King Vidor - Street Scene [1931]

Approximately 24 hours--from late afternoon one day to late afternoon the next day--in the lives of a group of residents of an apartment building in a working-class inner-city New York City neighborhood during a heatwave is presented. The interaction of the residents takes place largely on the building's front stoop, those on the stoop speaking to some other residents through their windows facing the street, and others, residents or not, as they walk by on the sidewalk. Beyond dealing with the heat, they talk--really banter and gossip led by middle-aged Emma Jones--about, among other things, race relations as most of the residents are from a different ethnic background from the other building's households; petite Mrs. Buchanan imminently giving birth; the likely passing of aged Mrs. Cushing, who has always been tended by her spinster daughter; and Miss Laura Hildebrand squandering her child-welfare money on frivolous items instead of necessities for her two children. But most of the gossip is focused on the Maurrant household: husband and wife Frank and Anna, their young-adult daughter Rose, and their adolescent son Willie. Most specifically, the building's worst-kept secret is that lonely Anna Maurrant has been entertaining the unassuming but married Steve Sankey, the dairy-bill collector, in the Maurrant apartment while gruff stagehand Frank is not at home. What happens with her parents profoundly affects Rose's own love life. Working in a real estate office, Rose is slyly but still overtly being pursued by her married boss, Bert Easter, and constantly being groped by Mrs. Jones' brutish son Vincent. Although largely unspoken, Rose and quiet Sam Kaplan, of the Jewish family in the building, are in love, but his sister pressures Rose not to interfere with his studies as he is their family's promise of the American dream.