Directed by:
Robert StevensonScreenplay:
Felix JacksonCinematography:
William H. DanielsComposer:
Frank SkinnerCast:
Charles Boyer, Margaret Sullavan, Richard Carlson, Frank McHugh, Tim Holt, Frank Jenks, Esther Dale, Samuel S. Hinds, Peggy Stewart, Nell O'Day, Nella Walker (more)Plots(1)
This restrained, luminous version of Fannie Hursts oft-filmed saga is easily the best. BACK STREETs success is largely due to the tragic nobility Boyer and Sullavan invest this story of a woman who remains devoted to a married man. In real life, both actors fates had the same elements of sad inevitibility: Boyer and Sullavan died from barbiturate overdoses which were self-inflicted; Boyer in a depression after his wife passed away and Sullavan as a result of her frustration with increasing deafness. Her complicated nature and tempestuous life was chronicled by her daughter in the book Haywire. Sullavans first three husbands were Henry Fonda, William Wyler, and Leland Hayward. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Charles Boyer
France
Best movies:
Gaslight (1944)
How to Steal a Million (1966)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Margaret Sullavan
USA
Best movies:
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Mortal Storm (1940)
Three Comrades (1938)
Richard Carlson
USA
Best movies:
The Little Foxes (1941)
Change of Habit (1969)
All I Desire (1953)
Frank McHugh
USA
Best movies:
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Dodge City (1939)
Tim Holt
USA
Best movies:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Stagecoach (1939)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Frank Jenks
USA
Best movies:
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)
Woman on the Run (1950)
Esther Dale
USA
Best movies:
Fury (1936)
A Song Is Born (1948)
The Awful Truth (1937)
Samuel S. Hinds
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Hellzapoppin' (1941)
Peggy Stewart
USA
Best movies:
All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
The Runaways (2010)
The Way West (1967)
Nell O'Day
USA
Best movies:
King of Jazz (1930)
Nella Walker
USA
Best movies:
Sabrina (1954)
Hellzapoppin' (1941)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Cecil Cunningham
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
It's a Wonderful World (1939)
Monkey Business (1931)
Marjorie Gateson
USA
Best movies:
You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
Anthony Adverse (1936)
Rings on Her Fingers (1942)
Eddie Acuff
USA
Best movies:
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Hellzapoppin' (1941)
The Phantom Creeps (1949) (TV movie) - a.f.
Jack Mulhall
USA
Best movies:
Love Crazy (1941)
It Started with Eve (1941)
Strike Up the Band (1940)
Henry Roquemore
USA
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Strike Up the Band (1940)
Irving Bacon
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Dorothy Adams
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Big Country (1958)
The Killing (1956)
Joseph Crehan
USA
Best movies:
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Love Crazy (1941)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Dan White
USA
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Gone with the Wind (1939)