There is nothing I can add to the substantive dialogue concerning this film, but I urge all persons interested in early sound-era movies to look at this one, not only for how it exemplifies film as art, but also because it portrays human interaction in such a compelling and timeless way. Certainly without the play we wouldn't have the film. But the film interprets the play and that is what we are seeing here. The sense of neighbors of so many various backgrounds being pressed together in close quarters and not being allowed to stand as islands unto themselves may be more satisfyingly observed, or portrayed if you will, here than in any actual or attempted documentary from the early 1930s.
I have looked over many of the scenes in this film several times, and each time my fascination with and admiration for the film only swells. "Street Scene" provides a very engrossing, if not great, motion picture experience!
Review of Street Scene
