In 1990, Dodsworth was chosen by the National Film Preservation Board to be preserved in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

In 2005, Time named Dodsworth one of the 100 best movies of the previous 80 years.

THE CRITICS CORNER

"It would have been an inexcusable accident had Walter Huston's Dodsworth not been fine, but there hasn't been any accident and the Huston Dodsworth should please people who saw the play and people who didn't." The New Yorker, 1936.

"Walter Huston...gives a performance that makes you forget acting." – Archer Winston.

"It is so far above the common run of films that it is likely to make anyone who sees it impatient with the ordinary cinema product for months after." – Journalist Edward Carberry.

"Dodsworth remains, through the years, a man we can understand and believe and respect. Mr. Huston deserves most of the credit for that by treating the character as it deserves: with sympathy, humor, delicacy, irony, crudity, all in their turn. It must be a studied characterization, but we are never permitted to feel that, for Mr. Huston so snugly fits the part we cannot tell where the garment ends and he begins." – Frank Nugent, New York Times, September 24, 1936.

"...produced by Sam Goldwyn with great care and taste...There's only one problem, really, but it's central: Sidney Howard also did the screenplay, and the movie follows the stage version too closely. It looks programmed and underpopulated, though in an elegantly stylized way." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies.

"Huston is superb as the plainspoken Midwestern businessman whose blissful world falls apart. The film remains the most emotionally compelling of Wyler's career." – Elliott Stein, The Village Voice, September 11-17, 2002

"...Dodsworth is a Wyler film: a sober, shrewd adaptation...level, fair, and very well acted." - David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film.

"No one, I think, will fail to enjoy it, in spite of its too limited and personal plot, the sense it leaves behind of a very expensive, very contemporary Bond Street vacuum flash." - Graham Greene.

"...a superb motion picture and a golden borealis over the producer's name...Picture has a steady flow and an even dramatic wallop from zippy start to satisfying finish...It is also obvious that this is Ruth Chatterton's fanciest opportunity on the screen in a long while. Fran Dodsworth is a silly, vain, selfish, shallow kitten and in the playing of Chatterton comes to life with vividness and humanity." - Variety Movie Guide.

"Satisfying, well-acted drama from a bestselling novel, production values high." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide.

"An offering of dignity and compelling power to provide you with a treat you can rarely experience in a picture house." - Hollywood Spectator.

"Dodsworth is the type of film you rarely see: a drama about adults and geared toward adults that doesn't pander to a lowest common denominator or insult the intelligence of its audience. It does not feel the need to gloss over the hard truths of the subject matter, but tells us the story straight, without sentiment. In a lot of ways it's similar to Closer (2004) and Scenes from a Marriage (1973) in its handling of sensitive issues such as estrangement and reconciliation. It perhaps isn't the most original of stories, and for that we can blame humanity more than a group of filmmakers. Happily married people get divorced all the time. But sometimes they are better off for it." - 100 Films, http://lmcnelly15.blogspot.com/2005/11/100-films-dodsworth.html

"The only Oscar® it won was for Art Direction, which it deserved. But the most criminally non-awarded nomination the film garnered was Huston's Best Actor turn. Huston's flawless performance as Sam Dodsworth is the film's greatest joy. When Huston pores over a sea captain's map, then drags Fran off the dance floor to see a lighthouse off the coast of England, your heart goes out to this middle-aged man who still takes a boyish delight in the world around him. Likewise, when he withstands Fran's veiled insults in front of her friends, or tries to wait out her midlife crisis, you can sense his pain all too well. It's not so much a performance as it is a perfect habitation of a character, and it should have been rewarded by Hollywood." - Catherine Catieri, Apollo Movie Guide.

"Superb adaptation of Sinclair Lewis novel about middle-aged American industrialist who retires, goes to Europe, where he and his wife find differing sets of values and new relationships...intelligently written...beautifully filmed, extremely well acted..." - Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide.

AWARDS AND HONORS

Dodsworth received seven Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor (Huston), Supporting Actress (Maria Ouspenskaya), Sound Recording, and Art Direction for Richard Day, who won in his category.

Walter Huston won the New York Film Critics Circle Best Actor Award.

Compiled by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford