Back Street (1941)

Director:

Robert Stevenson

Writers:

Fannie Hurst (novel)
Bruce Manning (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 February 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Pretty Rae Smith and handsome Walter Saxel meet, fall in love and make plans to marry. Unfortunately...

Plot Keywords:

Kidnapping | Remake | Apartment | Automobile Manufacturer | Automobile Racing

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Charles Boyer	...	Walter Louis Saxel
Margaret Sullavan	...	Ray Smith
Richard Carlson	...	Curt Stanton
Frank McHugh	...	Ed Porter
Tim Holt	...	Richard Saxel
Frank Jenks	...	Harry Niles
Esther Dale	...	Mrs. Smith
Samuel S. Hinds	...	Felix Darren
Peggy Stewart	...	Freda Smith
Nell O'Day	...	Elizabeth Saxel
Kitty O'Neil	...	Mrs. Dilling
Nella Walker	...	Corinne Saxel
Cecil Cunningham	...	Mrs. Miller
Marjorie Gateson	...	Mrs. Adams
Dale Winter	...	Miss Evans

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #7020)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Two of Barney Oldfield's racing cars was in the Vanderbilt Cup sequence: a 1909 six-cylinder Stearns, and a 1912 four-cylinder, sixteen-valve Prince Henry Benz.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Back Street (1932)

Soundtrack:

Auld Lang Syne

Dated self sacrifice, but well acted

This film (based on a Fanny Hurst best seller) is way out of date in the modern age. No self-respecting woman would be so willing to sacrifice her career for the prospect of being a millionaire's kept woman. No man, seriously in love with any woman, would put them through such a demeaning situation (they would consider divorce first of all, then remarriage). But there was supposed to be a sense of self-sacrifice by the heroine (Margaret Sullivan) that transcended the entire story.

It is the acting that saves this film. Sullivan gives another of her touching performances, like THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and SING NO SAD SONGS FOR ME. Charles Boyer is as charming as ever, here as a potentially important banker who is going to marry his boss's daughter. Instead, he meets Sullivan and is captivated by her spirit and seeming independence. She has a number of male admirers (Frank McHugh and Frank Jenks among them). She's also something of a tease, leading on the others about dating them. Boyer and Sullivan gradually fall in love, but he is resigned (for ambitions sake) to marry the boss's daughter. But he sends word to Sullivan that if she will go to the steamboat landing where he is waiting, he would marry her despite his career. She gets the message, and tries to get to the landing. But she chooses to use Jenks as her "taxi driver", and he (recalling her promise to go with him for a jaunt into the woods), takes her miles in the opposite direction. When he hears her imploring him to turn around, and realizes that she has been teasing him all along, he tells her to get out of the buggy and walk back by herself. So she misses the steamboat, and Boyer (thinking she stood him up) leaves to marry the boss's daughter.

Years later, after having developed a career as a designer, she meets the married Boyer again, and he convinces her to give up her career and become his mistress. Subsequently, despite warnings from her friend McHugh, and her other boyfriend Richard Carlston, she does not give up her relationship. It lasts until the end of their lives.

All the performers are good. Among the minor performances note Tim Holt as Boyer's son who first reads Sullivan the riot act, but subsequently ends up sympathizing with her. Good cast and production, but the story is as dated as a dodo.