Our Daily Bread
Der letzte Alarm![](/media/filmstills/2020/retrospektive-2020/202002552_1_RWD_1380.jpg)
Source: akg-images/Album, © Lobster Films
![](/media/filmstills/2020/retrospektive-2020/202002552_1_RWD_1380.jpg)
Henry Hall, Tom Keene, Karen Morley (middle)
Our Daily Bread | Der letzte Alarm by King Vidor
USA 1934, Retrospective
Source: akg-images/Album, © Lobster Films
![](/media/filmstills/2020/retrospektive-2020/202002552_2_RWD_1380.jpg)
Barbara Pepper, Tom Keene
Our Daily Bread | Der letzte Alarm by King Vidor
USA 1934, Retrospective
Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, © Lobster Films
![](/media/filmstills/2020/retrospektive-2020/202002552_3_RWD_1380.jpg)
Karen Morley
Our Daily Bread | Der letzte Alarm by King Vidor
USA 1934, Retrospective
Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, © Lobster Films
![](/media/filmstills/2020/retrospektive-2020/202011043_7_ORG.jpg)
King Vidor
Our Daily Bread | Der letzte Alarm by King Vidor
USA 1934, Retrospective
Source: Sammlung Cinémathèque suisse. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
“Back to the land!” To escape the massive urban unemployment of the Depression, John Sims and his wife Mary take President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s exhortation to heart and take over an uncle’s run-down farm. But it soon becomes clear that the two city-dwellers have taken on more than they can handle. When a landless farmer pitches in, John decides to gather more unemployed into the collective. Soon the arcadian farm is filled with tradesmen, farmers, and their families. Together, they fend off foreclosure and speculators. Until a drought threatens to destroy the harvest … King Vidor made one of the first films of the New Deal era with the intention of contrasting the glamour of Hollywood with the harsh realities of American life. In reference to real institutions such as Texas’ Woodlake Community, he created a conservative social utopia in the form of a collective based on faith and a barter economy. Denounced sometimes as communist, sometimes as fascist, Our Daily Bread glorifies, above all, the American work ethic. In the lyrical tradition of poet Walt Whitman, Vidor celebrates the power of the human body, on full display in the rhythmic choreography of the final scenes.
With
- Karen Morley
- Tom Keene
- Barbara Pepper
- Addison Richards
- John Qualen
- Lloyd Ingraham
- Sidney Bracy
- Henry Hall
- Nellie V. Nichols
- Frank Minor
Crew
Director | King Vidor |
Screenplay | Elizabeth Hill |
Dialogue | Mortimer Offner, Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
Story | King Vidor |
Cinematography | Robert Planck |
Editing | Lloyd Nosler |
Sound | Vinton Vernon |
Assistant Director | Ralph Slosser |
Produced by
Viking Productions, Inc.
Additional information
DCP: Lobster Films, Paris