Twenty-four hours elapse on the stoop of a Hell's Kitchen tenement as a microcosm of the American melting pot interconnects during a summer heatwave.
One of the great stage-to-screen adaptations of the early sound film era, STREET SCENE (1931) presents a New York City tenement melting pot, boiling over with summer heat, resentment, and longing. Independent producer Samuel Goldwyn acquired the rights of the Pulitzer Prize winning and hit Broadway play by Elmer Rice, who also penned the screenplay.
Under the direction of King Vidor, the relatively simple set (building, sidewalk, street) becomes a canvas of human emotion, achieved through dynamic camerawork and powerhouse performances by Sylvia Sidney, Estelle Taylor, and Beulah Bondi--a member of the original Broadway cast who made her film debut as the busybody Mrs. Jones. Composer Alfred Newman's score offers musical cues carefully timed to character dialogue, along with a Gershwin-esque theme that Newman reused during his long career at 20th Century-Fox. The film's restoration allows us to fully experience the power of STREET SCENE, seeing and hearing in vivid clarity as Anna Maurrant (Taylor), her daughter Rose (Sidney), and neighbor Sam Kaplan (William Collier, Jr.) open their hearts and crash against the limitations of their environment.
