Any combination of William Wyler, Samuel Goldwyn, and Walter Huston amount to a classic. Period.
Dodsworth endures because it's a sophisticated piece with a lot going on beneath the surface. A retired automaker goes on a European voyage with his wife of twenty years who's going through her own midlife crisis. It's 100 minutes of snappy, intelligent dialogue injecting humor into mature themes of infidelity and marriage.
Dodsworth is a man ready to leap into the chapter of old age and enjoying the fruit of his labor. His wife is terrified of old age and runs into the arms of any man who takes an interest in her. After this film was screened at Telluride 2006, Sam Goldwyn Jr. did the Q&A. When asked why remakes of
Dodsworth have been picked up and dropped so many times, he replied there's little sympathy for this film. We can't help but view movies from the time we live in. Dodsworth's wife is unsympathetic for cheating on him. Dodsworth is unsympathetic because, today, nobody understands why he doesn't just drop her and move on.
There in lies the beauty of
Dodsworth. Much like
The Secret Lives of Dentists, underpinning this darkly comic story is a man trying to endure a chapter in his marriage and hang on to the history he and his wife built together. It's not a decision most couples make today. But it's a mature and calculated decision reflecting incredible endurance in the man who makes it.