Watch The Barretts of Wimpole Street For Free

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Charles Laughton was unmatched in larger-than-life monster roles, physical or emotional grotesques. Surrounded by stars, he outshone and certainly upstaged them all. And what a range too? The soft-hearted sentimental Hunchback of Notre Dame, the ultimate aloof aristocratic villain Squire Trelawney in Daphne DuMauriers tale of Cornish smugglers, the overbearing, over-drinking Lancashire patriarch in the comic Hobsons Choice.Nobody matched Laughton, nobody played them half as well. Here,what would otherwise have been a nice family of happy siblings is instead daily terrorised by a bullying obsessive jealous widower.What might have been a pleasant life is made one of stress as their reasonable expectations of a happy life are thwarted by the strange exactions of one man: their father.Lives that could have been pleasant and in the main unexceptional are dominated by him. But it is the eldest daughter who receives most of her father's attention who rather than lose her, instead insists that she is an invalid and must remain bed-ridden.Dramatically, the entire world of this family of 10 is dominated - and animated - by the single figure of this domineering monster played by Laughton. It is, after this, a fairly simple tale of the unalloyed good and brave daughter (played by Hollyood darling Norma Shearer) who rebels and against this tyrant and is able to go on to have a distinguished life with nice young suitor, poet Robert Browning (Frederic March in this for him an unchallenging role. March had elsewhere played one of cinema's most memorable monsters: Mr Hyde). Norma Shearer rebels not only on her own behalf but also for her siblings too so that they can all live normal fulfilled lives. Not just for her own domestic happiness but also for her artistic freedom, against the the tyranny of this lone monster who would crush them all. It was Laughton who admitted that the look that he gave his daughter (Shearer) should have earned the film an X certificate - it conveyed the very mixed and complicated emotions of this very odd Victorian disciplinarian pater familias.

A devastating portrait of a father's tyranny over his favorite daughter whom he tutored to be the spouse he would have liked to have.Charles Laughton plays this perverted man to perfection and Norma Shearer excels as the poet Elizabeth Barrett, who starts out as a sophisticated ninny but grows to embrace her rights and independence after Frederich March playing Robert Browning questions the status quo in this stifling residence.This is a period drama with picture-perfect sets, including an exquisite street-side snow, and sumptuous costumes. The title of this piece is accurate to a fault, though; a significant amount of time is wasted on silly and tedious tangential family members.Still, the movie is worth seeing for the vigor and sensitivity of the central literary couple. It has left me with a curiosity to know more about their lives and their work.

I thought this would be a talky bore with bland characters and unimaginative cinematic techniques, but I was delightfully surprised! It's very nicely photographed and lavishly mounted, with vivid characters, dramatic coloring and dollops of humor. And the script even takes time to discuss actual poetry. Two representative elements that leap out at you: the sensitive performance of Una O'Connor as Elizabeth Barrett's devoted maid who appears to float across a room in her full-length dress and totally avoids hamming it up as she did (to hilarious effect) in THE INVISIBLE MAN the previous year. And the second is a superbly trained dog who takes his own walks around the neighborhood and scratches at the door when he comes home, to be let in by the servants. On the downside, although the viewer is led to view Norma Shearer's character as a homely recluse who hasn't left her chamber for years and can barely walk, Norma looks from moment one as if she just emerged from the Metro beauty salon (which of course is the case!). You'd think they might have tried a bit to make her look the part, even if only lightening the lipstick a shade or two, or perhaps a touch of shadow under the cheekbones, but no - she is as radiant, glamorous and robust as she ever was in anything. But histrionically this is one of her best efforts. She manages to convey exhaustion and weakness, and only very occasionally lapses into her wheezing, semi-coherent upper register when emotionally overwrought. (Helen Hayes would have been ideal casting for this part.) Charles Laughton as the old grouch of a father is in real life about Shearer's age but his jowly countenance - with the help of a powdered wig and sideburns - help him to look older. He is always riveting, as other viewers have commented, but he (or the script?) fail to convincingly knit the two sides of his personality together. Fredric March as Robert Browning is adequate, not particularly poetic, but dashingly attractive. Interestingly, he resembles Shearer so strongly (especially in profile) that HE could have played her father if his hair had been powdered. And in real life he is two years older than Laughton! But why quibble - this is one of the more entertaining and literate of MGM's Depression-era extravaganzas. At the very least it's delicious eye candy.

I had seen the 1957 version of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" so I wasn't going to take time for this one. My scheduling changed, I ended up with time and decided to watch the 1934 film. In it were Norma Shearer and Fredric March. I was surprised to note that they were superb. They played off of each other's characters. That spark of emotions were there.Edward Barrett's (Charles Laughton) lustful feelings for his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, become obvious right away. You know he's intentions are not honorable. The fact that he forbade any and all of his children to marry and have a life and family of their own shows that he is mean and self-centered. He isn't above belittling and tearing them down until they give up any idea of breaking away from the family. Edward Barrett wants total control over his complete family. This becomes obvious in the treatment of his own niece in front of her intended husband. How would you like to have the old monster sucking face with you? Ugh! Then comes Robert Browning who reads several of Elizabeth's poems. He falls in love, decides to meet her and convinces her to leave her father, family and marry him. Elizabeth agrees. They leave together with Wilson her maid. (Una O'Connor has that role.) They, also, want to take Elizabeth's beloved spaniel, Flush.Barrett is furious when he discovers their leaving. His cruelty quickly becomes definite. He is going to do away with Flush to get even with Elizabeth for leaving her father for Robert. Will his attempt succeed? Will he ever see his daughter again? What happens with the rest of the family once he loses his hold on Elizabeth? Will Flush make it to the wedding? There's one way to find out, see the movie.