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Bookmark this page- one third of a nation - (1938)
Director: Dudley Murphy
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
This fluke of a picture was originally a play by Arthur Arent for the Federal Theater Project before it was picked up for the movies by the New York outfit Excelsior, with backing from Paramount. McCormick's affable commie spearheads an agit-prop assault on firetrap housing conditions, with 14-year-old urchin Sidney Lumet holding midnight conversations with the Spirit of the Slums ('So they want to tear me down... I'll still be here after you're dead! Heh, heh, heh!'). But property baron Erickson has his conscience awakened by Sylvia Sidney, the rose of the tenements, and the film ends on a New Deal vision of capital and labour working together for a better tomorrow. A museum piece, dramatically crude, cinematically null, but with a still palpable sense of grievance.Author: BBa
Cast & crew
Director: Dudley Murphy
Producer: Harold Orlob
Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Leif Erickson, Myron McCormick, Sidney Lumet, Hiram Sherman, Iris Adrian, Baruch Lumet full cast
Duration: 79 mins
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