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

Director Sidney Franklin’s 1934 Victorian England romantic drama 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 is Laughton’s tremendous, magnetically attractive performance that ensured a wild success for this first filming of the 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, with Laughton snubbed and no wins.

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

It is remade in colour 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 and Robert Conrad.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street is directed by Sidney Franklin, runs 109 minutes, is made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), is released by MGM, 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.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,419

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