Roberta pregnant, he meets Sondra (Frances Lee) and falls in love with her. The film really picks up during the trial, where the prosecutor and defense attorneys get really bombastic. This film was later remade as "A Place in the Sun" which was a lot better on the whole.

Portrait of a Cold, Cowardly Opportunist

[kidboots · 10/10 · 7 April 2010]

Theodore Dreiser's lengthy 1925 novel was based on the sensational 1906 murder trial of Chester Gillette, who murdered his working class girlfriend in order to marry into a socially prominent family. His book deals with a man who wants to escape the poverty and hopelessness of his background only to be engulfed by the wealth he longs for. It became a successful Broadway play with Miriam Hopkins as Sondra, the society girl.

Initially, Paramount engaged the prestigious Russian director Sergei Eisenstein as director but the deal fell through, then flamboyant director Josef Von Sternberg was hired. Coming in the middle of his Marlene Dietrich pictures the film dripped with atmosphere as he filmed scenes through beaded curtains, venetian blinds and lakeside trees. Even though Sylvia Sidney and Phillips Holmes last co-starring feature was a movie so bad that no director wanted credit ("Confessions of a Co-Ed") they were both immediately signed for "An American Tragedy". Holmes, a very sensitive actor, found the role of a life time as Clyde Griffiths, who we first meet working as a bellhop at the luxurious Green- Davison Hotel. His opportunism is apparent from the start as he would rather attend to the female guests every need than to hobnob with his fellow workers.

When out with friends he is involved in a hit and run (he is not the driver) and though his mother (Lucille LaVerne, in a really over the top performance) who runs the local mission, pleads with him to go to the police, being a coward he refuses. He flees to New York where he has some wealthy relations and it isn't long before, with lying and wheedling, he has attained the post of foreman in the Griffiths Shirt Factory. He meets pretty Roberta (Sylvia Sidney), a factory girl and seems genuinely attracted to her, at the same time he meets his wealthy relatives and is taken up by them. Clyde and Roberta begin their affair, even though the factory frowns against romance in the workplace. Roberta is manipulated by Clyde (with promises of everlasting devotion) into letting him come up to her room. About the same time he meets Sondra (beautiful Frances Dee), a society girl and then conveniently forgets about Roberta. Roberta has some news for Clyde that he doesn't want to hear as he feels he has really fond his niche in life with Sondra by his side.

After reading in the paper about an accidental drowning, Clyde begins to plan his way out - he takes Roberta out on the lake, knowing her fear of water. He plans to capsize the boat and let her drown but when faced with the act, he can't go through with it. Roberta is frightened and accidentally falls in but Clyde does nothing to save her and swims away.

The last third of the film is devoted to the trial with Irving Pichel giving a gripping performance as D.A. Mason, who is determined to find Clyde guilty. Clyde's coldness and amoral attitude, plus the fact that he is already on the run from a fatal car accident does not get sympathy from the jury. Only at the very end, when he admits to his mother that he did intend to kill Roberta but changed his mind does the audience feel any sympathy for him.

There is no comparison between Sylvia Sidney and Shelley Winters (who played Roberta in the 1951 remake). Sidney, a far superior actress, gave Roberta a naive sensitivity, Winters made Roberta seem coarse and crude. Frances Dee, who proved she was a good actress in films like "The Silver Cord" and "Blood Money", a couple of years in the future, in 1931 was just a very pretty face. I think, by making Sondra just a pretty cardboard cut out society girl (in comparison to Elizabeth Taylor's more sensitive portrayal) Sternberg keeps the emphasis on Clyde, defining his callousness and spinelessness and taking away any sympathy the audience may have felt for him.

Highly, Highly Recommended.

The Ladies Of The Lake.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 17 May 2017]

A stark retelling of Theodore Dreiser's naturalistic novel about love and social status. The author sued the production company for the liberties they took with the story. If Dreiser thought that von Sternberg's "An American Tragedy" took too many liberties, he must be known to the other cadavers as Ol' "Pinwheel" Dreiser after 1951's "A Place in the Sun," directed by George Stevens in an echt-romantic mode.

Well, just look at the name changes from Dreiser to Stevens, for instance. "Clyde Griffiths" becomes "George Eastman." That in itself is an improvement over Dreiser. Who wants to sympathize with a guy named Clyde? Besides, the story -- in the book and in both films -- is set in upstate New York. And Rochester is in upstate New York, where "Eastman" is a name to conjure with. Look up Eastman School of Music in Rochester, or Eastman-Kodak. If George is less alienating than Clyde, then certainly Alice Tripp in 1951 is a quantum leap in pathos beyond 1931's Roberta Alden, and Angela Vickers is a rich improvement over Sondra Finchley.

But the 1931 version, whatever Dreiser may have thought of it, is by no means bad. It's not nearly as manipulative as the later version, with Montgomery Clift looking so young, beautiful, and brooding. It's important to remember that von Sternberg was operating under the technological strictures of the period. The sound is crummy. That's because recording techniques were primitive in 1931. There were mikes hidden in boutonnieres, coffee cups, table lamps, and various other props like toilet facilities. (Well, not that.)

In this movie, Clyde (Philip Holmes, Philip Holmes in a deliciously ambiguous performance) comes from a stern but loving religious family. He runs into a rich relative who gives him a job out of pity in a factory in New York state, near the town of Fonda, named after THAT family. Clyde is a lonesome young fellow, naive with a dash of the engaging charm that obvious ignorance sometimes brings with it. Against the rules he courts and seduces factory girl Roberta (Sylivia Sidney) and she winds up preggers. This puts Clyde's morality in a vice. Illegitimate children weren't looked on with pride in 1931 and their mothers were a disgrace in every respect. Meanwhile, Clyde is more and more estranged from Roberta because he's fallen in with the rich crowd of his relatives and because he's now in love with Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee, looking good. In fact, she looked even better with the passage of years: check out "I Walked With a Zombie"). Sondra takes Clyde out in a speedboat for a spin on the same lake where the other girl is about to meet her fate.

What to do, what to do? The obvious answer is to take Roberta out in a rowboat to an isolate bay then throw the unswimming slut overboard. Clyde initiates the plan but once out in the boat finds himself incapable of murder. He spills the beans about his situation. Roberta, understandably upset, leaps to her feet and advances towards him until not only she but the rowboat are upset. She drowns while Clyde swims towards shore.

It doesn't take the law long to pin it on Clyde, who is not only morally weak but pretty dumb. The courtroom scenes that follow may strike a modern viewer as overblown -- all the shouting and nastiness -- but a peek at the trial proceedings of Bruno Richard Hauptmann in the case of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping reveals that trials weren't nearly as decorous then as they are now. At any rate, both fictitious Clyde and factual Hauptmann suffer the same fate.

And it's in these last scenes that Dreiser's novel beats both film versions. His description of the prison is captured with precision, the floor plan, the stone walls, the bars. His sketch stands out because elsewhere his prose can become unbuttoned: "She wore ruby earrings in her ears." And the somewhat air-headed rich girl, who speaks baby talk to Clyde, as in, "Is my widdle pooky wooky saddy waddy?", disappears from the plot at the first hint of scandal, never to be heard from again, thank God. That's as it should be.

You won't regret having watched this if you have the chance.

Bury this one at the bottom of the lake

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 4/10 · 17 August 2019]

The tragedy is that Philip Holmes can't act. The lead male character is a spineless weasel to begin with, but Holmes' job is to make us sympathize on at least some level with his tortured choices. Because he fails to do so, we end up with a movie where we not only don't care about Clyde Griffiths, we loathe him. S'too bad, because Sylvia Sidney and Frances Dee are fantastic actresses. They didn't deserve to be saddled with such a stiff. The narrative itself is hopelessly choppy and episodic. I'd like to see the 14 reels Sergie Eisenstein shot when he tried to make this movie before von Sterberg.

Wrong director tries hard, Sylvia Sidney comes off best

[mgmax · 29 November 2003]

Originally this adapation of the Dreiser novel was planned by Sergei Eisenstein, during the Hollywood jaunt that also led to Que Viva Mexico, and his version might have been a cracked masterpiece-- one can imagine him getting all kind of details about the American scene ludicrously wrong, but finding a real connection between Dreiser's depiction of a weak youth whose desire for wealth and comfort sends him on an assembly line to murder, and Eisenstein's own mechanistic editing style and view of capitalism's destructiveness.

Von Sternberg, on the other hand, was the master of knowing sexual politics and intrigue, at his best with characters whose illusions had been left behind many beds ago. Given a Classics Illustrated-level cutdown of the book, and a stiff (if straight out of an Arrow shirt ad) leading man in Phillips Holmes, there's little for him to get hold of here, except for a few scenes in which Sylvia Sidney manages to convey the poignance of a poor girl in a bad spot, losing her boy and helpless to prevent it. There are some reasonably effective scenes between Holmes and Sidney, some nice chiaroscuro from Lee Garmes (though alas, even UCLA's restoration does not look as good as the clips I saw at Cinesation in the 1932 Paramount promo film The House That Shadows Built), and the courtroom scenes, though way over the top (not helped by Irving Pichel's too-perfect E- Nun-Cee-I-A-Shun), are dramatic-- it's fun seeing him defended by Charles "Ming the Merciless" Middleton, in that inimitable voice. But you can't really say it works, or does Dreiser justice-- and I'm not sure any movie could.

The problem with Dreiser's passive characters is that on screen their plights may be involving, but they aren't; we don't get the interior life that the novel gives us, we just see the story of an ineffectual sap making a couple of bad mistakes and getting ground to dust by the wheels of modern society. James Cain's crime novels took the Dreiser- style story and put guilt and cunning back into the main characters' makeup, so they have things to do on screen-- and they know WHY they're doomed. Seeing Sternberg fail to find anything interesting enough to work with here makes you wish Eisenstein had made this film, and Sternberg had had the chance to sink his teeth into The Postman Always Rings Twice or Serenade.

Young and Forbidden Love

[kapelusznik18 · 7/10 · 18 May 2017]

***SPOILERS***Based on the true story of 20 year old Grace Brown who was tragically drowned-On July 11, 1906-in Big Moose Lake in upstate New York whom her lover 23 year old Chester Gillette was executed for. In the movie version-the first of two-we have clothing factory worker Roberta Alden, Sylvia Sidney, get romantically involved with her boss handsome Clyde Griffiths, Phillips Holmes. It's Clyde who after impregnates Roberta while on a date with her later falls madly in love with pretty and rich socialite Sondra Finchley, Frances Dee, finding he's stuck with no way out of the mess he got himself into.

Clyde at first tried to get Roberta to have the couples soon to be born child aborted which in him being deeply religious is against all the principles that he was brought up by his bible thumping mom Mrs. Asa Griffiths, Lucille La Veme, with. Conflicted in just what to do Clyde decides to take Roberta out to the country for the weekend and plan what to do next. Out rowing on the middle of Big Moose Lake things go terribly wrong with Roberta, who can't swim, slipping as Clyde is about to take her picture and falling into the water and drowning herself. That's with Clyde in a panic taking off and swinging back to shore some 500 feet away when he was just a few feet away where Roberta ended up drowning.

Arreated and tried for the murder of Roberta Alden Clyde gets no sympathy from anyone not even his defense attorney Mr. Belknap, Emmett Corrigan, in how cowardly he acted in letting Roberta drown without lifting a finger to save her. The verdict is a forgone conclusion with Clyde convicted of 1st degree murder and sent to Sing Sing to be executed. What we find out is that despite being a coward and two timing heel Clyde in fact, in his own words, didn't really murder Roberta but in being more interested in saving his own neck made no attempt to save her. Told by his mom to take it-his punishment-lake a man Clyde for the first and only time in his life accepts responsibility for his actions: Which in his case was not murder but leaving the scene of an accident and bravely goes to his fate in the state electric chair. P.S Remade 20 years later in 1951 as "A Place in the Sun" together with Montgromery Cliff and Elizabeth Taylor as George Eastman & Angela Vickers as the star stuck lovers with Shelly Winters as the tragic left out on the cold or at the bottom of Big Moose Lake Alice Tripp or the Roberta Alden character in the 1931 original.

Decent story but Phillips Holmes is amazingly dull in the lead.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 23 January 2016]

Had I never seen the 1951 film "A Place in the Sun", I might have enjoyed "An American Tragedy" a bit more. After all, the 1951 film has lots of polish and gloss and the 1931 film is rather flat. But even if the 1931 movie was a bit better, I still think it wouldn't come close to the later version of the same story because the lead, Phillips Holmes, was very, very bland...so bland I can understand why he never became a big star. He's good looking but has practically no screen presence whatsoever.

The story is based on Theodore Dreiser's novel by the same name, though Dreiser apparently did not like this film version and felt it was too different from his novel. I've never read the story, so I cannot really comment on this.

The story is about a guy named Clyde Griffiths (Holmes). Clyde is a guy with very little character and early in the story he runs over a girl while drinking and evades police. Later, he thinks nothing of sweet-talking a young lady (Sylvia Sidney) into sleeping with him by making various promises to her. However, when he's able to move his way to fancy society and make time with his boss' daughter, this other woman is an inconvenience...and especially so when she ends up pregnant. So Clyde has a choice...marry the poor girl who he's used horribly or dump her and possibly be able to marry the rich girl. But how to get rid of the poor girl? Considering his character, what do you think?! What follows is a long, drawn out court drama that is, at times, highly overwrought and emotional.

Overall, this is a good film and worth seeing...though the 1951 version is significantly better in most ways.

Fancy a trip to the lake?

[AAdaSC · 7/10 · 21 March 2019]

Phillips Holmes (Clyde) is a social climber. He's good-looking but is an outcast from his own family. His mother is a religious sanctimonious do-gooder as played by Lucille La Verne. Not surprisingly, Holmes isn't going to follow her path as it is natural for children to rebel against their parents. He is set up by rich uncle Frederick Burton (Mr Griffiths) with a job at a factory where he works his way up to a supervisory position. However, he is not really accepted by Burton who is fixated on his own social status and self-importance. Clyde gets involved with 2 girls - working class Sylvia Sidney (Roberta) from the factory and wealthy socialite Frances Dee (Sondra). Sylvia gets pregnant to the dismay of Holmes and he thinks up a plan to free himself of this trouble. It involves a lake.

This is an interesting story that concludes with a court case. Unfortunately, the film loses its way a bit during these scenes as the acting becomes pretty awful. The lawyers just shout a lot which is in contrast to the underplayed calculating nature of the first half of the film centring on Holmes and his predicament. The first half of the film is way better and more entertaining. The acting is good apart from the lawyers and a very phony La Verne who over-emotes. She only manages to pull off one of her scenes - just - at the end of the film. Everywhere else she is diabolical with that phony dialogue delivery that signifies somebody who really cares. Only it doesn't. It makes you shout "Oh shut up!" at her on the TV and winds the audience up. I'd like to take her out on the lake.

I remember when I was 4 years old and I went on a picnic with my then girlfriend. She was also 4. We went down to a lake and before I knew it, she was in it. We had been standing throwing sticks into the water and then.....she is suddenly shouting out "You pushed me!" I hadn't. I asked how she was and then ran off to get help. Luckily, she could tread water. So, I understand how situations can suddenly arise and how the truth gets mixed up. Her parents didn't like me after that. This film is different as we see the reactions of Holmes after the accident.

Roberta Takes The Flack

[Lejink · 6/10 · 17 November 2023]

Josef Von Sternberg's early pre-Code talkie version of Theodore Dreiser's novel was made many years before the better-known George Stevens take on the same subject as "A Place In The Sun" starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor.

His film does admittedly suffer somewhat from a lack of star power but more so from failings perhaps relating to adapting to the new talking pictures medium. Thus, after convincingly bringing the human drama to life in the early stages, he rather saps the energy from the movie by concluding with a mostly static and histrionic extended courtroom sequence which positively, or should that be negatively abounds with heightened dialogue and worse still, heightened acting.

The first two thirds of the film are good however, as we follow poor boy Phillips Holmes's Clyde character's slow rise to just above the level of mediocrity in life as he runs an office full of young women who seem to just sit and stamp shirt collars all day long. There he meets Sylvia Sidney's moon-faced Roberta, Bert for short, Alden, a loving, but needy young woman with whom he strikes up a relationship. He gets her pregnant and promises her marriage but he then chances to fall into the rich set where he finds his good looks and ready charm can take him places. And so they do, in the form of the beautiful, wealthy socialite Frances Dee's Sondra Finchley so that he can't believe his luck when she falls for him and he gets to meet her family and taste all the accoutrements of high living.

So, what's a poor boy to do, with a now-pregnant poor girl in the background demanding some form of commitment? Well, in this case, you talk her into an abortion and then into accompanying you onto a small rowing boat in the middle of nowhere, knowing she can't swim and then have her drown as you swim away to the shore hoping you'll get away with it.

He doesn't of course and sure enough is forced to stand trial which naturally is the sensation of the day. Unfortunately this is when Von Sternberg gets bogged down in following the literary text too stringently with both the defence and prosecution attorneys loudly making their cases by playing to the galleries and not just the ones in court. There's never much doubt though about what the outcome will be and we're left with the bathetic final scene of a boy and his overtly religious mother preparing his way out of his life.

Like I said, I enjoyed the preamble to Roberta's death with Von Sternberg nicely contrasting the two worlds that Clyde is caught between, this all the more pointed given the film's strategic date-stampiing directly in between the Wall Street Crash and the onset of the Great Depression.

But it's like having brought his dark souffle to rise, he then lets all the air out of it by getting carried away with the trial. It's an early talkie so I maybe shouldn't be too harsh on much (and there is much) of the stagey, over-acting and over-ripe dialogue which Von Sternberg doesn't rein in, with only the admirable Sidney realising that less is more in her performance.

Still, it is a rattling good story which punctures the American Dream, but one can't help but wonder what the great director might have made of this choice material with a bit more technical and practical experience in this new medium.

More faithful to the novel than the remake

[reelguy2 · 10/10 · 10 November 2004]

Josef von Sternberg brings an uncompromising quality to Theodore Dreiser's most American of novels. The drowning scene is appropriately ambiguous. The unusual upbringing of Clyde Griffiths, whose name is even changed in the remake to something supposedly less mundane, is also more faithful to the novel, delineating the mother-son relationship in detail. George Stevens' remake, A Place in the Sun, is highly romanticized, which is seriously at odds with the naturalistic character of the novel.

Lee Garmes' shimmering photography is a perfect example of chiaroscuro. The opening credits immediately establish the water motif that is to figure so prominently later in the story.

Phillips Holmes excels at portraying his character's ambition as he climbs the social ladder. He goes beyond portraying your typical "weak youth" and suggests an attachment disorder that is all the more disturbing to see because not even a modern film has gone into this psychological territory. Although her role is short, Frances Dee is infinitely better than Elizabeth Taylor in the remake. As the put-upon character, Shelley Winters overplays her pathetic qualities in the Stevens version and is more irritating than Sylvia Sidney. As terrible as it sounds, Winters almost explains her boyfriend's decision to drown her. But that's hardly the point of the event.

The courtroom scene has been criticized for being overacted, but it convincingly depicts Holmes' total loss of control as his attorney (Charles Middleton) concocts a bogus excuse for the drowning. And I wouldn't give up Middleton's flamboyant performance for anything!

If you want a more faithful adaptation of Dreiser's novel - and a more complex if less slick movie than the remake - von Sternberg's film is the one to see.

This film certainly holds its own against the remake

[scsu1975 · 7/10 · 20 November 2022]

Original film version of Theodore Dreiser's novel is fairly well done, despite some flaws. Unlike "A Place in the Sun," we get some backstory on the main character Clyde (played by Phillips Holmes).

Sylvia Sidney sparkles as Roberta, Holmes' doomed girlfriend, while Frances Dee, as the rich society girl that Holmes falls for, has a greatly reduced role. Holmes is bland and seems to be just reading his lines, although the final scene with his mother is effective.

The opposing attorneys, played by Irving Pichel (prosecution) and Charles Middleton (defense), are a bit much. In one ridiculous courtroom scene, they start removing their jackets, intending to duke it out.

I kept thinking that it was a good thing that Clyde and Roberta were in a rowboat when the "murder" was committed. Had Clyde used a canoe, he would have been charged with the more serious crime of exerting his white privilege to culturally appropriate a Native American mode of transportation.

Excruciating to Watch

[RRiley9945 · 2/10 · 24 January 2022]

Even keeping in mind that is an early talkie movie, it still was very difficult to wade through. Others have pointed out ---and I agree--- that the lead actor has about as much charisma as a wet sponge. Particularly painful were the trial scenes which seem to drag on forever. Histrionics pile on histrionics. The only saving grace was Sylvia Sidney but she bails out early.

surprisingly powerful adaptation of the Dreiser classic

[django-1 · 9/10 · 17 March 2006]

The first and best film adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's classic novel of pointless crime and arbitrary punishment, the 1931 version of AN American TRAGEDY was directed by Josef Von Sternberg, who had just had great success with THE BLUE ANGEL (and who made a total of eight films with star Marlene Dietrich) and who captures the emptiness and isolation and desperate qualities of the characters well. Phillips Holmes, perhaps best known today for GENERAL SPANKY (the strange Our Gang feature film) is a revelation as the heartless, social-climbing Clyde Griffiths, and the young Sylvia Sidney makes a strong impression as the working girl killed in the "accident" that leads to the long trial sequence at the film's end, which is itself a classic of courtroom melodrama. Clyde is represented in court by Charles Middleton (who later played Emperor Ming in the FLASH GORDON films) as a cynical, grandstanding attorney. AN American TRAGEDY still packs a punch today and has a rawness and power and biting commentary on the class structure of society entirely lacking in A PLACE IN THE SUN, the 1951 film adaptation of the same novel.

The previous "Place."

[st-shot · 7/10 · 9 March 2022]

This was the first attempt at Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.

The second, A Place in the Sun, made two decades later with mega stars Monty Clift and Liz Taylor today might make the first redundant but the original is a game effort on its own.

Bellhop Clyde Bridges (Philips Holmes) finds himself in trouble back east and heads west. He contacts some wealthy relatives and gets a job at the factory overseeing mostly females. Craven but handsome he gets into a relationship with factory girl, Roberta (Sylvia Sydney) and impregnates her. A social climber he finds romance with upper crust played by Anna Lee. On the edge of all he hoped for only Roberta stands in his way. He decides to drown her.

Lee Garmes exquisite photography captures the light and dark side of young romance with some alluring imagery and graceful camera movement. Director Von Sternberg after prologue gives the film a comfortable pace up until the gripping boat scene. The tempo changes at trial where Von Sternberg seems to lose control in the chaotic court scenes with fights breaking out as well as ham acting by both prosecution (Irving Pichel) and defense (Charles Middletown) while the wooden Holmes begins to resort to hysteria. The 12 Angry Men moment is then brief and brutal.

Sylvia Sidney steals the picture with her pitiful tragic eyes a match in comparison to Shelly Winters in the 51; the gap between Holmes and a decent Anna Lee compared to Monty and Liz, immeasurable.

.

Ended With Too Much Hot Air

[view_and_review · 4/10 · 5 February 2024]

"An American Tragedy" was a bit tragic. I mean the quality of the movie that is.

It starred Phillips Holmes as Clyde Griffiths, a young man from meager means who wanted to move up in the world. He had to flee Kansas City when his inebriated friend struck and killed a pedestrian. Clyde and the other passengers were all drunk and he didn't want to stick around to find out the consequences of being a party to vehicular manslaughter.

He made his way to Lycurgus, NY where he became the foreman of a stamping operation and met Roberta Alden (Sylvia Sidney). Though it was against company policy the two had a romantic affair. He pronounced his undying love for her and her for him. Then he met Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee), a pretty girl from money. Roberta became a thing of the past for Clyde, but she wasn't going to go away easily. She was pregnant.

Clyde had to figure out how to deal with Roberta so that he'd be free to date, and possibly marry, Sondra. He decided on murder as a solution.

He took her boating in a desolate lake where he decided he'd kill her. At the last minute he decided not to go through with the plan, but a brief tussle between the two capsized the boat. Roberta couldn't swim. Clyde made the conscious decision not to save her from drowning.

That all happened within the first forty-five minutes of the movie. The next fifty minutes mostly involved a trial; one of the worst cinematic trials in history.

I love courtroom dramas. It's one of my favorite genres of movie, but the courtroom drama in "An American Tragedy" was awful. It contained a lot of long winded loud speeches, posturing, and NOTHING in the way of dramatic testimony or evidence. The only thing dramatic about the trial were the charges. The prosecutor went for first degree murder charges which I thought was overly aggressive. There was hardly enough to support a manslaughter charge, let alone first degree murder. With no witnesses and no proof of a concrete motive, the best a real prosecutor could have hoped for was manslaughter.

Clyde wasn't a good person and he deserved to be punished for how he treated Roberta and allowing her to drown. Still, that doesn't substantiate the death penalty. Watching DA Orville (Irving Pichel) and Clyde's lawyer go at it was exhausting. The movie had so much promise and ended with so much hot air.

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