Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 28 September 1933 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 28 September 1933 (ran one week). U.S. release: 13 October 1933. U.K release: 7 May 1934. Australian release: 21 March 1934. 9 reels. 72 minutes. NOTES: Irene Dunne was super-popular world-wide, though Ann Vickers was more successful in cities than the country; and in carriage and middle-class suburbs rather than working-class districts. COMMENT: Ann Vickers is the sort of movie I really like. Here we have a fast-moving plot, packed with incident; a sympathetic lead and interesting support characters; smart, witty dialogue; all abetted by stylishly inventive, pacy direction and highly polished photography. (Production values only fall down in a couple of minor matters, like the obvious use of models for the Stuyvesant Building and the clumsy superimposition of Irene Dunne's close-up over the prison scenes. Maybe this latter device was designed to disguise the fact that these scenes were extracted from the stock footage library; - but if so, they were darn good). Two photographers were employed, David Abel doing the bulk of the work like the lovely soft-focus close-ups, the dynamically-framed two-shots and the dramatic reverse angles of Miss Dunne; whilst Eddie Cronjager contributed the more high contrast material, such as the single take with Dunne and Oliver in the taxi. Dunne carries the bulk of the action. I think she is in every scene, though of course she does take a back seat as a spectator in the trial sequences. Attractively photographed, styled and dressed, Miss Dunne brings Sinclair Lewis' plucky heroine to sympathetic life. Led by Walter Huston and Edna May Oliver, the support cast is enlivened by a highly skilled array of players, including Bruce Cabot (in a small but meaty role), Gertrude Michael (making the most of her one brief scene), Edwin Maxwell, and especially Mitchell Lewis. It's easy to spot other favorites like Arthur Hoyt and Jane Darwell (both Stuyvesant board members), J. Carroll Naish (a nonspeaking bit as a drunken doctor), Irving Bacon (also no dialogue) as a waiter. Huston himself has only one brief scene in the first half of the film, but comes into his own in the second half where he plays with his usual feisty vigor. Unfortunately, Huston's self-confident and self-possessed sincerity is not echoed by Conrad Nagel who makes his part as Irene's social worker colleague, a little too prissy (though maybe this is true to Lewis' vision of the character). In any event, his role is small. Also mercifully brief is Rafaella Ottiano's impersonation of Irene's secretary at the Stuyvesant Home. Luckily, she doesn't come on until the latter half of the picture, but she's a bit hard to take, what with her constant facial grimacing that serves no purpose other than plain camera-hogging. Max Steiner has obliged with a melodic music score, the film editing is exceptionally adroit, the movie is always attractive to look at and often scintillating to hear. Perhaps one or two dull sequences, but all told, a lively and engrossing 72 minutes. OTHER VIEWS: Packed with incident, the movie seamlessly crosses the boundaries of a number of genres: The brutal prison scenes align with classic film noir, the wronged woman with traditional weepies, the final silver-lined clouds with storybook romance.

blanche-2 "Ann Vickers" is a 1933 film starring Irene Dunne and Walter Huston. It is told with the sensibility of the 1930s and with an eye toward female audiences.Dunne is Ann Vickers, a social reformer dedicated to her career and not interested in men or dating. Nevertheless, due to her attractiveness, men are interested. One is a soldier about to be shipped out during WW I (Bruce Cabot) with whom she enjoys a one-night stand and becomes pregnant. She has promised to marry him if he still wants her upon his return; he really doesn't. She goes off with her friend Malvina (Edna May Oliver) to her country place. In one scene, she talks about how much she wanted the baby girl, and it was a shame that the baby died. So either she miscarried or had an abortion. We're left hanging. If she and Malvina were going out of the city, I understood that it was so she could be pregnant and no one would know it. Maybe not.Ann throws herself into her work for prison reform, and meets a judge (Walter Huston) whose wife lives in Europe and won't divorce him. And complications ensue.You can tell by the way I've related this story that this is not about a woman ahead of her time, independent, an early feminist, although that is supposed to be what it is.Instead the story is skewed toward her love life, and she marvels at how the Huston character has "killed her ambition." As in so many other movies, ambition and careers mean one thing - spinsterhood - and a happy ending can only be achieved if she forsakes her career for the man she loves.It sounds like I'm knocking this philosophy - I'm not. This was the attitude back then and in some places, it's still the attitude. The Vickers character was unconventional sexually, a feature of precode. Once the '40s hit, she would be in tailored suits up to her neck, aggressive in business, and softened by love, which removes all that frustration.After seeing a few of these, the message is clear.So rather than focus on her reform work, although it's mentioned, the movie focuses on her love life. And spoils what could have been a good story.Dunne is wonderful as Ann, and you sense that she has a real backbone. Her character doesn't allow herself to love at first, perhaps for fear of being hurt.Huston as the judge with more than a few issues is always good, and Edna May Oliver gives an earthy, practical performance.All in all, I did not think this was very good. It would have been a lot better with more balance between Ann's private life and career, and if she had found one.

samhill5215 This film starts out wonderfully. The protagonist, Ann Vickers, is an independent woman, a suffragette pursuing a career, a woman who knows her mind and is determined to lead a life without a man's stamp of approval. She even has two illegitimate children. For 1934 this was definitely forward thinking, even dangerously revolutionary. And so the first half of the film goes on this vein with Ann being refreshingly modern. I suspect that many women viewers identified with her dreams and struggles.And then the story grinds to a halt and Ann's life comes apart, and all because her lover, a corrupt judge, is convicted and sent to jail. When she is forced to abandon her career it is made eminently clear that she owed her success to her once influential lover. All her hard work amounted to nothing once her powerful protector disappeared. Moreover, she betrays her own ethical standards by pleading for her lover's freedom. So the implication is that love is the paramount motivating factor in a woman, and Ann is reduced to a stereotype. She even waits for her man to get out of jail and learns to cook for him.Frankly I felt betrayed. I became involved in this woman's life and cheered her on only to discover that Hollywood lacked the courage to present a truly alternative lifestyle. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. After all 1934 was the year the dreaded morality code went into effect. Still, "Ann Vickers" would have been a much better film if they had left well enough alone.

John Seal To call Ann Vickers a women's picture may technically be accurate--it was, indeed, adapted by Jane Murfin, also responsible for 1939's The Women--but it's much more than that. Quite simply, this is one of the best dramas ever produced in Hollywood. Written with delicacy and tenderness, yet planted firmly in the cruel realities of life, Ann Vickers includes a tour de force performance by Irene Dunne, ably supported by the wonderful Walter Huston as her lover, and Conrad Nagel and Bruce Cabot as would be paramours. There are some incredibly powerful moments here, especially during the prison scenes, and Dunne and Huston are magical whenever they're on screen together. Certainly daring by the standards of the time, Ann Vickers is a refreshingly honest and still topical masterpiece.