SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Antonius Block Based on the 1925 Theodore Dreiser novel of the same name, 'An American Tragedy' tells the tale of a young man (Phillips Holmes) who is nice enough on the surface, but is in reality slimy and weak. He's not a likable figure, and despite an upbringing from virtuous parents, lacks a moral compass. He flees the scene of a fatal hit-and-run early on in the film, and then uses a young factory worker (Sylvia Sidney), getting her pregnant. He lies to her about marrying her while pursuing an affluent woman (Frances Dee). It's a love triangle where we clearly feel empathy and attraction for the two women, and dislike for the man.The film is strongest in the scenes with Sidney or Dee, both of whom are beautiful and turn in strong performances, perfectly tuned to their characters. Where the film falls down is in its last 30 minutes, where the trial is far too long and has few moments of real interest. It's meant to be riveting as the District Attorney (Irving Pichel) and defense attorney (Emmett Corrigan) raise their voices dramatically, but instead it's tedious and dated. One wonders if the trial scenes were elongated following a successful lawsuit brought by Dreiser, one which distressed Director Josef von Sternberg so much that he disowned the picture. It's certainly the weakest part of the film, which is a shame given Sidney and Dee's performances.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS***Based on the true story of 20 year old Grace Brown who was tragically drowned-On July 11, 1906-in Big Moose Lake in upstate New York whom her lover 23 year old Chester Gillette was executed for. In the movie version-the first of two-we have clothing factory worker Roberta Alden, Sylvia Sidney, get romantically involved with her boss handsome Clyde Griffiths, Phillips Holmes. It's Clyde who after impregnates Roberta while on a date with her later falls madly in love with pretty and rich socialite Sondra Finchley, Frances Dee, finding he's stuck with no way out of the mess he got himself into.Clyde at first tried to get Roberta to have the couples soon to be born child aborted which in him being deeply religious is against all the principles that he was brought up by his bible thumping mom Mrs. Asa Griffiths, Lucille La Veme, with. Conflicted in just what to do Clyde decides to take Roberta out to the country for the weekend and plan what to do next. Out rowing on the middle of Big Moose Lake things go terribly wrong with Roberta, who can't swim, slipping as Clyde is about to take her picture and falling into the water and drowning herself. That's with Clyde in a panic taking off and swinging back to shore some 500 feet away when he was just a few feet away where Roberta ended up drowning.Arreated and tried for the murder of Roberta Alden Clyde gets no sympathy from anyone not even his defense attorney Mr. Belknap, Emmett Corrigan, in how cowardly he acted in letting Roberta drown without lifting a finger to save her. The verdict is a forgone conclusion with Clyde convicted of 1st degree murder and sent to Sing Sing to be executed. What we find out is that despite being a coward and two timing heel Clyde in fact, in his own words, didn't really murder Roberta but in being more interested in saving his own neck made no attempt to save her. Told by his mom to take it-his punishment-lake a man Clyde for the first and only time in his life accepts responsibility for his actions: Which in his case was not murder but leaving the scene of an accident and bravely goes to his fate in the state electric chair. P.S Remade 20 years later in 1951 as "A Place in the Sun" together with Montgromery Cliff and Elizabeth Taylor as George Eastman & Angela Vickers as the star stuck lovers with Shelly Winters as the tragic left out on the cold or at the bottom of Big Moose Lake Alice Tripp or the Roberta Alden character in the 1931 original.

filmsfan38 Its time this well acted and good story older little known gem to be released on DVD. I saw it on TV years ago but never saw it again. It was made in 1931 and the mores of the day are outdated, but the story and consequences could be the same today as they were then. The acting is well done with Phillips Holmes as the male star Clyde. Holmes died when he was only 35 in a plane collision, cutting short a promising life and film career. Sylvia Sydney plays the part of Clyde's very pretty girlfriend Roberta. Everything goes well till Roberta finds herself in a situation she doesn't want to be in and for sure, Clyde doesn't want her to be in. Clyde has big plans for his job, he is ambitious but also selfish. He begins to feel trapped and thinks what he can do to be free of the situation as he doesn't want to be held back. So he plans a solution which has sad consequences and doesn't work out the way he planned. The movie is close to Theodore Dresser's book of "An American Tragedy". The acting is well done by the two stars. I was surprised that a movie made in 1931 could be so good. It didn't seem out of date at all to me. In my view, the acting of the stars in the 1931 film and the movie itself is a lot better than the remake called "A Place in the Sun" with Clift Montgomery and Elizabeth Taylor.I think a lot of classic type film buffs would like this movie. I'd be the first to get it on DVD.

django-1 The first and best film adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's classic novel of pointless crime and arbitrary punishment, the 1931 version of AN American TRAGEDY was directed by Josef Von Sternberg, who had just had great success with THE BLUE ANGEL (and who made a total of eight films with star Marlene Dietrich) and who captures the emptiness and isolation and desperate qualities of the characters well. Phillips Holmes, perhaps best known today for GENERAL SPANKY (the strange Our Gang feature film) is a revelation as the heartless, social-climbing Clyde Griffiths, and the young Sylvia Sidney makes a strong impression as the working girl killed in the "accident" that leads to the long trial sequence at the film's end, which is itself a classic of courtroom melodrama. Clyde is represented in court by Charles Middleton (who later played Emperor Ming in the FLASH GORDON films) as a cynical, grandstanding attorney. AN American TRAGEDY still packs a punch today and has a rawness and power and biting commentary on the class structure of society entirely lacking in A PLACE IN THE SUN, the 1951 film adaptation of the same novel.