Admission: $2.50
“Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play was dominated by its single set: a massively detailed reproduction of the exterior of a New York tenement building and the sidewalk in front. A sense of the claustrophobia that comes from being shut up with other people in a small, stifling apartment was vital to the feeling of Rice's slice-of-life tragedy (the drama literally explodes from the windows and entryway of the building onto the street). In transferring the play to the screen, King Vidor and cinematographer George Barnes kept the action confined to the same few square feet of pavement, but worked out a scheme to maintain visual interest by photographing every shot from a different angle. The large cast included Beulah Bondi, who had played the same role on the stage, and who made the first appearance of her long and distinguished screen career in this film.... Alfred Newman's score for the film was one of the first pieces of movie music to win acclaim on its merit as an original composition....” Charles Hopkins, UCLA Film Archives.