Our Town (1940)
In the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover's Corners, neighbors George Gibbs and Emily Webb grow up, fall in love, and marry, until Emily's brush with death during childbirth lets her glimpse the town's quiet rhythms from beyond life itself.
Adapted from Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town softened the stage version’s bleaker ending at the studio’s insistence, restoring Emily to life rather than leaving her among the dead — a change Wilder himself approved for the screen.
Background
Our Town adapts Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play, following neighbors George Gibbs and Emily Webb as they grow up, fall in love, and marry in the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners, until a medical crisis during Emily’s childbirth lets her glimpse the town’s quiet daily rhythms from beyond life itself. The play’s original ending is considerably bleaker than what reaches the screen here.
What to watch for
Watch for how the film softens that ending at the studio’s insistence, restoring Emily to life rather than leaving her among the dead as the original stage version does, a significant change that Wilder himself reportedly approved specifically for the film adaptation. It is worth considering how that single structural change affects the story’s meaning, since the play’s power on stage depends heavily on the audience sitting with the full weight of loss that the film adaptation ultimately chooses to avoid.
