The Barretts of Wimpole Street ***½ (1934, Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Sullivan) – Classic Movie Review 10,419

MGM’s 1934 Victorian England romantic drama film The Barretts of Wimpole Street showcases a great barnstorming turn by Charles Laughton as poet Elizabeth Barrett’s tyrannical brute of a father, Edward Moulton-Barrett.

Director Sidney Franklin’s MGM American 1934 black and white Victorian England romantic drama film The Barretts of Wimpole Street [Forbidden Alliance] showcases a great barnstorming turn by Charles Laughton as Elizabeth Barrett’s tyrannical brute of a father, Edward Moulton-Barrett. It tells a real-life story of the romance between English poets Elizabeth Barrett (Norma Shearer) and Robert Browning (Fredric March) in the face of her abusive father’s opposition.

It is Laughton’s tremendous, magnetically attractive performance that ensured a wild success for this first filming of the 1930 play by Rudolph Besier [Rudolf Besier], transferred to the screen with all the genteel skill that MGM can muster.

It is ably, if less excitingly, acted too by Norma Shearer as Barrett’s daughter Elizabeth and Fredric March as the poet Robert Browning, whom she is planning to marry in opposition to her father’s monstrous will. Maureen O’Sullivan puts in her effective moments as Henrietta, Elizabeth’s romantically inclined, rebellious younger sister.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street is an attractive, though faded, production, but it is engaging and charming still.

It was nominated for two Oscars: Best Picture and Best Actress (Shearer), with Laughton snubbed and no wins.

Laughton, though playing Shearer’s father, is only three years older.

All suggestions of incest were removed from Besier’s play, but Charles Laughton told producer Irving Thalberg: ‘They can’t censor the gleam in my eye.’

It is remade, word-for-word and nearly shot-for-shot, in colour and CinemaScope by director Sidney Franklin as The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957) with Jennifer Jones, Bill Travers and John Gielgud.

Also in the cast are Katherine Alexander, Una O’Connor, Ralph Forbes, Ian Wolfe, Marion Clayton, Vernon Downing, Neville Clark, Matthew Smith, Robert Carleton, Allan Conrad and Peter Hobbes.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street is directed by Sidney Franklin, runs 109 minutes, is made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), is released by MGM [Loew’s Inc], is written by Ernst Vajda, Claudine West and Donald Ogden Stewart, based on the play by Rudolph Besier [Rudolf Besier], is shot in black and white by William H Daniels, is produced by Irving Thalberg, is scored by Herbert Stothart, and is designed by Cedric Gibbons. Adrian designed the gowns.

It was shot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 10202 W Washington Blvd, Culver City, California, US.

Release date: September 14, 1934.

It earned $1,258,000 in North America and $1,085,000 elsewhere, making a declared profit of $668,000 against a budget of $820,000. Odd, maybe, that this Victorian love story between English poets with upper-class themes would be such a success among American movie-goers, but then it is a fine romance and the stars were extremely popular.

Shearer and Thalberg married on September 29, 1927.

The cast

The cast are Norma Shearer as Elizabeth Barrett, Fredric March as Robert Browning, Charles Laughton as Edward Moulton-Barrett, Maureen O’Sullivan as Henrietta Barrett, Katharine Alexander as Arabel Barrett, Ralph Forbes as Captain Surtees Cook, Marion Clayton as Bella Hedley, Ian Wolfe as Harry Bevan, Ferdinand Munier as Dr Chambers, Una O’Connor as Wilson, Leo G Carroll as Dr Ford-Waterlow, Vernon Downing as Octavius Barrett, Neville Clark as Charles Barrett, Matthew Smith as George Barrett, Robert Carlton as Alfred Barrett, Allan Conrad as Henry Barrett, Peter Hobbes as Septimus Barrett.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,419

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