Craig's Wife (1936) Reviews

After several light comedy roles, Rosalind Russell proved her salt as a dramatic film actress in this 1936 adaptation of George Kelly's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Craig's Wife. Russell plays Harriet Craig, whose obsession with keeping her house and its furnishings spotless has driven away most of her friends. Harriet's husband Walter (John Boles) loves her and will not brook any criticism of her fastidiousness. But even he has a breaking point: this comes when, during a moment of dire crisis, she reveals that she is more concerned with her own well-being than her husband's. Walter declares his independence by smoking a cigarette in Harriet's spotless living room, strewing his ashes all over her nice clean rug, smashing one of her precious vases, and walking out on her. The final image is of Harriet Craig standing alone in her "perfect" house, so benumbed by events that she fails to notice that her armful of roses is leaving a path of petals on her hitherto unsullied floor. Previously filmed in 1928, Craig's Wife was remade in 1950 with Joan Crawford as Harriet Craig. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi