Our Town (1940)

There is a certain heartwarming stability to the message delivered in this otherwise rather pedestrian tale of the lives of the citizens of a small New Hampshire town where the horse still prevails over the motor car. The other thing that is very noticeable about “Grover’s Corners” is it’s proliferation of churches. Just about every denomination barring voodoo is represented and these form a bedrock for it’s largely decent citizenry. This potted history is regaled by the town pharmacist “Morgan” (Frank Craven) and takes us through the lives and loves of the Webb and the Gibb families as the 20th century rolls on. “Emily” (Martha Scott) is quite a bright young thing who lives next door to “George” (William Holden) who is more focussed on sport and who ideally wants to take over his uncle’s farm. It’s at this point that the shoots of a romance begin to emerge between the couple. There now follow two separate segments, about ten years apart, in which we drop in on the family and take a look around their now developing town as “Emily” begins to wonder if she really made the best choices she could have. It’s not that she is unhappy, nor is her husband unfit in any way but to an extent, she feels unfulfilled. In some ways, this is quite thought-provoking as it looks at the limitations either imposed directly or societally on women at the turn of the last century, as well as taking a look at a more general lack of opportunities for a population who wanted for nothing really, but who aspired to nothing either. It’s that very mundane existence that the film conveys well but also, there is no doubt it isn’t exactly a scintillating watch. There’s no real chemistry between Holden and Scott, even at their courting stage, and though there is some emotion contained within the gentle narration, in many ways it’s a bit like watching a time-lapse natural history film - only with people and not creatures. We are all cogs in a wheel, and this illustrates the simplicity of our inter-dependence clearly but rather blandly.