The Barretts of Wimpole Street is a 1934 American film directed by Sidney Franklin depicting the real-life romance between poets Elizabeth Barrett (Norma Shearer) and Robert Browning (Fredric March), despite the opposition of her abusive father Edward Moulton-Barrett (Charles Laughton). The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Shearer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. It was written by Ernest Vajda, Claudine West and Donald Ogden Stewart, from the successful 1930 play "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" by Rudolf Besier, and starring Katharine Cornell.