People on Sunday: The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray] Reviews

The glut of reality television choking our airwaves now is pretty overwhelming, but Robert Siodmak and Edgar Ulmer’s People on Sunday must have seemed like a breath of fresh air some eighty years ago. Here we have five real-life people placed in everyday situations with instructions to improvise as themselves, and the result is something rather precious and rare: young men and women behaving normally which means rather caddishly or jealously or playfully as the situation demanded. The film was a big hit, likely because the audiences felt like they were truly seeing themselves reflected on screen without the artificiality of studio settings or melodramatic techniques they had already seen dozens of times. Seen now, the simple narrative isn’t all that interesting (if anything, it reminds us that the more things change, the more they stay the same), but what the filmmakers did with their raw material gives the movie an edge it likely wouldn’t have had otherwise. It’s no wonder so many behind-the-scenes technicians went on to legendary Hollywood careers. 

For the complete review, please go here.