Craig's Wife (1936)
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70% of users liked it
(52 ratings)
After several light comedy roles, Rosalind Russell proved her salt as a dramatic film actress in this 1936 adaptation of George Kelly's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Craig's Wife. Russell plays Harriet Craig, whose obsession with keeping her house and its furnishings spotless has driven away… More After several light comedy roles, Rosalind Russell proved her salt as a dramatic film actress in this 1936 adaptation of George Kelly's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Craig's Wife. Russell plays Harriet Craig, whose obsession with keeping her house and its furnishings spotless has driven away most of her friends. Harriet's husband Walter (John Boles) loves her and will not brook any criticism of her fastidiousness. But even he has a breaking point: this comes when, during a moment of dire crisis, she reveals that she is more concerned with her own well-being than her husband's. Walter declares his independence by smoking a cigarette in Harriet's spotless living room, strewing his ashes all over her nice clean rug, smashing one of her precious vases, and walking out on her. The final image is of Harriet Craig standing alone in her "perfect" house, so benumbed by events that she fails to notice that her armful of roses is leaving a path of petals on her hitherto unsullied floor. Previously filmed in 1928, Craig's Wife was remade in 1950 with Joan Crawford as Harriet Craig. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Dorothy Arzner
- Written By
- George Kelly, Mary C. McCall Jr.
- Genres
- Drama, Classics
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Sep 25, 1936 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
The young Rosalind Rusell gives a tour de force performance as the obsessive wife in Dorothy Arzner's 1936 critique of patriarchal culture.
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Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
An indictment of a system where womanhood is made to deform itself
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Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movies
A masterpiece of double meaning, pulled off with wit and verve.
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Cast
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Rosalind Russell
as Harriet Craig
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John Boles
as Walter Craig
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Billie Burke
as Mrs. Frazier
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Jane Darwell
as Mrs. Harold
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Dorothy Wilson
as Ethel Landreth
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Alma Kruger
as Miss Austen
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Thomas Mitchell
as Fergus Passmore
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Raymond Walburn
as Billy Birkmire
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Elizabeth Risdon
as Mrs. Landreth
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Nydia Westman
as Mazie
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Kathleen Burke
as Adelaide Passmore
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Robert (Tex) Allen
as Gene Fredericks
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Frankie Van
as Cabdriver
