The greatest movie ever made..!

one of my absolute favorites!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Spencer Tracy is judge Cass Timberlane, in this film adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel. He has carved out a nice little niche for himself and settled into a nice community with a steady girl, played by Margaret Lindsay and has some high society friends. But perhaps he gotten too used to his surroundings. Maybe he isn't as happy as he thinks (he is.) His cases have gotten a little monotonous, when a witness to an elderly lady falling on a city sidewalk is artist/designer Lana Turner, who lives outside of his social circle. She piques his interest with her looks, her youthful perspective on life, and her pictures of him. They form a friendship that leads to marriage, surprising his society friends who were expecting him to marry Chris (Margaret.) Attorney and friend Zachary Scott takes an instant liking to her as well. When she grows tired of trying to fit in and exasperated with her situation, arguing about it with Spencer, she winds up going to New York with Zachary. I don't how faithful this is to the book, but this is an example of how Hollywood would write themselves into a corner or a bad situation and then slap a pat or forced happy ending on it. People argue, can't get along and want their way until the final reel, where they say "we're so happy, let's live happily ever after." The viewers have to be placed in their situation and allowed for the natural feelings to be evolved and addressed for some final good closure. We do have this to a point, but just the same the scene with Lillian (Josephine Hutchinson) talking to Lana and the scene of Spencer and Lana's final confrontation feels a little bit like an afterthought. Being a Lana Turner fan, I may be kinder to this than a lot of others; I have always liked this film on the whole, but also felt the pat ending was a major flaw. Granted, we want them to be together but it somehow rings a little false.

Spencer Tracy is one of my two favorite film actors (the other being Cary Grant). That doesn't mean that I like every Tracy film ("Tortilla Flat" and "Woman Of The Year" being two good examples of Tracy films I didn't particularly like). But I do like two films which were fairly close together time-wise -- "Sea Of Grass" and this film, the former coming just before the latter. In "Sea Of Grass" we were introduced to the new "mature" Tracy, and that is reinforced in the opening courtroom scenes of this film. Clearly, perhaps because of his drinking, Tracy was aging quickly at this point in time. This is a Tracy that I really liked. The several opening scenes, including in his chambers (he's a judge in this film), were very pleasant, and got the film off to a good start.Lana Turner was at her peak of beauty around this time, and a much more assured actress than she had been 6 years earlier when she last co-starred with Tracy in "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde". She seems very natural in this part, in both the good times and the bad. I usually enjoy Turner, although I remember seeing her on an interview show in her later years and being disappointed to find that she didn't seem very bright. The scenes between Tracy and Turner are excellent, with the exception of the death scene (after which she doesn't die) and the reconciliation, both of which are not done very well.It is said that Zachary Scott enjoyed playing scoundrels, the most notorious of which was the "cradle-robber" in "Mildred Pierce". I guess because of his penchant for playing such roles, I never really cared much for him...so much for type-casting. But, in "Pierce" and this film, I have to admit he was excellent.This film also contains one of my favorite scenes, though very brief, and it isn't even involving one of the stars. Josephine Hutchinson, wife of the doctor in this film, breaks down about the truth of her marriage toward the end of the film and throws a glass of champagne in her husband's face. Not sure why, but this is a scene that stuns me every time I see it.There are a number of other very recognizable support players in the film. If you're not paying attention, you might not recognize Mary Astor, who gets little screen time. The most interesting support player was Selena Royale, with whom Tracy had been a frequent costar in his early days in the theatre, and may have had an affair with. There's also a cameo with Walter Pidgeon and excellent cinematography.I know that the ratings here on IMDb are not high for this film, but I find it very watchable, and I'm glad to have it on my DVD shelf.

Cass Timberlane is a surprising piece of work coming from the pen of Sinclair Lewis. Lewis's reputation as American novelist comes from such polemical work as It Can't Happen Here, Main Street, and Elmer Gantry. The novel Cass Timberlane plays more like a Ross Hunter type soap opera.To be sure there are some of the Sinclair Lewis that we know in the class conscious town where Cass Timberlane is a judge. And I certainly can't comment on the book, possibly it was more polemical and political than what we got in the film.Spencer Tracy plays the title role, a judge in an average size midwestern town that has its good and bad, though it seems that how much money you have determines how good you are. Tracy has been a widower for many years and a pretty lonely fellow away from court.But one day in court, young Lana Turner pops up as a witness in a negligence case before the judge. She's from the other side of the tracks so to speak. And there's a considerable age difference. Despite that Tracy and Turner fall in love and are married.At this point the film becomes a soap opera with weak chinned heel Zachary Scott making a big play for Turner who's not happy with the way Tracy's high toned friends are treating her.Tracy's good, he always is and Turner is luminescently beautiful. Scott has the heel role down pat, it's just a carry over from the part he did in Mildred Pierce. Look for a good performance also from Albert Dekker the corrupt leading citizen in the town.This is a film that should have waited a decade and have Ross Hunter produce it.

Spencer Tracy is a hard-nosed small town judge who meets feisty, attractive young Lana Turner in his courtroom one day and finds himself smitten; they date and he soon proposes, but there's an immediate problem: Lana's from the poor side of town and doesn't have the judge's class (she bowls and plays baseball) while all the judge's high society friends mingle at cocktail parties and gossip on the phone. From the way the film is written and directed, we are to assume Lana is really benefiting from this marriage, but she's never as happy as she was in those early scenes of "poverty" and, worse, she never returns to her roots, just goes around in circles finding the judge's money, power and friends a chore. The script is actually rather condescending in its approach to Turner's character; it has been written by people with money who have no idea what the "poor side of town" even looks like, and the filmmakers can't even grasp the fact that Turner (and maybe even judge Tracy) would be much happier away from all the champagne and telephone gossips and get involved in some low-income fun (like bowling!). Instead of focusing on the class-issue, they throw another man in Lana's path, which is the oldest issue in the book. This movie doesn't have any courage, and only the early courting scenes have spark. Tracy and Turner do all they can, but it's a lost cause.