Babbitt (1934)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

William Keighley

Writers:

Niven Busch (adaptation)
Sinclair Lewis (novel)

Release Date:

8 December 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Land Sale | Small Town | Real Estate Agent | Graft

Cast

Aline MacMahon	...	Myra Babbitt
Guy Kibbee	...	George F. Babbitt
Claire Dodd	...	Tanis Judique
Maxine Doyle	...	Verona Babbitt
Glen Boles	...	Ted Babbitt
Minor Watson	...	Paul 'Paulivus' Reisling
Minna Gombell	...	Zilla Reisling
Alan Hale	...	Charlie McKelvey
Berton Churchill	...	Judge Virgil 'Verge' Thompson
Russell Hicks	...	Commissioner Lyle Gurnee
Nan Grey	...	Eunice Littlefield (as Nan Gray)
Walter Walker	...	Luke Ethorne
Arthur Aylesworth	...	Zeke
Addison Richards	...	District Attorney
Harry Tyler	...	Martin Gunch

Runtime:

74 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

First National Pictures

Quotes:

George F. Babbitt: Come, Zill. What you need to do is get your feet hot and your head cool.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Soundtrack:

L'amour, toujours, l'amour

Kibbee is Babbit but too many liberties taken with novel

I too, have waited years to see the screen adaptation of my favorite novel. I am grateful TCM aired the film. Overall, though, the film adaptation fails because it veers too far away from the plot in the second half of the film. First, the good: Kibbee captures Babbitt almost perfectly as Lewis describes him. The scene where his fellow lodgers/businessmen play a practical joke on Babbitt may be apocryphal, but it is true to Lewis' novel. For a half hour, the film is more or less faithful to the novel. The bad: Once Zilla is shot by Paul, Lewis' novel is thrown away for an ego-trip script devised by a ham screenwriter. I don't know how Lewis standed watching it. It is ridiculous to have lonely widow Tanis Judique blackmail George, and even more ridiculous to have Babbitt's wife and son come to his rescue. That is far away from the novel as can be. Also, the film discarded the real reason for Babbitt's alienation, which was political, and sparked by Babbitt's disillusion after Paul's arrest and jailing. Still, I enjoyed the film. I agree that a remake would be a good idea, but I would prefer a period piece set in the 1920s, rather than making it current. The political and social obstacles Babbitt dealt with don't exist today. Also, it was nice to see Hattie McDaniel in the film. Why was she uncredited. I also notice there is a 1924 silent Babbitt considered lost. That's a shame. Final grade: 6 out of 10