Private Worlds (1935)

About Private Worlds (1935)

Gregory La Cava sensitively navigates the life of the staff and patients of a psychiatric hospital in Private Worlds. The unconventional champion of the talking cure, Dr. Jane Everest (Claudette Colbert), and her partner Alex MacGregor (Joel McCrea) are challenged by the arrival of the new superintendent Dr. Charles Monet (Charles Boyer), who disproves of both Colvert’s methods and her position as a women doctor. Helen Vinson and Joan Bennett connect their lives and Private Worlds spirals into a stunning display of the human psyche.

Private Worlds remains a unique exploration of the psychiatric hospital of the 1930s, partially because of La Cava’s first-hand experience of the atmosphere from receiving treatment for his alcoholism in sanatoriums leading him to work on the script and La Cava’s own personal touch from his interest in psychology and the human condition. La Cava’s own style extends to the visual, which this c. 1958 16mm print showcases beautifully, with La Cava and cinematographer Leon Shamroy’s stunning painting with shadows as the staff and patients of Brentwood Asylum try to hold onto their humanity.

Screening introduced by Gregory La Cava researcher Annabel Jessica Goldsmith.