Description:
One of John Ford's earliest talkies, Arrowsmith demonstrates the director's underrated knack for contemporary drama. Adapted (by acclaimed screenwriter Sidney Howard) from the novel by Sinclair Lewis, the film is a prestigious vehicle for Ronald Colman in the title role of Martin Arrowsmith, a promising physician whose research ambitions are curtailed when he improbably marries the adoring but comparably dim-witted nurse Leora (Helen Hayes), who relocates him to her South Dakota home and convinces him to be a country doctor. Unchallenged and unhappy, he readily accepts an offer to battle bubonic plague in the British West Indie
One of John Ford's earliest talkies, Arrowsmith demonstrates the director's underrated knack for contemporary drama. Adapted (by acclaimed screenwriter Sidney Howard) from the novel by Sinclair Lewis, the film is a prestigious vehicle for Ronald Colman in the title role of Martin Arrowsmith, a promising physician whose research ambitions are curtailed when he improbably marries the adoring but comparably dim-witted nurse Leora (Helen Hayes), who relocates him to her South Dakota home and convinces him to be a country doctor. Unchallenged and unhappy, he readily accepts an offer to battle bubonic plague in the British West Indies, where he encounters both triumph and tragedy. Creaky logic and primitive sound quality don't stop Ford from crafting some still-impressive sequences (the island sequences prepared Ford for 1937's The Hurricane), and the theme of marriage-vs.-career remains timelessly relevant. Though not as powerful as the Lewis-based Dodsworth (1936), Arrowsmith is that later film's worthy companion. --Jeff Shannon
The legendary John Ford directs this provocative and acclaimed film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Sinclair Lewis and adapted by Sidney Howard. Country doctor Martin Arrowsmith (Ronald Colman) is idealistic, hardworking and happily married to Leora (Helen Hayes). He's also about to make a terrible mistake. Lured away from his small practice by the prospect of wealth and important medical research, he takes a position with New York City's esteemed McGurk Institute. It's a big opportunitybut it brings bigger problems. The intense workload, a romance-minded socialite (MyrnaLoy) and a terrible plague outbreak are about to threaten everything Martin holds dear.
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Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release date: 8 March 2005
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0027616881458 UPC: 027616881458
Tags: A.E. Anson (1), Charlotte Henry (1), Beulah Bondi (1), DeWitt Jennings (1), David Landau (1), Russell Hopton (1), Bert Roach (1), Claude King (1), Alec Francis (1), Clarence Brooks (1), 1931 (1), Ronald Colman (1), Helen Hayes (1), Raymond Hatton (1), Richard Bennett (1), Ward Bond (1), Myrna Loy (1), John Ford (1), United Artists (1)
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