Why the 1940 film adaptation of Our Town fundamentally changed its tragic ending

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Thornton Wilder’s celebrated play Our Town is defined by its somber meditation on mortality. Yet, when adapted for the screen in 1940, the narrative took a sharp turn. Producer Sol Lesser and Wilder collaborated to ensure the protagonist survived, transforming a profound theatrical tragedy into a hopeful, dream-based cinematic resolution.

The 1940 film adaptation, directed by Sam Wood, brought the small-town life of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, to the screen with notable deviations from the 1938 stage original. While the play relied on minimal staging, the film introduced physical scenery to ground the story in a more concrete reality. This shift in medium prompted a significant thematic adjustment regarding the fate of the lead character, Emily Webb, played by Martha Scott.

In the original theatrical production, Emily’s death serves as a central, poignant pillar of the allegory. However, Wilder argued that the intimacy of the camera lens changed the audience's relationship with the characters. He believed that because film viewers see actors so closely, the characters cease to be abstract figures and become tangible people. Consequently, he felt that witnessing Emily’s death on screen would feel disproportionately cruel. To mitigate this, the film’s third act reveals that her brush with death is merely a dream, allowing her to recover and continue her life.

This creative choice was not merely a casual edit; it was a deliberate attempt to translate the play’s transcendental qualities into a new visual language. Composer Aaron Copland, who scored the film, sought to mirror this sense of security and serenity through clear, straightforward musical arrangements. His score, which he later adapted into a suite dedicated to Leonard Bernstein, aimed to project the peaceful harmony of the town. The altered ending was even adopted by the Lux Radio Theater adaptation on May 6, 1940, cementing this version of the story in the public consciousness of the era.

The film’s legacy is as much about its legal status as its narrative. Because the copyright was not renewed following the expiration of its initial term in 1968, the 1940 production entered the public domain. Today, this unique collaboration between Wilder, Lesser, and Wood remains a fascinating study in how the transition from stage to screen can fundamentally reshape the emotional stakes of a classic story.

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