Our Town (1940 film)

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Our Town
Directed by	Sam Wood
Screenplay by	Harry Chandlee Frank Craven Thornton Wilder
Based on	Our Town (1938 play) by Thornton Wilder
Produced by	Sol Lesser
Starring	William Holden Martha Scott Fay Bainter
Cinematography	Bert Glennon
Edited by	Sherman Todd
Music by	Aaron Copland
Production company	Sol Lesser Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	May 24, 1940 (1940-05-24) (United States)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1 million (approx)[1]

Our Town is a 1940 American drama romance film adaptation of the 1938 play of the same name by Thornton Wilder, starring Martha Scott as Emily Webb, and William Holden as George Gibbs. The cast also included Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee and Frank Craven. It was adapted by Harry Chandlee, Craven and Wilder, and directed by Sam Wood.

The film was a faithful reproduction of the play except for two significant changes: the film used scenery, whereas the play had not; the events of the third act, which in the play revolve around the death of one of the main characters, were turned into a dream from which she awakens, allowing her to resume a normal life. Producer Sol Lesser worked with Wilder in creating these changes. Wilder wrote Lesser that "Emily should live.... In a movie you see the people so close to that a distant relation is established. In the theater they are halfway abstractions in an allegory; in the movie they are very concrete.... [I]t’s even disproportionately cruel that she die. Let her live...."^[2]

A radio adaptation of the film on Lux Radio Theater on May 6, 1940, used the altered film ending.

The U.S. copyright of the film was not renewed after its first term expired in 1968.^{[citation needed]}