The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)

71% of critics liked it
(7 reviews)
73% of users liked it
(282 ratings)

Based on a successful stage drama, this historical romance stars Norma Shearer as Elizabeth Barrett, an invalid largely confined to her bed. Elizabeth has little company beyond her dog and her obsessively protective father, Edward Moulton Barrett (Charles Laughton). Her one great passion and means… More Based on a successful stage drama, this historical romance stars Norma Shearer as Elizabeth Barrett, an invalid largely confined to her bed. Elizabeth has little company beyond her dog and her obsessively protective father, Edward Moulton Barrett (Charles Laughton). Her one great passion and means of emotional escape is writing poetry, to which she devotes a large part of her days. She makes the acquaintance of fellow poet Robert Browning (Fredric March), who pays her a visit. They respect each others' literary abilities and become romantically attracted to each other. Robert asks for Elizabeth's hand in marriage, but Edward refuses to allow it. Elizabeth must battle her father for the right to live her own life, but eventually she is able to wed Robert and bring herself back to health. Director Sidney A. Franklin also helmed a remake of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957); it was his last film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 50 min.
Directed By: Sidney Franklin
Written By: Ernest Vajda, Claudine West, Donald Stewart
Genres: Drama, Classics

In Theaters: Sep 8, 1934 Wide
On DVD: Mar 25, 1992

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
As a film it's slow. Very. The first hour is wandering, planting-the-plot stuff that has some difficulty cementing the interest, but in the final stretch it grips and holds.
Andre Sennwald, New York Times
Sidney Franklin has filmed a drama of beauty, dignity and nobility.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
One of the better-known and more typical of MGM's adaptations of famous stage plays.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Sidney Franklin's first version of the story is stiff and stagy, but it offers good roles for Charles Laughton as the tyrannical and abusive father and Norma Shearer as his invalid poet-daughter.
, Time Out
Slow, deliberate, dull.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movies
When not even Charles Laughton, playing a deranged, scarily pious, and pretty obviously incestuous domineering father can save a film, you know you have problems.
, Film4
A typically lush MGM production set in 19th-century London.