...One Third of a Nation... (1939) User Reviews (12)

Slumlord Millionaire

[lugonian · 7/10 · 20 November 2011]

ONE-THIRD OF A NATION (Paramount, 1939), directed by Dudley Murphy, with a title taken from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second inaugural speech, is basically one of many Depression-era stories from that period. Taken out of context from the Federal Theatre play by Arthur Aren't, there's no doubt it was naturally inspired by Sidney Kingsley's 1935 stage play, "Dead End." Sylvia Sidney, who assumed the role of a hard working shop-girl in the 1937 screen adaptation of DEAD END, assumes similar chores this time around yet minus the initial support of both mobster and tough teenage hoodlum angles taking major part of the plot.

With the story set during the summer months in New York City's lower east side, the introduction starts off with slum kids cooling themselves by taking a dip into the East River or going through the water pressure splashing over them from a fire hydrant. Things get even hotter when a lighted cigarette left burning on clothing in the basement causes one of the tenement buildings to go ablaze. Passing through by car driven by his chauffeur is millionaire Peter Courtlandt (Leif Erickson) accompanied by his friend, Don Hinchley (Hiram Sherman), who both stop to witness a disaster. With tenants rushing into the street and firemen making every effort to keep the building from burning to the ground, youngster Joey Martin (Sidney Lumet) saves himself by exiting onto a fire escape that soon falls apart, plunging three stories below. As his older sister, Mary (Sylvia Sidney) pushes through the crowd to be by his side, Peter offers his assistance rushing both injured boy and Mary to the hospital in his car. Because her father is on relief and unable to pay for any hospital bills, Peter, against Mary's wishes for not wanting to accept charity, offers to help with the expenses. Later, while at his estate, Peter discovers from Arthur Mather (Percy Waram), his business manager, that he's just inherited ownership of that neglected tenement building that's been in the family for generations. With numerous attempts to tear down these "rat traps" with cockroaches by replacing them with more modern ones, his involvement with Mary proves to be one setback while the intrusion of his snobbish sister, Ethel (Muriel Hutchinson) for reasons of her own, becomes another.

Produced at the Astoria Studios in Queens, N.Y., ONE-THIRD OF A NATION offers viewers and film buffs alike the opportunity to watch several actors from the New York stage making rare screen appearances, notably Myron McCormick as Sam Moon, the man who hates millionaires but loves Mary; Charles Dingle and Edmonia Nolley (Mr. and Mrs. Rogers); Otto Hulitt (Assistant District Attorney); and Horace Sinclair (John, the Butler). The only familiar face aside from the leading players is Iris Adrian, playing a tough talking, prostitute-type character named Myrtle. With Sylvia Sidney heading the cast, the story naturally belongs to Paramount contract player, Leif Erickson, courtesy of the Group Theater. While each give commendable character study performances, the one who gathers the most attention is young Sidney Lumet, decades before becoming one of Hollywood's finest directors. Looking more like 12 than his then true age of 14, Lumet gives the most believable and natural performance of them all. As the crippled boy with leg in brace using a crutch as his main support, he's seen in cap, checker-vested shirt and baggy trousers throughout. One scene where he wants to play with the guys, but unable to do so because of his circumstance, is truly heart felt. A pity he never got to perform in further screen assignments because he's a natural, especially the way he converses with his sister (Sidney). The underscoring and nice singing to the tune, "That's How Dreams Should End" is one that places the film above its level.

With the exception of late night viewing on some public television station in the 1990s, ONE-THIRD OF A NATION is one that's been out of the television markets for quite some time. Although I initially viewed ONE-THIRD OF A NATION at a screening in New York City's Museum of Modern Art in 1979, I've forgotten much of it over the years, with the exception of harrowing scenes where Joey talks spitefully to the building he lives in and hates, only to have (on three separate occasions) the building talking back to him with that demon sounding voice with hideous laugh. Another thing I recall is the Paramount logo that introduces and closes the film, something currently missing in circulating prints. In its place is Excelsior Pictures as its distributor with new opening and closing titles. With this presentation used in circulating prints either on home video or DVD, it also the one used for its broadcast on Turner Classic Movies where it premiered September 29, 2011.

ONE-THIRD OF A NATION could be labeled as one handicapped by corny plot, and probably so. In fact, it's better than it sounds, especially with its timely theme relevant now than it was back then, at least one-third of it anyway. (***)

A bit idealistic...but worth seeing.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 4 July 2019]

When the story begins, Peter (Leif Erickson) comes upon a burning tenement building. He watches in horror as the bodies pile up and when a small boy is badly injured, he rushes him and his sister, Mary (Sylvia Sidney), to the hospital...vowing to help with the medical expenses. However, later Peter is horrified to learn that he is the owner of this slum and its dilapidated condition was responsible for the fire. He vows to change things...but his family vows to fight him on this. What's to become of the changes? And, what about Mary? After all, Peter has fallen in love with her!

It's interesting that during the Great Depression, most films never mentioned it in any way. And, weirdly, most of the films were about rich, happy folks! A few studios, like Warner and RKO (maker of "....One Third of a Nation"), occasionally made movies about the lower depths of society at the time....well meaning films that pushed for change. As far as this film goes, it does lay it on a bit thick (such as the scenes where the tenement building 'talks' to the boy)...though in spite of a lack of subtlety, it is enjoyable and worth your time.

Social Conscience

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 11 September 2014]

Using FDR's famous line about seeing one third of a nation ill housed, ill clad and ill fed, One Third Of A Nation deals with the first part of that statement. The film deals with slum tenements in New York City and was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios using some players who were better known for their stage work mostly at the time the film was made.

For star Sylvia Sidney it was a return to the slums where she played one of her most famous parts in the film version of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End. She lives with mother Edmonia Nolley, father Charles Dingle, and little brother Sidney Lumet. Yes, that is the same Sidney Lumet who grew up and became a top rated director.

After a fire which leaves young Lumet a cripple the owner of the building, in fact the owner of a lot of tenement buildings Leif Erickson develops a social conscience and is determined to tear these slum tenements down and build some decent new housing. He's fought every turn of the way by his sister Muriel Hutchinson and their business manager Percy Waram. But Sylvia's encouragement and an awful tragedy they endure it all works out.

Myron McCormick who at this time concentrated on the stage has a role as the neighborhood radical and rival for Sidney. It was interesting to see Charles Dingle, somewhat unshaven and in a dirty undershirt as a tenement dweller. Normally he'd be cast as the hard hearted plutocrat owner.

One Third Of A Nation is sincere, but a bit too melodramatic. For one thing I can't believe that Erickson is both tied down by his sister and also just didn't go out and become an engineer as he said he would like to have become. His character made little sense to me.

Still Sylvia Sidney's fans will enjoy her performance in her return to the New York slums.

Speeches drown out drama in anti-tenement tract

[BrianDanaCamp · 20 January 2009]

ONE THIRD OF A NATION is an odd film to come out of Hollywood in 1939. For one thing, although it was produced by Paramount Pictures, it plays more like an independent production and was shot at a studio in New York and features ample location footage. It includes some pre-code touches, even though the Production Code had been instituted five years earlier, and offers some blatant politicizing as well, not surprising given its origins as a play produced under the auspices of the Federal Theatre Project. I've often wondered why such an interesting-sounding film had so little a critical reputation, but now, after seeing it, I understand why.

The plot, such as it is, involves the unlikely budding relationship between a tenement girl on the Lower East Side, Mary Rogers (Sylvia Sidney), and a rich boy who turns out to be a slumlord, Peter Cortlant (Leif Erickson, "courtesy of the Group Theatre," as the opening credits so helpfully inform us). A fire in the building leaves Joey, Mary's younger brother, seriously injured, and Peter's presence on the scene allows him to take the boy to a private hospital and pay for his care, much to Mary's dismay once she discovers that he owns the rat trap she lives in. In a serious continuity lapse, Peter's inspection of the building some days after the fire reveals absolutely no fire damage.

Everyone has a tendency to make speeches and this continues throughout the film, whether at a hearing into the fire at the District Attorney's office or in a casual conversation between a tenement couple or in Mary's and Peter's scenes together. The original play seems to have been written with the aim of effecting slum clearance and putting up safe new housing. Everybody seems to want the slums torn down, but no one seems to give any thought to where to house the people who'll be displaced while waiting for the new housing to go up. Mary has a de facto boyfriend named Sam, played by Myron McCormick, who's described as a "leftist" and makes cracks about capitalism throughout the film. Yet no one bothers to try to organize the tenants and push through legislative action to solve the problem. The solution, as presented by the film, seems to be to get the rich to have a change of heart, something easily achieved when you have a tenement girl as pretty and poised as Sylvia Sidney and a rich landlord as young and handsome and good-hearted as Leif Erickson.

There are occasional bursts of realism, including the depiction of squalor inside the tenement building and the remarkable scenes of the kids at play in the streets, not to mention the occasional shots of actual spots on New York's Lower East Side. Also, in a surprising violation of the Production Code, one neighbor, Myrtle, played by Iris Adrian, is quite clearly shown as a prostitute conducting business out of her own apartment. Also, during the fire scenes there are shocking moments of people falling from the building, including one where Joey falls several stories off a broken fire escape ladder and, later, during a second climactic fire, when a burning body is seen flying from the building, graphic bits that would surely have been removed had the film been shot on a Hollywood soundstage.

Interestingly, the young actor who plays Joey, Mary's brother, is none other than Sidney Lumet, who was all of 14 at the time. Lumet, of course, would direct his first Hollywood film 18 years later (TWELVE ANGRY MEN) and continue directing for at least the next 50 years. Also in the film is Lumet's actor father, Baruch Lumet, who appears as a distraught tenement occupant whose wife and children died in the fire. Both Lumets, I'm sorry to report, are guilty of overacting. One can't blame young Sidney, though, saddled as he is by scenes of the building "talking" to him at night and taunting him, including a jaw-dropping bit where the building "shows" little Joey a flashback to a 19th century cholera epidemic in the building.

The film was rather stiffly directed by Dudley Murphy, who also directed THE EMPEROR JONES (1933), with Paul Robeson, and ST. LOUIS BLUES (1929), with Bessie Smith. There's a theatrical bent to most of the performances that contrasts badly with the more naturalistic acting found two years earlier in a similarly-themed play-to-film adaptation, DEAD END (1937), which was much more interesting dramatically and much more cinematically directed (by William Wyler), and which also starred Sylvia Sidney.

67,000 fire trap tenements in New York City,

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 10 August 2015]

Discovering that as heir to his family estate that he owns a series of tenement buildings which have become fire traps, handsome young millionaire Leif Erickson decides something must be done about it. He has witnessed the most recent one prior to discovering that he is the murderous landlord who was responsible, he becomes attracted to one of the residents (the lovely Sylvia Sidney) whose young brother (a very young Sidney Lumet) is gravely injured in the fire where a young mother threw her baby out of a window before jumping to her own death. Lumet, already on the verge of a mental breakdown due to his poor existence, begins to see the tenement building as a horrific monster which talks to him in his delusional state. With windows representing a monster's eyes and nose and a door to represent its mouth, this building does come alive, laughing maniacally at the tortured Lumet who truly begins to slip deeper into insanity as his delusions take over his brain.

This is a unique variation on the type of morality play which Broadway had been producing for over a decade, two films of those plays having already starred Ms. Sidney, typecasting her as a hard-working poor girl trying to make the best of a horrible situation. She was a victim of neighborhood gossip in "Street Scene" and dealing with a criminal element in "Dead End" (and juvenile delinquents taking over the neighborhood), and here, she's taking on the wealthy and powerful as she fights for improvements to the buildings which ultimately ends up in tragedy. The wealthy family and business associates of Erickson think he's overreacting to the whole situation and in their mind, his passion about this is more effective for political ambitions rather than just doing really good.

No matter how many long-suffering heroines of this nature which Ms. Sidney played, she always added new elements to each of her characterizations so they seemed different. Her sad eyes added to her own intelligence and compassion which made her excellent in these kinds of melodramas. Perhaps best known today as the old lady in a few Tim Burton films ("Beetlejuice" and "Mars Attacks!"), she was one of the best leading ladies of films in the 1930's and equally as intense a dramatic actress as Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck. Sidney Lumet had only one film role as a child (before going onto years later being one of the greatest post-classic era Hollywood directors of such classics as "Network" and "Dog Day Afternoon". His performance is unforgettable, and rather than chew the scenery like Mickey Rooney might have done, he makes the character truly human and pathetic rather than over the top. Audiences for the most part stayed away from this, perhaps many of them either not wanting to face the reality of how they lived, and others feeling guilty over letting society go to blazes literally over not taking care of the underdog. For this reason, this film is probably better because it takes the time that reminds us that we are our brother's keeper and that true humanity can't survive unless we look out for others rather than #1.

ONE THIRD OF A NATION refers to the nefarious . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 14 August 2020]

. . . "Core Supporters" (aka, "The Base") who carry the infernal mutation making them highly susceptible to demonic possession (threatening their very own survival, as well as the safety and happiness of everyone around them) by the perfidious Pachyderm Party. "Mary" is the representative Fifth Columnist Traitor featured here. The only thing Mary is good as is cutting slack. Mary cuts New York City multi-generation-bred slum lord scion "Peter" slack over her "home" death trap's blocked sewage drains and vermin-infested interior kindling in which she and everyone she knows scrapes out a "living," and by which Peter finances his limousines, mansion, yacht and this World's version of the "Good Life." Mary cuts Peter even more slack when he turns her only little brother "Joey" into a lame suicidal psycho killer arsonist. Finally, Mary cuts Peter a final swath of slack when she falls off her rocker to hallucinate a "happy ending." Real Life recently has shown all of America the tragedy of allowing ONE THIRD OF A NATION to put a Corrupt Communist Capitalist New York City slum lord in charge of anything!

Very strange movie

[fitzsimmons-06233 · 2/10 · 30 July 2023]

I tried very hard to like this movie...but was having a hard time sitting thru it. It seemed very scattered to me.

The first fire was VERY bad...yet everyone went back to their apartments and the building inside & out showed not one sign of any damage whatsoever.

What was brewing between Erickson & Sydney was very unclear & almost silly.

Myron McCormick spoke of marriage to Sydney...yet there wasn't any sign of romance between them & they acted as if the were just two friends. There was no romance between any of the characters.

Erickson suddenly "growing up" was very far fetched. Nothing was ever shown about what came about with his sisters threats & the ending never let you know who ended up with who ?

I just didn't get any of the story & except showing slum life...it had no meat to it.

A Courageous Depiction Of Life In The New York City Slums Of The 1930's

[sddavis63 · 8/10 · 7 May 2008]

Let's acknowledge right off the top that the production qualities of this movie are very outdated (even by 1939 standards) and, at least in the version I saw, the sound quality was very poor. There were extended scenes in which I could make out barely any dialogue. Even acknowledging that, though, one has to give credit where credit is due. Those failings could (and probably should) result in a disastrous movie. Instead, "One Third Of A Nation" manages somehow to rise above those problems on the strength of a very good story and solid performances all round.

The movie provides a gritty and pathetic view of life in the New York City slums of the 1930's. The movie opens with a fire in one of the rundown tenement buildings that leaves a boy crippled after having to jump out a window to escape. There's complicity all round. The tenants don't complain about the conditions because they don't think anyone will respond; the authorities (as portrayed in a riveting, if brief, portrayal of a hearing into the causes of the fire) understand the problems but are powerless to do anything and largely pass the buck around to various agencies, and the wealthy live in uncaring ignorance, brilliantly portrayed in an icy cold performance by Muriel Huthinson as Ethel Cortland, whose brother Peter (Leif Erikson) owns the tenements through inheritance. As an example of how out of touch the rich are with the poor, Peter rushes to the fire at the start of the movie, basically seeing it as a show - he doesn't even know he's the owner. There's also a superb performance by Sylvia Sidney as Mary Rogers, the sister of the crippled boy, who becomes a crusader, trying to convince Cortland to tear down the old buildings and rebuild them.

I felt this was a very courageous movie, clearly and surprisingly approaching the issue from an overtly left-wing ideological perspective (unexpected from that era, in which there were great fears of the Depression-afflicted nation turning to communism). There are some graphic scenes (including one in which a burning man leaps off a building) and the last scene of the movie is appropriately ambiguous, leaving us wondering if Mary and Peter built a relationship in spite of their social differences. After a slow start (caused by the technical problems rather than the story) that made me rather hesitant I thought this turned into a superb movie. 8/10

Horrific commentary of early 20th century tenement housing

[jcholguin · 5/10 · 14 May 2001]

This film features the horrible realities of tenement housing which was in abundance during the early part of the 20th century. Shocking scenes of death and despair are very evident in the lives of the unfortunate people living in these "rat" holes. Sylvia Sidney is excellent as the crusader fighting against these "buildings of despair" knowing first hand because her own brother became a "victim" of living in these buildings. Leif Erickson is the "rich" landlord "by inheritance" of these "death traps" and joins the battle in tearing them down. The joining of the "poor" and "rich" in the struggle against tenement housing is what makes this film worthwhile to watch. If you are an activist against "injustice" then this is the type of film that will get your "dander" up.

A Little Closer Look at Significant Themes

[dougdoepke · 19 January 2016]

A naïve, wealthy young man and a poverty-stricken young woman cross paths at a terrible tenement fire, opening new worlds for both, even as the fire cripples the girl's brother for life.

Note those opening scenes. They're a compelling glimpse of what's to come. It's hard, of course, for people to rise above their surroundings, particularly when they're impoverished. The clotted street, the brutal tenements, the jungle-like cityscape— no wonder the street boys play a Darwinian version of kick-the-can, while a disheveled husband slugs his hardscrabble wife. It's hard to care about others when life crushes around you. At the same time, the wealthy young man, Peter, has lived an enclosed life of his own. Surrounded by the privileges of money, he has very little understanding of an outside world. Anyway those opening New York scenes set the stage for what amounts to class conflict 30's style.

It may be hard to rise above class but not impossible, as Mary and Peter ultimately demonstrate (note the biblical names). It turns out, ironically, that each is a captive of the class they were born into. That's clearly the case with slum-dweller Mary whose life prospects are trapped by tenement walls; it's not clear in wealthy Peter's case until he tries to humanize the priorities of his class by tearing down the tenements that are his family's inheritance. Then the machinery of the wealthy class asserts itself, regardless of what he wants. Thus the film's also about an overarching theme in American life—the intersection of class and the individual.

I expect canny viewers know that compromise over an explosive topic like class is inevitable. However, I think, those softening touches are kept to a minimum here. For example, there's a genuine effort at showing what slum-dwellers of the time were up against and its human cost. At the same time, there're the various legal layers cushioning the owners from the slums. I especially like the bureaucratic buck-passing that goes on during the legal inquiry into the fire. Note too how toothless regulations become when there's little money for enforcement. To me that's a contemporary issue wrapped in current debates about the proper size of government. There is one significant compromise, however, and that's when Peter eventually follows through on his promise to tear down his tenements. Of course, good will may solve one individual conflict and send the audience home feeling pretty good. But that's hardly realistic to the scope of the problem itself. Nonetheless, I expect many viewers of the time thought President Roosevelt and his New Deal when they saw the tearing down of the old.

There're a number of good touches in the production. Note how the ugly tenement façade is contrasted with the soaring white cathedral that is the upper-class hospital. There we're introduced to a strikingly different spic and span milieu from what's gone before. Then too, was there ever a more disturbing presence in a movie than Baruch Lumet's Mr. Rosen. Bereft now of his family, his ravaged presence and hollow-eyed stare are the very face of human defeat. And when he forlornly leaves the witness stand, we know his new home is likely to be a park bench, at best. Then there's the grotesque tenement façade that turns into a talking demonic personality. Though a debatable development, it does capture the stubborn resistance of poverty to all those generations harmed by it. When crippled little Joey confronts it in a showdown, it's like the 30's generation burning down a past that has enslaved it, even if the unshackling comes at a high cost. Moreover, taken as a purely visual effect, the nightmarish facade can compete with a lot of today's purely digital creations.

All in all, I take the film as something of a sleeper. Frankly, as an old movie buff, I'd never heard of it before catching a showing on IMDb. Nor in some 60-years of TV watching do I recall its turning up on the tube. Given the really touchy nature of the material, I guess that's not surprising. And if the 30-year post-war period opened a lot of new economic opportunities, echoes of that earlier time are mounting as income inequalities spread. By no means does this nervy 90-minutes amount to nothing more than closed period piece, and is well worth catching up with.

Why this is not a good movie

[tobermory2-1 · 3/10 · 25 January 2024]

I wanted to like this film-- I have great regard for Sylvia Sidney and a young Leif Erickson is pretty easy on the eyes-- however, the longer I watched it the more I regretted my choice.

The fault is mostly in the writing which veers joltingly from "message" to "love story" to "horror," and none of them work. The message gets sledgehammered into our brains-- characters keep making the same observations followed by the same speeches. The love story might have been interesting, but Sidney and Erickson spend so much time smiling at one another: Her brother is horribly injured-- smile, smile, smile. His sister is threatening to ruin his plans-- more smiling. They look good smiling, but there's no substance in it-- why should they love each other? It's actually more interesting to imagine Erickson's character is more interest in Sidney's boyfriend as the movie goes along. And it's never clear who gets who.

The horror is deep in this film with the "disturbed" injured brother having morose conversations with the tenement in which he and his sister move after a horrific fire at the other one they lived in-- this gets repeated even more horrifyingly. And what's up with adding horror to message and love story? As I say, to me it just doesn't work.

This is not to say there aren't parts that work-- the secondary characters-- who do much less smiling-- are for the most part well drawn and add well to the film. And, except for the endless smiling, the direction is good and the movie well constructed. But it is no where near enough.

Watch if you must-- but I warned you about the smiling.

Sylvia Makes It Worthwhile!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 27 May 2012]

From "City Streets" on Sylvia Sidney was bound by the ethos of her time - the poor slum girl fighting against the ills of society. She was such a highly emotional actress that, whatever the role, the audience was always behind her. By the end of the thirties she had had enough of movie making and Hollywood but she became intrigued by the social importance of the Federal Theatre Prokect's "..One Third of a Nation.." which played in New York in 1938. She starred in the movie version which was filmed in New York.

When Mary Roger's (Sidney) brother Joey (future director Sidney Lumet) is seriously hurt in a slum fire, a wealthy young benefactor, Peter Courtland (Leif Erikson) helps out by paying all the medical expenses. She vows to fight "slum landlords" as the tenement was a death trap and riddled with faulty fire escapes, broken stairs and over crowding and Peter agrees, but is later horrified when he realises that he is the actual owner of the building. At the hearing to establish just what caused the fire, Mary gives an impassioned speech when she sees the judge giving preferential treatment to the owner. She then charges him with living off the immoral earnings of the many prostitutes who live in the buildings - and the press have a field day!!! Feisty Iris Adrian plays one and she is a scream, when told to vacate the apartment she spits "APARTMENT!!! this 2 by 2 hole - it ain't even good enough for rats"!!!

Part allegory, part social drama, part hokum - there is something in it that doesn't ring true somehow. For every earnest speech uttered by Sidney there is Leif Erikson who, to me, comes across as basically a weak person who only gets fired up when he is in Mary's company. Joey returns from the hospital deeply disturbed, he won't go back into the hated tenement and spends his time hanging out near the waterfront. In a series of scenes where he voices his innermost feelings about the rottenness of life, the building responds with horrific stories of the problems people have always faced in the slums - cholera, infant mortality etc - the bottom line is the promise of a better way of life for slum dwellers is all talk. For me this would have been a terrific little movie as a Warners pre-coder at just over an hour and leaving out all the pompous soul searching of Peter and delivering an effective shocking expose of tenement life.

In the end the tenements are knocked down to make way for cleaner flats with play areas for the kids - but it is Joey's legacy. By burning down the building Joey paves the way for lily livered Peter to stick to his principles and forget the threats of his well heeled family. Once again Sylvia delivers a blistering portrait of a slum girl with special mention to Sidney Lumet - it is a pity that the rest of the movie doesn't measure up.