Drawn from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Elmer Rice play, Street Scene is a dated but still moving look at one New York neighborhood in the midst of a heat wave. It's true that today's audiences are used to this kind of ensemble, slice-of-life effort, so the impact has lessened somewhat; it's also true that the accents employed, vital to letting audiences in 1931 know the ethnic background of each character, will come across as stilted and artificial to 21st century ears. But there's enough poetry in Rice's dialogue to help skate over the charge of stereotypes, and the author's keen ability to create memorable scenes is a big help. Granted, Street betrays its stage origins in its single setting, but director King Vidor creatively opens up the piece by employing a dazzling array of angles and set-ups to keep the setting intact while adding movement and variety to the visuals. He also masterfully handles the climactic set piece, employing a number of deft tricks to create maximum dramatic effect. The large cast is good, although some players are a bit more emphatic than is really necessary. A very young Sylvia Sidney, however, is mesmerizing as the young girls whose dreams are shattered in one violent instant.
