Author Theodore Dreiser is known for stories where the main characters lack a strong moral code. His acclaimed novel 'An American Tragedy' is a perfect example of this, and so is his later publication 'Jennie Gerhardt,' based on the lives of his sisters.
Paramount adapted these literary works as motion pictures with Sylvia Sidney prominently featured in both. What makes Miss Sidney's performance as Jennie Gerhardt so successful is how she is able to take the working class heroine from naive to mature in a relatively short period of time on screen.
Edward Arnold plays her first suitor, a wealthy senator much older than Jennie. He meets her at a posh hotel, where she is cleaning a stairway one day. He is instantly smitten with her. While Jennie's humble German parents are grateful to the senator for his assistance when things get tough financially, old Mr. Gerhardt disapproves of the unusual romantic relationship.
He instructs Jennie to break things off, which she does at first. But then the senator pursues her again. This is a recurring theme in the story, that Jennie is never able to fully say goodbye to those who matter to her.
Eventually Jennie agrees to marry Senator Brand. It is a precode drama, so we can be sure they have been enjoying a sexual relationship. However, before the wedding occurs the senator is killed in a train accident.
A short time later Jennie learns she is pregnant. It's interesting how the film conveys this without using the word 'pregnant.' After Jennie moves away to have the baby in secret with the help of a cousin, we have a unique birthing scene that occurs off-screen. She is experiencing the pains of labor while occupants in a boarding house eat their meal as if nothing exciting is happening!
Soon Jennie has taken work as a maid for the wealthy Kane family. In the novel, Dreiser has her work for an elderly woman who is visited by the Kanes. But in the movie, Jennie is able to interact more directly with the family's attractive son (Donald Cook) without contrivance. It plays like an American version of Upstairs Downstairs and the courtship scenes are done with sincerity.
Jennie is living a double life. During her off-hours, she spends time with her cousin and daughter. She hasn't told Lester Kane about the fact she has a child. Little Vesta (Cora Sue Collins) is precious and steals every scene she is in.
Eventually Jennie admits to Lester that she has a daughter. He accepts Vesta and sets up a home with them, though he doesn't marry Jennie. In a precode sense, she is his mistress but it seems as though they could marry at some point. However, Lester's snobby sister (Dorothy Libaire) has other plans for him, and pushes him towards a more acceptable match- society matron Letty Pace (Mary Astor).
Mary Astor had been in quite a few pictures during the end of the silent era, and at the beginning of the talkies, as a leading lady. Probably her role in this picture is one of her first real supporting character parts...and she is brilliant. She doesn't overplay her character's affectations, but Letty is certainly less likable and more 'villainous' than the virtuous Jennie.
Of course, this would not be a melodrama if Lester married Jennie. He makes the wrong choice and marries Letty. What follows are a series of scenes where both he and Jennie get older. Through the years that follow, she keeps track of his life as a successful industrialist by clipping newspaper articles and pasting them inside a scrapbook. She goes to watch newsreels at the local theater, in the days before television, so she can glimpse him on screen.
There is even more drama at this juncture, because Jennie's daughter Vesta is about to graduate from school but suddenly takes ill. Vesta dies from typhoid fever, and the death scene contains some of Miss Sidney's most realistic acting. In grief, Jennie reaches back out to Lester. However, he is now becoming infirm himself.
On his deathbed a short time later, Lester asks to be reunited with Jennie. Their last scene together is very poignant and nicely played. After Lester's death, Jennie attends the funeral, standing along the sidelines since she is technically not his widow or part of his family. The final shots have her watching the casket loaded on to a train where it is taken off for burial.
This evokes the death of the senator by train earlier in the movie. Everything comes full-circle, with Jennie as survivor. While this production pours on the sorrow, it is a good indicator of how Depression-era audiences needed to see the working class heroine at the end. She loved and lost, a few times, but she still has her dignity. Jennie Gerhardt always has the strength to persevere and get through whatever happens next.
Paramount adapted these literary works as motion pictures with Sylvia Sidney prominently featured in both. What makes Miss Sidney's performance as Jennie Gerhardt so successful is how she is able to take the working class heroine from naive to mature in a relatively short period of time on screen.
Edward Arnold plays her first suitor, a wealthy senator much older than Jennie. He meets her at a posh hotel, where she is cleaning a stairway one day. He is instantly smitten with her. While Jennie's humble German parents are grateful to the senator for his assistance when things get tough financially, old Mr. Gerhardt disapproves of the unusual romantic relationship.
He instructs Jennie to break things off, which she does at first. But then the senator pursues her again. This is a recurring theme in the story, that Jennie is never able to fully say goodbye to those who matter to her.
Eventually Jennie agrees to marry Senator Brand. It is a precode drama, so we can be sure they have been enjoying a sexual relationship. However, before the wedding occurs the senator is killed in a train accident.
A short time later Jennie learns she is pregnant. It's interesting how the film conveys this without using the word 'pregnant.' After Jennie moves away to have the baby in secret with the help of a cousin, we have a unique birthing scene that occurs off-screen. She is experiencing the pains of labor while occupants in a boarding house eat their meal as if nothing exciting is happening!
Soon Jennie has taken work as a maid for the wealthy Kane family. In the novel, Dreiser has her work for an elderly woman who is visited by the Kanes. But in the movie, Jennie is able to interact more directly with the family's attractive son (Donald Cook) without contrivance. It plays like an American version of Upstairs Downstairs and the courtship scenes are done with sincerity.
Jennie is living a double life. During her off-hours, she spends time with her cousin and daughter. She hasn't told Lester Kane about the fact she has a child. Little Vesta (Cora Sue Collins) is precious and steals every scene she is in.
Eventually Jennie admits to Lester that she has a daughter. He accepts Vesta and sets up a home with them, though he doesn't marry Jennie. In a precode sense, she is his mistress but it seems as though they could marry at some point. However, Lester's snobby sister (Dorothy Libaire) has other plans for him, and pushes him towards a more acceptable match- society matron Letty Pace (Mary Astor).
Mary Astor had been in quite a few pictures during the end of the silent era, and at the beginning of the talkies, as a leading lady. Probably her role in this picture is one of her first real supporting character parts...and she is brilliant. She doesn't overplay her character's affectations, but Letty is certainly less likable and more 'villainous' than the virtuous Jennie.
Of course, this would not be a melodrama if Lester married Jennie. He makes the wrong choice and marries Letty. What follows are a series of scenes where both he and Jennie get older. Through the years that follow, she keeps track of his life as a successful industrialist by clipping newspaper articles and pasting them inside a scrapbook. She goes to watch newsreels at the local theater, in the days before television, so she can glimpse him on screen.
There is even more drama at this juncture, because Jennie's daughter Vesta is about to graduate from school but suddenly takes ill. Vesta dies from typhoid fever, and the death scene contains some of Miss Sidney's most realistic acting. In grief, Jennie reaches back out to Lester. However, he is now becoming infirm himself.
On his deathbed a short time later, Lester asks to be reunited with Jennie. Their last scene together is very poignant and nicely played. After Lester's death, Jennie attends the funeral, standing along the sidelines since she is technically not his widow or part of his family. The final shots have her watching the casket loaded on to a train where it is taken off for burial.
This evokes the death of the senator by train earlier in the movie. Everything comes full-circle, with Jennie as survivor. While this production pours on the sorrow, it is a good indicator of how Depression-era audiences needed to see the working class heroine at the end. She loved and lost, a few times, but she still has her dignity. Jennie Gerhardt always has the strength to persevere and get through whatever happens next.