Robert J. Maxwell From Thornton Wilder's play about everyday life in a small town in New Hampshire from 1900 to 1913.It's basically a filmed play and it's pretty good. Wilder used the device of the "stage manager" to break the fourth wall and narrate the story as he strolls along, knocking his pipe clean on a wooden fence or gazing at the tombstones.I doubt that there was ever a town like this or that people -- anywhere -- ever lived lives so clean and stereotypical. Everybody is happy except the choir master who is a drunk and who hangs himself. But even then, he's not an OBNOXIOUS drunk. Nobody here is the counterpart of the devious Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life." Yet, for all the staggering stereotypes, it's a moving story. How can it not be when death is touched on so often? The Stage Manager introduces us to a nice polite kid delivering newspapers and tells us he died of pneumonia four years later.It has it's longueurs. William Holden is a nice young man and Mary Scott is a nice young girl and they get married and she dies giving birth to their third child. (Don't worry; in the movie, "it's all a dream.") So Mary dreams she is in the graveyard with all the other dead folks she new, including good friends and old relatives -- and it's boring as hell. Not that it's literally depicted as hell, or heaven either. It's more like some kind of, well, LIMBO in which everyone sits silently on chairs and stares straight ahead as if consumed by some inner visions. How would you like to sit in a chair and stare straight ahead for all eternity? Mary is given one day to revisit earth, which the others have largely forgotten about. So she returns to her home on her sixteenth birthday, watches everyone bustling cheerfully about, and declares that they don't know what they've got till it's gone, to paraphrase the philosopher Joni Miller. They don't pay attention to one another? If the town were any more cohesive it would be a sponge.Still, sit through the worried families, the happy families, the adolescent awkwardness, the uncertain pragmatism of the townsfolk, and try stop the emotions of these benighted people from bleeding into your own.

MartinHafer Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" is considered an American classic and it's a play that is often discussed in schools here in the States. Because of this, I was somewhat familiar with the story and remember disliking it. However, it seems that this was because instead of watching the play being performed or watching this movie (that was adapted by Wilder for the screen), my class in middle school read the play--the worst possible way to understand and appreciate it. Now, 35 years later, I finally got around to seeing it like it should be seen--and I am glad I did.This is an interesting play because of its cast. In addition to a lot of familiar supporting actors such as Guy Kibbee, Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell and Frank Craven (who assisted Wilder with the screenplay), the film marks the debut of Martha Scott and William Holden. I really appreciate how many of the actors are the same folks who starred in the Broadway play and how the studio let Wilder keep control of his script--this, unfortunately, is pretty rare. Too often, a studio buys a play and then completely changes it--showing utter contempt for the actors and playwright.As far as the story goes, it's quite peculiar in style. The closest film I can think of like this is the film version of Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude"--but the O'Neill play didn't really work well on screen. Both featured characters speaking their thoughts out loud to the audience--an unusual innovation to say the least. Another innovation in "Our Town" is having the character of the Mr. Morgan (Craven) also acting as the narrator. Because of this unusual style and the leisurely pace of the film, it's one that might lose viewers who don't have the patience to stick with this one. Don't give up--especially when the film gets depressing--it's a delight and the payoff is definitely worth the long wait.Impressively written, full of wonderful performances and expertly directed, this one is well worth seeing. And, fortunately, since it's in the public domain, it's downloadable from the link on IMDb. Give it a chance--it's a delightful piece of Americana.

b-wfan Every time that I watch this picture,I am moved to tears. "Our Town" is an honest, open and sentimental picture. The characters are well defined and unpretentious. They share their dreams, desires, fears and lives with us. We care about these people and we can relate to them."Our Town" does not need any special affects or any modern day "razzle-dazzle" to tell its story. Dialogue moves the plot. The focus of this movie is the characters and the different stages in their lives. If only Hollywood could go back to making films like this.In my opinion, "Our Town" is a must see for all serious film buffs.**** out of ****

bkoganbing Perhaps the movie going public wasn't ready for Our Town as its author Thornton Wilder envisioned it. If so, another screen version was just the ticket with Paul Newman now presenting in the role of Stage Manager that Frank Craven created.Frank Craven, Martha Scott, and Doro Merande recreated their stage roles when independent producer Sol Lesser bought the rights to Our Town and filmed it independently for United Artists. The play takes one back to the turn of the last century to Calvin Coolidge rural New England as seen through the eyes of the town druggist who doubles as Stage manager. As he so eloquently puts it nothing much changes in this town, the new immigrants who work in the mill are pretty separate from the Yankee pioneer stock who we look at. Going through the graveyard you see the tombstone names are the same from generation to generation. We're primarily concerned with the Gibbs and Webb families and the budding romance between George Gibbs and Emily Webb. Martha who made her Broadway debut as Emily makes her screen debut also. The fast rising William Holden plays the nice kid George Gibbs and was good in it. So good in fact that he fought that kind of type casting for years until Sunset Boulevard.Unfortunately in this version the ending was radically changed and really did cheapen the production. Thornton Wilder's message about the quiet moments of life holding the most dear memories does not quite come across.One thing that wasn't in Our Town as Wilder wrote it was the explicit gayness of the choirmaster Stinson as played by Philip Wood. It's almost axiomatic that the music in just about any church, organist or choirmaster is usually a gay man. Stinson is gay, no question about it and as the stage manager says, some are not cut out for small town life. It's why he drinks and why he hangs himself, there aren't any kindred spirits for him in tiny Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. Stinson would have appreciated Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life, he would have known exactly what Jonah Blechman was going through there.If Wilder were writing it post Stonewall, Our Town would have been more explicit on that point. And maybe it will be in future interpretations.