IMDb > East Side, West Side (1949)

East Side, West Side (1949) More at IMDbPro »

IMDb Holiday Movie Guide

Overview

User Rating:
6.6/10   506 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 4% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Mervyn LeRoy
Writers:
Marcia Davenport (novel)
Isobel Lennart (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for East Side, West Side on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
4 September 1950 (Sweden) more
Genre:
Crime | Drama | Romance more
Tagline:
I was married to a man other women pursued!
Plot:
Brandon and Jessie Bourne has been married to each other for many years. A few years ago, Brandon had an extra-martial affair with Isabel Lorrison... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
User Comments:
Likable melodrama more (15 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Barbara Stanwyck ... Jessie Bourne

James Mason ... Brandon Bourne

Van Heflin ... Mark Dwyer

Ava Gardner ... Isabel Lorrison

Cyd Charisse ... Rosa Senta

Nancy Davis ... Helen Lee
Gale Sondergaard ... Nora Kernan

William Conrad ... Lt. Jacobi
Raymond Greenleaf ... Horace Elcott Howland
Douglas Kennedy ... Alec Dawning
Beverly Michaels ... Felice Backett
William Frawley ... Bill the Bartender
Lisa Golm ... Josephine
Tom Powers ... Owen Lee
more
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
108 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification:
Australia:G | Australia:PG (TV rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (certificate #14126)
Company:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
23 out of 24 people found the following comment useful.
Likable melodrama, 12 July 2003
8/10
Author: rjhughes2 from New York

Stanwyck and Heflin have a palpable chemistry here, and Ava Gardner is a most alluring vixen. Cyd Charisse is a delectable ingenue (and a tall drink of water), while Gale Sondergaard is hilarious as a hard-bitten, hoydenish Amazon floozie. Stanwyck is playing about 10 years younger than her actual age (her film mother admits to being 55, when Stanwyck is in her early forties here, and while still handsome, she does look her age).

Mervyn Leroy did a nice job of combining the noir/woman's-picture genres, though its ennoblement of Stanwyck robs her of her strengths as a no-nonsense woman, good or bad. Her scene with Gardner is a standout -- both actresses are well matched; Gardner's feline beauty and laissez-faire romantic approach nicely complements Stanwyck's humane fatalism -- and Stanwyck and Van Heflin are an appealing couple. Mason is rather a chump, however -- he seems to be underplaying to the point of lethargy, though his handsome charm surfaces here and there; yet he and Stanwyck, though matched in terms of age (she was younger by a couple of years) are not the type for each other; he doesn't suit her, screen-wise. Heflin's naturalism -- a performance of great charm and likability -- is more suited to Stanwyck's style and one longs for them to get together. Great use of sets to evoke New York, teeming with nightlife, and Leroy always had a knack for directing extras so that the city scenes seem peopled with real lives rather than populated with stand-ins. Costumes, though late 1940s, seem a bit recherche, as if the designer hadn't left the 1930s, with the women's gowns too ornate for such a sophisticated post-war milieu.

Not a great picture by any means, but a highly enjoyable one; a viewer wishes the director and screenwriter -- the talented Isobel Lennart, who later wrote "Two for the Seesaw," among many others -- had trusted more in the chemistry between Heflin and Stanwyck, and discarded some of the Marcia Davenport source material, juicy as it must have been. This is from Stanwyck's late-1940s string of women's flicks, which did not play to her strengths. But middling Stanwyck is usually better than anyone else's best. And the underrated Van Heflin is worth rooting for, too.

Was the above comment useful to you?
more (15 total)

Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for East Side, West Side (1949)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
wow the gowns chevstriss
What Killed Hollywood's Golden Age PTConnor333
The ending! comyns
more

Recommendations

If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends:
- - - - -
Midnight Court Special Agent K-7 There Goes My Girl Marie Galante The Spider Returns
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
Show more recommendations

Related Links

Full cast and crew Company credits External reviews
IMDb Crime section IMDb USA section Add this title to MyMovies

You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.