Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

blanche-2 "Ann Vickers" is a 1933 film starring Irene Dunne and Walter Huston. It is told with the sensibility of the 1930s and with an eye toward female audiences.Dunne is Ann Vickers, a social reformer dedicated to her career and not interested in men or dating. Nevertheless, due to her attractiveness, men are interested. One is a soldier about to be shipped out during WW I (Bruce Cabot) with whom she enjoys a one-night stand and becomes pregnant. She has promised to marry him if he still wants her upon his return; he really doesn't. She goes off with her friend Malvina (Edna May Oliver) to her country place. In one scene, she talks about how much she wanted the baby girl, and it was a shame that the baby died. So either she miscarried or had an abortion. We're left hanging. If she and Malvina were going out of the city, I understood that it was so she could be pregnant and no one would know it. Maybe not.Ann throws herself into her work for prison reform, and meets a judge (Walter Huston) whose wife lives in Europe and won't divorce him. And complications ensue.You can tell by the way I've related this story that this is not about a woman ahead of her time, independent, an early feminist, although that is supposed to be what it is.Instead the story is skewed toward her love life, and she marvels at how the Huston character has "killed her ambition." As in so many other movies, ambition and careers mean one thing - spinsterhood - and a happy ending can only be achieved if she forsakes her career for the man she loves.It sounds like I'm knocking this philosophy - I'm not. This was the attitude back then and in some places, it's still the attitude. The Vickers character was unconventional sexually, a feature of precode. Once the '40s hit, she would be in tailored suits up to her neck, aggressive in business, and softened by love, which removes all that frustration.After seeing a few of these, the message is clear.So rather than focus on her reform work, although it's mentioned, the movie focuses on her love life. And spoils what could have been a good story.Dunne is wonderful as Ann, and you sense that she has a real backbone. Her character doesn't allow herself to love at first, perhaps for fear of being hurt.Huston as the judge with more than a few issues is always good, and Edna May Oliver gives an earthy, practical performance.All in all, I did not think this was very good. It would have been a lot better with more balance between Ann's private life and career, and if she had found one.

utgard14 Lackluster romantic drama with feminist elements. Basically it's Irene Dunne spouting off about wanting to have her own career and being involved in relationships with douchebags. All of the success she has career wise is ultimately attributed to a man and the film's message seems to be that a woman's happiness only comes from the love of a man, so I really don't see where feminists are supposed to find much to love about this film. The brief middle part of the film dealing with the brutal goings-on at a women's prison are most interesting. They should've made an entire film of that. The rest is forgettable. The cast is fine. No standouts. Edna May Oliver is wasted, which is just criminal.

Neil Doyle ANN VICKERS is a bizarre tear-jerker from the early days of sound movies featuring IRENE DUNNE as a woman who is well-intentioned but makes all the wrong choices in life, including the men she thinks she loves.BRUCE CABOT is her first mistake, a man proclaiming great love for her but abandoning her not long after she bears his child. In a weak supporting role, she treats CONRAD NAGEL as a man she cannot love but values as a friend. He's not too happy about that arrangement.Then comes married man WALTER HUSTON, unhappily married who finds Dunne a refreshing bit of love interest. She has a career that keeps her busy and stands by him when he is accused of mismanaging funds. He's soon imprisoned but she finds a way to get his case some political attention and eventually he is free to marry her.That's about it, all handled in dreary fashion with hardly a note of music on the soundtrack to lift it out of the doldrums when it gets too soggy to bear. As social commentary on conditions in the 1930s and women's issues, it's a failure. Miss Dunne plays a social worker who rises to play an important role in the penal system for females.IRENE DUNNE suffers nobly, but it's a weak vehicle for a strong actress and she can do nothing to give the film a sense of real life struggles. Chalk this one up as a failure, even if it was based on a novel penned by no less than Sinclair Lewis. Evidently, not too much has been retained from his novel.Summing up: Not worth your time. Any film that wastes the talents of EDNA MAY OLIVER as a Duchess has got to make you wonder what they were thinking. It's her dullest role ever.

bkoganbing Essaying the title role in Ann Vickers, Irene Dunne who was never less than noble on screen manages to make a virtuous woman out of someone who has two illegitimate kids. Even in the days before the Code this was pretty heady stuff for Hollywood to be coming out with. Then again, novelist Sinclair Lewis was never anything but controversial in what he gave the American public. In fact his own relationship with newspaper columnist Dorothy Thompson parallels the one that Dunne has with Walter Huston in the film.We first meet Ann as a social worker at a settlement house before World War I where she has eyes for one special doughboy, Bruce Cabot even with lawyer Conrad Nagel panting hot and heavy for her. Cabot proves to be something of a rat and impregnates her, but the child is a stillborn.Ann is a role model feminist, a former suffragette who went to prison for the franchise. She's a career person first and she moves on to various jobs in the penal system, including running a women's prison. She becomes a best selling author and eventually falls in love with married judge Walter Huston with whom she has another child. Then Huston gets himself in a jackpot, but Irene also stands by her man. I've not read the Sinclair Lewis novel, but just viewing the film you could tell an awful lot was left out. Possibly a great deal of this film wound up on the cutting room floor. Edna May Oliver has a fine part as Dunne's mentor, but she's abandoned a third of the way through the film and we don't know what happened.Dunne does well in a role that Katharine Hepburn would have hit a home run with and she does get good support from the rest of the cast. Still this abbreviated version of Sinclair Lewis leaves a lot to be desired.