Using FDR's famous line about seeing one third of a nation ill housed, ill clad and ill fed, One Third Of A Nation deals with the first part of that statement. The film deals with slum tenements in New York City and was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios using some players who were better known for their stage work mostly at the time the film was made.
For star Sylvia Sidney it was a return to the slums where she played one of her most famous parts in the film version of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End. She lives with mother Edmonia Nolley, father Charles Dingle, and little brother Sidney Lumet. Yes, that is the same Sidney Lumet who grew up and became a top rated director.
After a fire which leaves young Lumet a cripple the owner of the building, in fact the owner of a lot of tenement buildings Leif Erickson develops a social conscience and is determined to tear these slum tenements down and build some decent new housing. He's fought every turn of the way by his sister Muriel Hutchinson and their business manager Percy Waram. But Sylvia's encouragement and an awful tragedy they endure it all works out.
Myron McCormick who at this time concentrated on the stage has a role as the neighborhood radical and rival for Sidney. It was interesting to see Charles Dingle, somewhat unshaven and in a dirty undershirt as a tenement dweller. Normally he'd be cast as the hard hearted plutocrat owner.
One Third Of A Nation is sincere, but a bit too melodramatic. For one thing I can't believe that Erickson is both tied down by his sister and also just didn't go out and become an engineer as he said he would like to have become. His character made little sense to me.
Still Sylvia Sidney's fans will enjoy her performance in her return to the New York slums.
For star Sylvia Sidney it was a return to the slums where she played one of her most famous parts in the film version of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End. She lives with mother Edmonia Nolley, father Charles Dingle, and little brother Sidney Lumet. Yes, that is the same Sidney Lumet who grew up and became a top rated director.
After a fire which leaves young Lumet a cripple the owner of the building, in fact the owner of a lot of tenement buildings Leif Erickson develops a social conscience and is determined to tear these slum tenements down and build some decent new housing. He's fought every turn of the way by his sister Muriel Hutchinson and their business manager Percy Waram. But Sylvia's encouragement and an awful tragedy they endure it all works out.
Myron McCormick who at this time concentrated on the stage has a role as the neighborhood radical and rival for Sidney. It was interesting to see Charles Dingle, somewhat unshaven and in a dirty undershirt as a tenement dweller. Normally he'd be cast as the hard hearted plutocrat owner.
One Third Of A Nation is sincere, but a bit too melodramatic. For one thing I can't believe that Erickson is both tied down by his sister and also just didn't go out and become an engineer as he said he would like to have become. His character made little sense to me.
Still Sylvia Sidney's fans will enjoy her performance in her return to the New York slums.