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Our Town

Play trailer Poster for Our Town 1940 1h 30m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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86% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 46% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
For the residents of Grover's Corners, daily life proceeds at a predictable pace. The milkman (Stuart Erwin) arrives like clockwork, the neighbors perpetually gossip about nothing and children contemplate their future. Two of these children, George (William Holden) and Emily (Martha Scott), fall in love as adults and, despite last-minute nerves, get married. Their happiness does not last, however, as Emily dies during the birth of a child. Returning as a ghost, she ponders her existence.
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Our Town

Critics Reviews

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John Kinloch California Eagle 10/29/2019
Our Town is the dramatic mother lode. Indisputably, this is a great motion picture. Go to Full Review Steve Crum Video-Reviewmaster.com 02/17/2008
5/5
Dated, yes. But it still catches in the throat. Nostalgic, loving, happy, sad. Go to Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 12/24/2006
B+
Sam Wood's film version is as experimental and stylized as Thornton Wilder's play, one of the most enduring but also misunderstood plays in American history. Go to Full Review Daniel M. Kimmel Worcester Telegram & Gazette 07/10/2004
3/5
Michelle Alexandria Eclipse Magazine 12/29/2003
3/5
Eric Lurio Greenwich Village Gazette 12/12/2003
3/5
Pretty good, but did Wilder know Wood screwed up the ending? Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Blu B May 2 The acting is so wooden and lifeless between Holden & Scott. They have no chemistry at all together and the one scene where their talking about him going to Farming school is truly terrible with how disinterested and boring they look. Mitchell & the wife are good but as things go on there in it less and less. The narrator is so unneeded and isn't good either. It takes you out of the expierence completely everytime. It makes serious scenes lighthearted and disrupts momentum completely and this is a short film but this might have 15-20 minutes of fourth wall breaking narration. The music is boring, too sappy, and forgettable. The pacing is terrible and everything else is subpar. It feels like things just happen and it's about a family and sort of the town and it just gets so meandering. It spends too much time on certain people and changing over to Scott at the end which feels out of nowhere. Than the weird graveyard dream feels so out of place. This film has a weird tone issue also. It has respect for small town America but the characters and structure aren't there at all. And the direction isn't very good either in lots of scenes. Skip This. See more James G 09/09/2024 One of the great cinematic classics of Hollywood to which is added the somber and moving Aaron Copland soundtrack, a gem in its own right of American 20th century music. The film revolves around the lives of generations of people in a small, undistinguished American town, their joys, triumphs and tragedies and does so with great authenticity and power. See more Jeff S @jeffstone 03/09/2024 Homey retrospective about the so-called little things in life and some that aren't so little. See more 10/02/2021 Absolutely beautiful & meaningful that most people now days can &/or would never understand! Too bad u can't turn back the hands of time?!? DEF a movie worth watching & offering ur opinion so others who haven't seen it would hopefully enjoy it also! See more Blobbo X @Blobbo 05/03/2021 Our Town make Blobbo blubber. Great score, too. (Not sure why common copy's sound so muddled, though.) See more steve d 07/22/2020 This may be the best version of Our Town, but it is still Our Town. See more Read all reviews
Our Town

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Cast & Crew

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Sam Wood

Director

William Holden

George Gibbs

Martha Scott

Emily Webb

Frank Craven

Stage Manager

Fay Bainter

Mrs. Gibbs

Beulah Bondi

Mrs. Webb

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Our Town

Our Town (1940) Our Town (1940) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis For the residents of Grover's Corners, daily life proceeds at a predictable pace. The milkman (Stuart Erwin) arrives like clockwork, the neighbors perpetually gossip about nothing and children contemplate their future. Two of these children, George (William Holden) and Emily (Martha Scott), fall in love as adults and, despite last-minute nerves, get married. Their happiness does not last, however, as Emily dies during the birth of a child. Returning as a ghost, she ponders her existence.
Director
Sam Wood
Producer
Sol Lesser
Screenwriter
Thornton Wilder, Frank Craven, Harry Chandlee
Production Co
Sol Lesser Productions
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 13, 1940, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 11, 2016
Runtime
1h 30m
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