Screen tests for actors and actresses usually are a make or break proposition for those receiving-or rejected from movie roles. Martha Scott, who never was in film, felt her Broadway performance as Emily Webb, a key character in Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning 1938 play, gave her the inside track in May 1940's "Our Town," an Academy Award nominated Best Picture. How wrong she was.
Scott, 30, had screen tested poorly the previous year when she was auditioning for the role of Melanie in "Gone With The Wind," a part Olivia de Havilland eventually got. Casting directors were aware popular stage actors sometimes don't translate well on to the big screen. Producer Sol Lessor laboriously conducted auditions with a number of actresses, both famous and not so famous. Ultimately, though, frustrated on finding the perfect person to play Emily, he selected Scott despite a mediocre previous screen test. In hindsight, it proved to be the correct choice since in her movie debut Scott earned an Academy Awards nomination for Best Actress, a rare feat for a Hollywood first timer.
Located in fictitious Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, "Our Town" was fortunate to have set designer William Menzies, an Honorary Oscar recipient for his work on 1939's "Gone With The Wind," in charge of the look of the village complete with quaint rail fences and homey interiors to reflect its residents' inward comforts while outside their experiences with others were just the opposite.
"Our Town," set in the year 1901, showed according to film reviewer Glenn Erickson, a "combination of nostalgia and wisdom from beyond the grave which addresses the issue of temporality and the fleeting joys of day-to-day life." The film reflects a number of residents undergoing their own personal dramas, especially young George Gibbs (William Holden) and Emily Webb (Martha Scott), and their relationship with their families. George and Emily end up marrying a week after high school graduation, and enter the world of the Grover's Corners' daily routine.
Playwright Wilder, with the help of Frank Craven, who played the 'stage manager' in both the play and the film, and Harry Chandlee, an Oscar nominee for co-writing 1941's "Sergeant York," adapted his play to Hollywood standards. This ranged from realistic sets (his play's staging was spare) to changing the ending to be more upbeat. Emily returns from the dead after experiencing a fatal childbirth where she learns a valuable lesson: she sees the living scurrying through their busy daily routine without stopping and appreciating the treasures life has to offer and their failure to connect with people close to them. She asks the Stage Manager if anyone truly understands the value of life. He hedges his response by saying, "No. The saints and the poets, maybe-they do some."
The Jamesport, Missouri-native Martha Scott, whose mother was the second cousin to President William McKinley, earned a bachelor's degree in drama at the University of Michigan. After several summer stock plays and radio dramas, Scott received her first Broadway role in 1938's "Our Town." After her Oscar nomination, Scott remained busy in Hollywood, most notably as the mother of actor Charlton Heston's characters in 1956's "The Ten Commandments" and 1959 "Ben-Hur." On television she was the mother of Bob Newhart on his show as well as Sue Ellen and Kristin's mother on 'Dallas.' She always remembered her hometown cemetery in Jamesport, Missouri that inspired her in the final act of "Our Town." She told her son, "she used that place as her image because it's so serene and beautiful." Scott is buried at her native Jamesport's Masonic Cemetery, dying in 2003 at 90.
Besides the Academy Awards Best Picture and Scott's nominations, "Our Town" saw composer Aaron Copland nominated for his Best Musical Score and Thomas Moulton for Best Sound.
Scott, 30, had screen tested poorly the previous year when she was auditioning for the role of Melanie in "Gone With The Wind," a part Olivia de Havilland eventually got. Casting directors were aware popular stage actors sometimes don't translate well on to the big screen. Producer Sol Lessor laboriously conducted auditions with a number of actresses, both famous and not so famous. Ultimately, though, frustrated on finding the perfect person to play Emily, he selected Scott despite a mediocre previous screen test. In hindsight, it proved to be the correct choice since in her movie debut Scott earned an Academy Awards nomination for Best Actress, a rare feat for a Hollywood first timer.
Located in fictitious Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, "Our Town" was fortunate to have set designer William Menzies, an Honorary Oscar recipient for his work on 1939's "Gone With The Wind," in charge of the look of the village complete with quaint rail fences and homey interiors to reflect its residents' inward comforts while outside their experiences with others were just the opposite.
"Our Town," set in the year 1901, showed according to film reviewer Glenn Erickson, a "combination of nostalgia and wisdom from beyond the grave which addresses the issue of temporality and the fleeting joys of day-to-day life." The film reflects a number of residents undergoing their own personal dramas, especially young George Gibbs (William Holden) and Emily Webb (Martha Scott), and their relationship with their families. George and Emily end up marrying a week after high school graduation, and enter the world of the Grover's Corners' daily routine.
Playwright Wilder, with the help of Frank Craven, who played the 'stage manager' in both the play and the film, and Harry Chandlee, an Oscar nominee for co-writing 1941's "Sergeant York," adapted his play to Hollywood standards. This ranged from realistic sets (his play's staging was spare) to changing the ending to be more upbeat. Emily returns from the dead after experiencing a fatal childbirth where she learns a valuable lesson: she sees the living scurrying through their busy daily routine without stopping and appreciating the treasures life has to offer and their failure to connect with people close to them. She asks the Stage Manager if anyone truly understands the value of life. He hedges his response by saying, "No. The saints and the poets, maybe-they do some."
The Jamesport, Missouri-native Martha Scott, whose mother was the second cousin to President William McKinley, earned a bachelor's degree in drama at the University of Michigan. After several summer stock plays and radio dramas, Scott received her first Broadway role in 1938's "Our Town." After her Oscar nomination, Scott remained busy in Hollywood, most notably as the mother of actor Charlton Heston's characters in 1956's "The Ten Commandments" and 1959 "Ben-Hur." On television she was the mother of Bob Newhart on his show as well as Sue Ellen and Kristin's mother on 'Dallas.' She always remembered her hometown cemetery in Jamesport, Missouri that inspired her in the final act of "Our Town." She told her son, "she used that place as her image because it's so serene and beautiful." Scott is buried at her native Jamesport's Masonic Cemetery, dying in 2003 at 90.
Besides the Academy Awards Best Picture and Scott's nominations, "Our Town" saw composer Aaron Copland nominated for his Best Musical Score and Thomas Moulton for Best Sound.