Arrowsmith [original theatrical release]. 1931. USA. Directed by John Ford. Screenplay by Sidney Howard. With Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard Bennett, Clarence Brooks, Myrna Loy. World premiere. 101 min.
To Save and Project presents the world premiere of John Ford’s Arrowsmith in its original theatrical release, newly restored by The Library of Congress from a nitrate print owned by the film’s star, Ronald Colman, that’s 10 minutes longer than subsequent versions. Based on Sinclair Lewis’ 1925 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a pioneering medical researcher on a quest to find the cure for bubonic plague—a journey that leads him to stray far from his rural Minnesota home, to an island in the West Indies and an affair with a married woman (Myrna Loy)--John Ford’s adaptation was a critical success, earning 4 Oscar nominations including Best Picture. And while a thematic departure from his silent Westerns like The Iron Horse, Four Sons, and Three Bad Men, Arrowsmith does have the hallmarks of a Ford picture in its concern for what Peter Bogdanovich described as “the burden of duty, tradition, honor and family,” as well as its unusually ennobling portrait of a Black American, the Harvard-educated doctor played by Clarence Brooks.
4K digital restoration by the Library of Congress and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.