Ann Vickers (film)

Ann Vickers
Ann Vickers
Directed by	John Cromwell
Written by	Jane Murfin
Based on	Ann Vickers ; by Sinclair Lewis
Produced by	Pandro S. Berman
Starring	Irene Dunne; Walter Huston
Cinematography	Edward Cronjager
Edited by	George Nicholls, Jr.
Music by	Roy Webb
Production; company	RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	September 26, 1933;
Running time	76 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Ann Vickers is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama directed by John Cromwell and starring Irene Dunne and Walter Huston. It is based on the novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis.

Plot

After a military officer (Bruce Cabot) gets Ann Vickers (Irene Dunne) pregnant and leaves her, she and friend Malvina Wormser (Edna May Oliver) go to Havana, where she gives birth, though the child dies soon after. Feeling conflicted and regretful, Ann devotes herself to social work, taking a job in a women's prison. However, when she tries to improve the conditions there, she loses her job. She instead writes a book about the harsh realities of the prison and begins a romance with a married judge, Barney Dolphin (Walter Huston). Though progressive in his views, Dolphin is caught taking bribes and is sentenced to prison. Ann, once again pregnant, supports herself by writing until Dolphin is released a few years later. Finally, Ann, Dolphin, and their child are reunited.

Cast

Irene Dunne as Ann Vickers
Walter Huston as Barney Dolphin
Conrad Nagel as Lindsey Atwell
Bruce Cabot as Captain Resnick
Edna May Oliver as Malvina Wormser
Sam Hardy as Russell Spaulding
Mitchell Lewis as Captain Waldo
Murray Kinnell as Dr. Slenk
Helen Eby-Rock as Kitty Cognac
Gertrude Michael as Mona Dolphin
J. Carroll Naish as Dr. Sorelle
Sarah Padden as Lil
Reginald Barlow as Chaplain
Rafaella Ottiano as Mrs. Feldermans
Wally Albright as Mischa Feldermans (uncredited)
John Cromwell as Sad-Faced Doughboy (uncredited)

Controversy

In the novel, Ann Vickers is a birth control advocate and reformer who has two extramarital affairs, each time becoming pregnant though unwed. The original screenplay, following Sinclair Lewis's novel, had her obtaining an abortion, but the story was changed so that she gives birth to a child who dies. The screenplay for the 1933 film was approved by the Production Code only when RKO Radio Pictures also agreed to make Vickers an unmarried woman at the time of her affairs, thus eliminating the issue of adultery.^[1]

The reaction of leading American Roman Catholics to the content in this film and The Sign of the Cross led to the formation in 1934 of the Catholic Legion of Decency, an organization dedicated to identifying and combating what it viewed as objectionable content in films, usually by threatening a boycott.^[2]

Footnotes

^ Hopwood, IMDb: “He made his name with Ann Vickers (1933) in 1933...based on [the] novel by the preeminent writer Sinclair Lewis [and] the film ran into censorship trouble. Lewis' "Ann Vickers" featured Irene Dunne as a reformer and birth control advocate who has a torrid extramarital affair. The novel had been condemned by the Catholic Church, and the proposed movie adaptation proved controversial. The Studio Relations Committee, headed by James Wingate (whose deputy was future Production Code Administration head Joseph Breen, a Roman Catholic intellectual) condemned the script as "vulgarly offensive" before production began. The SRC, which oversaw the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association's Production Code, refused to approve the script without major modifications, but RKO production chief Merian C. Cooper balked over its excessive demands. Though studio head B.B. Kahane protested the SRC's actions to MPPDA President Will Hays, the studio agreed to make "Ann Vickers" an unmarried woman at the time of her affair, thus eliminating adultery as an issue, and the film received a Seal of Approval. The battle over "Ann Vickers" was one of the reasons the more powerful PCA was created in 1934 to take the place of the SRC.
^ Black, Gregory D. (1996). Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies. Cambridge University Press. pp. 162–164. ISBN 0-521-56592-8.