Our Town (1940)

86% of critics liked it
(7 reviews)
49% of users liked it
(1,184 ratings)

Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town is given the Hollywood treatment in this adaptation directed by Sam Wood featuring an evocative score by Aaron Copland and outstanding production design by William Cameron Menzies. Frank Craven is Mr. Morgan, the narrator and our guide through… More Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town is given the Hollywood treatment in this adaptation directed by Sam Wood featuring an evocative score by Aaron Copland and outstanding production design by William Cameron Menzies. Frank Craven is Mr. Morgan, the narrator and our guide through the small town of Grover's Corners in the more innocent American times of 1901, 1904, and 1913. Mr. Morgan chronicles the lives of a handful of Grover's Corners citizens, centering upon Emily Webb (Martha Scott), the daughter of the local newspaper editor (Guy Kibbee), and George Gibbs (William Holden), the son of the local doctor (Thomas Mitchell). Emily and George fall in love and the film details their difficult courtship, marriage, and tragic childbirth. The film was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, losing out to Rebecca. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Sam Wood
Written By: Thornton Wilder, Frank Craven, Harry Chandlee
Genres: Drama, Classics

In Theaters: May 24, 1940 Wide
On DVD: Aug 15, 2000

Critic Reviews

Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
Dated, yes. But it still catches in the throat. Nostalgic, loving, happy, sad.
Emanuel Levy, Screendaily
Sam Wood's film version is as experimental and stylized as Thornton Wilder's play, one of the most enduring but also misunderstood plays in American history.
Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette
Pretty good, but did Wilder know Wood screwed up the ending?
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk
today it seems quite dated in its theatrical clunkiness

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Featured Audience Ratings

AJ V

What a sentimental, sappy, silly movie. You understand the ideas they're trying to convey almost half way through, but they keep beating you over the head with them anyway. This movie got on my nerves.