kidboots When Merian C. Cooper replaced David O. Selznik as production head of RKO, he continued the habit of acquiring literary works for filming. "Ann Vickers" was one of Sinclair Lewis' most controversial books that covered such "hot topics" (for the time) as abortion, women's voting rights, sex and divorce, not to mention a realistic appraisal of life in a women's prison. It was written in 1933 and by the end of the year had been turned into a glossy woman's picture starring an intelligent actress who was making Martyrdom movies her own domain - Irene Dunne. This is a super movie - why don't they make movies like this anymore! Yes, it is a women's picture but not the sudsy "Mrs. Miniver" type that would become popular in the 1940s. Superlative Irene Dunne makes you believe in every scene she plays."She's going to make the world over - if it takes all winter" says Malvina (wonderful Edna May Oliver) of her friend Ann Vickers (Irene Dunne). Social worker Ann has a passion for helping people and when she meets disillusioned soldier (Bruce Cabot, playing a heel as usual) she spends a blissful week, with promises of marriage when he returns from the front. His letters become less frequent and when they accidentally meet at a restaurant, she realises that he has forgotten all about her. After her baby dies, she finds a job at a women's prison. Copperhead Gap Prison is grim,especially under Captain Waldo, a lecherous "Simon Legree" type, who yearns for the "good old days" of public floggings with the cat 'o nine tails and other nice amusements!!! Ann is appalled at the harsh treatment the women receive - she witnesses lashings, even hangings and when she is forced to leave writes a best seller that exposes the conditions of prison life. The publicity helps her secure a job as Governor at Styvessaunt Industrial Home. "I'm going to get you off the snow - cold turkey" (words I never thought I would hear Irene Dunne speak), "Show a little respect - I'm a A.M. and a Ph.D, - Well, I'm only a A.B.A. and a SOB" -the racy dialogue sprinkled through the film shows it was made in pre-code times - There's even a joke about going "cold turkey" later in the film.At a party she meets Judge Barney Dolphin - it is nice to see Walter Huston playing a pretty down to earth guy for once - yes, he is a Judge, but he is certainly not stern or forbidding. He is the man who, through his high praise, helped make her book a best seller and when they meet there is an instant attraction. Ann has found her soul mate - they are both intelligent and have high ideals. He is married - to a grasping woman, who prefers to live abroad and will not give him a divorce. they embark on a relationship and when he is sent to prison, by standing by him Ann loses her prestigious appointment. Trying to get friends to rally around her, she has a showdown with Lindsay Atwell (Conrad Nagel), an old admirer and a part that probably made more sense in the novel. Ann is reduced to writing articles about prison reform from her small upstairs flat and when Barney is released, finds Ann and their little boy waiting for him.With other stars, this film may have been maudlin - but the superior acting skills of Dunne and Huston make this an extremely fine movie. J. Carroll Naish has a "blink and you'll miss him" part as a drunken doctor, Gertrude Michael has a small scene as Barney's wife and if there is a prison matron in a movie, chances are it's Mary Foy.Highly, Highly Recommended.

Neil Doyle ANN VICKERS is a bizarre tear-jerker from the early days of sound movies featuring IRENE DUNNE as a woman who is well-intentioned but makes all the wrong choices in life, including the men she thinks she loves.BRUCE CABOT is her first mistake, a man proclaiming great love for her but abandoning her not long after she bears his child. In a weak supporting role, she treats CONRAD NAGEL as a man she cannot love but values as a friend. He's not too happy about that arrangement.Then comes married man WALTER HUSTON, unhappily married who finds Dunne a refreshing bit of love interest. She has a career that keeps her busy and stands by him when he is accused of mismanaging funds. He's soon imprisoned but she finds a way to get his case some political attention and eventually he is free to marry her.That's about it, all handled in dreary fashion with hardly a note of music on the soundtrack to lift it out of the doldrums when it gets too soggy to bear. As social commentary on conditions in the 1930s and women's issues, it's a failure. Miss Dunne plays a social worker who rises to play an important role in the penal system for females.IRENE DUNNE suffers nobly, but it's a weak vehicle for a strong actress and she can do nothing to give the film a sense of real life struggles. Chalk this one up as a failure, even if it was based on a novel penned by no less than Sinclair Lewis. Evidently, not too much has been retained from his novel.Summing up: Not worth your time. Any film that wastes the talents of EDNA MAY OLIVER as a Duchess has got to make you wonder what they were thinking. It's her dullest role ever.

bkoganbing Essaying the title role in Ann Vickers, Irene Dunne who was never less than noble on screen manages to make a virtuous woman out of someone who has two illegitimate kids. Even in the days before the Code this was pretty heady stuff for Hollywood to be coming out with. Then again, novelist Sinclair Lewis was never anything but controversial in what he gave the American public. In fact his own relationship with newspaper columnist Dorothy Thompson parallels the one that Dunne has with Walter Huston in the film.We first meet Ann as a social worker at a settlement house before World War I where she has eyes for one special doughboy, Bruce Cabot even with lawyer Conrad Nagel panting hot and heavy for her. Cabot proves to be something of a rat and impregnates her, but the child is a stillborn.Ann is a role model feminist, a former suffragette who went to prison for the franchise. She's a career person first and she moves on to various jobs in the penal system, including running a women's prison. She becomes a best selling author and eventually falls in love with married judge Walter Huston with whom she has another child. Then Huston gets himself in a jackpot, but Irene also stands by her man. I've not read the Sinclair Lewis novel, but just viewing the film you could tell an awful lot was left out. Possibly a great deal of this film wound up on the cutting room floor. Edna May Oliver has a fine part as Dunne's mentor, but she's abandoned a third of the way through the film and we don't know what happened.Dunne does well in a role that Katharine Hepburn would have hit a home run with and she does get good support from the rest of the cast. Still this abbreviated version of Sinclair Lewis leaves a lot to be desired.

MartinHafer This is a bad film, as its central message is very muddled and the plot seems like it was the result of merging several disparate scripts. As a result, it often makes absolutely no sense at all and certainly is not a film Miss Dunne or Mr. Huston should have been proud of making. However, the film IS worth watching if you are a fan of "Pre-Code" films because it features an amazingly sleazy plot that strongly says that nice girls DO put out--even if they aren't married and even if their partner IS!! The film begins with Miss Dunne as a social worker assisting troops heading to Europe for WWI. In the process, she meets a scalawag (Bruce Cabot) who eventually convinces her to sleep with him. She becomes pregnant and he then goes on to the next unsuspecting woman. However, Miss Dunne does NOT want him back, as she realizes he's not worth it, but later her baby dies at child birth. While all these very controversial plot elements are used, they are always alluded to--almost like they wanted the adults in the audience to know but hoped that if they phrase it or film it in just the right way, kids in the audience will be clueless (after all, films were not rated and kids might attend any film at this time).Surprisingly, this entire plot involving a stillborn baby and Cabot ends about 1/4 of the way through the film and is never mentioned again or alluded to. It was as if they filmed part of a movie and abandoned it--tacking it on to still another film. In this second phase of the film, Miss Dunne unexpectedly begins working at a women's prison (though we actually never really get to see her doing anything there). What we do see are countless horrible scenes of severe abuse and torture that were probably designed to titillate. And, as a result of all this violence, Miss Dunne goes on a crusade to clean up the prison and becomes a reformer and famous writer.But then, out of the blue, another type of film emerges and the women's prison reform business goes by the wayside. Dunne meets a judge (Walter Huston) who is married but he desperately wants her. Now throughout the film, Dunne is portrayed as a very good girl--even though she did have unmarried sex with Cabot (she was more or less tricked into it). But now, single Irene, who is a tireless reformer and good lady begins sleeping with a married man. He tells her that he and his wife are estranged and are married in name only, but she never thinks to investigate if this is true, and with his assurance, off flies her clothes and they are in the baby making business! BUT, while she's pregnant with his love child, he's indicted for being a crooked judge. He assures her he's innocent, but he's convicted and it sure sounds like he's a scoundrel--using inside information from people that have come before his bench in order to amass a fortune. Then, in the final moments of the film, Miss Dunne tries in vain to get him freed and vows to wait with the child until Huston is released. The film then ends.So, we basically have three separate films AND a bizarre early 30s idea of what a nice girl should be like. I gathered that she should be a strong-minded working girl who instantly becomes an idiot in her personal relationships! This really undoes all the positives about Dunne's character and it's really hard to imagine anyone liking the film. A strong women's rights advocate might easily be offended at how weak-minded and needy she was and religious people might see her as totally amoral or at least morally suspect! With a decent re-write, this could have been a good film or at least interesting as a lewd and salacious film, but it couldn't make up its mind WHAT it wanted to be and was just another dull Pre-Code film.