Editing King Vidor (section)

=== The Goldwyn films: 1931–1937 ===

''[[Street Scene (film)|Street Scene]]'' (1931), ''[[Cynara (1932 film)|Cynara]]'' (1932), ''[[The Wedding Night]]'' (1935), ''[[Stella Dallas (1937 film)|Stella Dallas]]'' (1937)

During the 1930s Vidor, though under contract to M-G-M studios, made four films under loan-out to independent producer [[Samuel Goldwyn]], formerly with the Goldwyn studios that had amalgamated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924. Goldwyn's insistence on fidelity to the prestigious literary material he had purchased for screen adaptations imposed cinematic restraints on his film directors, including Vidor. The first of their collaborations since the silent era was ''[[Street Scene (film)|Street Scene]]'' (1931)<ref>Baxter, 1976 p. 18<br />Durgnat and Simmons, 1988: p. 117<br />Baxter, 1972 p. 153: Goldwyn "pursuing as ever his goal of 'cultural' films..."</ref>

The adoption of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by [[Elmer Rice]] depicts a microcosm in a major American metropolis and its social and economic inequalities. The cinematic limitations imposed by a single set restricted to a New York City block of tenements building and its ethnically diverse inhabitants presented Vidor with unique technical challenges. He and cinematographer [[George Barnes (cinematographer)|George Barnes]] countered and complemented these structural restrictions by using a roving camera mounted on cranes, an innovation made possible by recent developments in early sound technology.<ref>Miller, TMC: "...Vidor realized that the play's single setting outside the apartment building was one of its greatest strengths. ...to keep the film from being static, he worked with cameraman George Barnes to find innovative ways to move and place the camera...Vidor had been one of the first directors to move the camera after the arrival of talking pictures, which was also excellent preparation for adapting the one-set play."<br />Baxter 1976 p. 45-46: "By focusing on a single organism in the city, Rice exposed the universal blight of social inequality."<br />Durgnat and Simmons, 1988: p. 117-118: "...the composition became the action..."<br />Baxter, 1972 p. 153: "Vidor made use of a fluid camera in order to overcome the static nature of the action...craning dizzyingly"</ref>

The excellent cast, drawn largely from the [[Broadway production]], contributed to the critical success of the film, as did the huge publicity campaign engineered by Goldwyn. Street Scene's immense box-office profits belied the financial and economic crisis of the early [[Great Depression|Depression]] years, when movie studios feared bankruptcy.<ref>Thomson, 2011: "The Crash of 1929 was followed by years of sinking economic depression. In the early '30s, the size of the audience withered. The studios faced ruin.<br />Miller, TMC</ref>

''[[Cynara (1932 film)|Cynara]]'' (1932), a romantic melodrama of a brief, yet tragic affair between a British barrister and a shopgirl, was Vidor's second sound collaboration with Goldwyn. Starring two of Hollywood's biggest stars of the period, [[Ronald Colman]] and [[Kay Francis]], the story by [[Francis Marion]] is a cautionary tale concerning upper- and lower-class sexual infidelities set in England. Framed, as in the play and novel, in a series of flashbacks told by the married barrister Warlock (Colman), the story ends in honorable redemption for the barrister and death for his mistress. Vidor was able to inject some "pure cinema" into a picture that was otherwise a "dialogue-heavy" talkie: "Colman [in London] tears up a piece of paper and throws the pieces out a window, where they fly into the air. Vidor cuts to [[Piazza San Marco|St. Mark's Square]] in Venice (where Francis, his spouse is vacationing), with pigeons flying into the air".<ref>Berlinale archive, 2020: Warlock "succumbs to the erotic charms of a lower-class woman – with fatal consequences." <br />Landazuri, TMC</ref>

In his third collaboration with Goldwyn, Vidor was tasked with salvaging the producer's huge investment in Soviet-trained Russian actress [[Anna Sten]]. Goldwyn's effort to elevate Sten to the stature of [[Marlene Dietrich|Dietrich]] or [[Greta Garbo|Garbo]] had thus far failed despite his relentless promotion when Vidor began directing her in ''[[The Wedding Night]]'' (1935).<ref>Landazuri, TMC: "...Sten became known as "Goldwyn's Folly" in the 1930s, because of the failed attempt by movie mogul Sam Goldwyn to make her into the next Garbo or Dietrich."<br />Baxter, 1976 p. 52<br />Durgnat and Simmons, 1988: p. 166<br />Baxter, 1972 p. 159: "...The Wedding March was [Goldwyn's] last extravagant fling" at establishing Sten as major Hollywood actress.</ref>

A tale of a doomed affair between a married New Yorker (Gary Cooper) (whose character Vidor based on novelist [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]) and a farm girl (Sten) from an [[Old World]] Polish family, Vidor provided thoughtful direction to Cooper and Sten while cinematographer [[Gregg Toland]]'s devised effective lighting and photography. Despite good reviews the picture did not establish Sten as a star among movie-goers and she remained "Goldwyn's Folly".<ref>Durgnat and Simmons, 1988: p. 165<br />Landazuri, TMC<br />Baxter, 1976 p. 52-53:</ref>

In 1937 Vidor made his final and most profitable picture with Samuel Goldwyn: ''[[Stella Dallas (1937 film)|Stella Dallas]]''. A remake of Goldwyn's most successful silent movie, the 1925 ''[[Stella Dallas (1925 film)|Stella Dallas]]'', also an adaption of [[Olive Higgins Prouty]]'s popular novel. [[Barbara Stanwyck]] stars as the eponymous "martyr of motherhood" in the sound re-make. Vidor analyzed director [[Henry King (director)|Henry King]]'s handling of his silent production and incorporated or modified some of its filmic structure and staging. Stanwyck's performance, reportedly without undue oversight by Vidor, is outstanding, benefited by her selective vetting of [[Belle Bennett]]'s famous portrayal. Vidor contributed to defining Stanwyck's role substantially in the final cut, providing a sharper focus on her character and delivering one of the great tear-jerkers in film history.
<ref>Miller, TMC: See Miller for Vidor's preoccupation with filming, not with directing his lead actors.<br />Durgnat and Simmons, 1988: p. 200–201: The changes Vidor make to Henry King's version "owe something to the remake being a star vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck" And "Vidor identically, cut, shot and staged" some of the material from the 1925 version. And Vidor "a master... of wringing audience tears." Also "...the final gut punch" ending. And p. 205: See footnote on Vidor's "final editing" And also Stanwyck's study of Bennett's performance. And Stella Dallas "lines up with the 'pure' weepies"</ref>

Despite the success of the film it would be his last with Goldwyn, as Vidor had tired of the producer's outbursts on the set. Vidor emphatically declined to work with the "mercurial" producer again.<ref>Miller, TMC: When Vidor finished shooting Stella Dallas, "he posted a sign over his desk reading, "NO MORE GOLDWYN PICTURES!"<br />Durgnat and Simmons, 1988: p. 173: Same "no more Goldwyn pictures!" quote.</ref>