- Overview
John, an ambitious but undisciplined New York City office worker, meets and marries Mary. They start a family, struggle to cope with marital stress, financial setbacks, and tragedy, all while lost amid the anonymous, pitiless throngs of the big city.
- Release Date
03 March 1928
- DirectingKing Vidor
- Budget
$0.00
- Revenue
$0.00
- Stars
Videos
User Reviews
See moreCinemaSerf
24 March 2024
Ha! Talk about "Stop the world I want to get off". Well that's how "John" (James Murray) feels for a fair chunk of this intimate observational drama about his relationship with his wife "Mary" (Eleanor Boardman). They meet, fall in love, start a family - all is going great guns until a tragedy strikes the pair. "Mary" proves a little more robust following this fairly gut-wrenching event; he really struggles. He quits his job with an insurance company and spends the next few months in and out of work. It's not that he is lazy, or incapable - it's that he feels useless, worthless and a bit of a burden. He considers that he has failed in one of his fundamental duties and no amount of consoling or family rallying round seems to be able to shake him from this malaise. It's only a walk with their young son (Freddie Burke Frederick) where he considers putting an end to it all that makes him see life a little through the young and adoring boy's eyes. Is it too late to reverse this trend into depression? It might be about the "American" dream, but actually this story could fit for any family starting with little more than a great deal of love and determination, anywhere in the world. It delicately exposes us all to the vagaries of human existence and the stresses and strains we must endure in a world that, most of the time, couldn't care less about any individual. As we frequently see here - there are plenty of others just as needy, determined and willing. Both Murray and Boardman use their expressive faces to convey their feelings of joy and sadness well, and there are a few really quite engaging scenes - especially towards the end - from the youngster. It's not always the cheeriest of films to watch, but it has a striking humanity to it that makes it well worth an hour and an half.
More Like This
To Paint or Make Love
An affluent, middle-aged couple's uneventful lives are forever changed when they move into an isolated house in the country and befriend an odd...
See more
Sophie's Choice
Stingo, a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie and her lover Nathan, he...
See more
Midnight Madness
In Midnight Madness millionaire diamond miner Michael Bream (Clive Brook) discovers that the woman he’s marrying — funfair shooting-gallery hostess...
See more
Kunku
Neera (Apte) is trapped into marrying an old widower Kakasaheb (Date). He is a progressive lawyer with a son and daughter of Neera's age. Neera...
See more
Transamerica
A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.
See more
The Horse Whisperer
The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.
See more
Basquiat
The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.
See more
Bread and Tulips
An endearing light comedy about a woman who spontaneously becomes a resident of Venice after her family left her behind. While enjoying the...
See more
Secret Beyond the Door...
After a whirlwind romance in Mexico, a beautiful heiress marries a man she barely knows with hardly a second thought. She finds his New York home...
See more
The Terminal
Viktor Navorski is a man without a country; his plane took off just as a coup d'etat exploded in his homeland, leaving it in shambles, and now he's...
See more
Titanic
101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and...
See more
The Birth of a Nation
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is...
See more
The Usual Suspects
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also...
See more
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.
See more
When Harry Met Sally...
During their travel from Chicago to New York, Harry and Sally debate whether or not sex ruins a friendship between a man and a woman. Eleven years...
See more
Metropolis
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a...
See more
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his...
See more
A History of Violence
An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.
See more
Walk the Line
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in...
See more
Million Dollar Baby
Despondent over a painful estrangement from his daughter, trainer Frankie Dunn isn't prepared for boxer Maggie Fitzgerald to enter his life. But...
See more