Anthony Adverse **** (1936, Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, Gale Sondergaard, Edmund Gwenn, Claude Rains) – Classic Movie Review 5,732

Gale Sondergaard was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in the 1936 American epic historical drama film Anthony Adverse, starring Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland.

Gale Sondergaard was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in the 1936 American epic historical drama film Anthony Adverse, starring Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland.

Director Mervyn LeRoy’s 1936 Warner Bros film of Hervey Allen’s novel about an early 19th-century hero’s adventures in America, France and Italy is rich, stirring and lavish. It won four Oscars, with three other nominations.

Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland as the handsome hero Anthony Adverse and lovely heroine Angela Guisseppi are upstaged by succulent displays of villainy from Claude Rains (as Marquis Don Luis) and Gale Sondergaard (as the villainous Faith Paleologus), who was the first ever recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut.

The film was much admired at the time and, though age has affected it adversely, it is still hugely entertaining and quite fascinating. There is an outstanding, costly production by Warner Bros, the sets designed by Anton Grot, the black and white cinematography by Tony Gaudio and Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s score to relish. It is a very fine studio achievement of its era.

The screenplay by Sheridan Gibney and Milton Krims (uncredited) is an epic, based on plot elements from eight of the nine books in Hervey Allen’s 1933 historical novel, Anthony Adverse.

Anthony is abandoned at a convent as an infant and comes of age at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, adopted by a wealthy merchant, his grandfather. Anthony believes that his beloved Angela abandoned him without a word, but she left a note blown away by a gust of wind.

The other Oscar winners are Leo F Forbstein (as head of the music department) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (score) for Best Music (Scoring), Italian-born Tony Gaudio [Gaetano Gaudio] for Best Cinematography, and Ralph Dawson for Best Film Editing.

The three other nominations are for Outstanding Production: Warner Bros; Best Assistant Director: William Cannon; and Best Art Direction: Anton Grot.

It premiered in Los Angeles on July 29, 1936, and was released on August 29, 1936 (US).

Anthony Adverse is directed by Mervyn LeRoy and Michael Curtiz (uncredited), runs 141 minutes, and is made and released by Warner Bros Pictures. The screenplay is by Sheridan Gibney and Milton Krims (uncredited), based on the 1933 novel by Hervey Allen. The film is shot in black and white by Tony Gaudio, is produced by Jack L Warner (executive producer (uncredited), Hal B Wallis (executive producer (uncredited), and Henry Blanke (supervising producer (uncredited), and the sets are designed by Anton Grot.

Also in the cast are Anita Louise, Louis Hayward, Steffi Duna, Billy Mauch, Donald Woods, Akim Tamiroff, Ralph Morgan, Henry O’Neill, Pedro De Corboba, George E Stone, Luis Alberni, Fritz Leiber, George Creehan, Rafaela Ottiano and Scotty Beckett.

The film was Warner Bros’ most expensive 1936 production but also its most popular. On a $1,192,000, it took $2,750,000 at the worldwide box office.

Olivia de Havilland turned 100 on 1 July 2016 and died in 2020 at the age of 104.

Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm Sondergaard; February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985) 

Gale Sondergaard’s film career was destroyed by Hollywood’s Communist witch hunt. She supported her husband, director Herbert Biberman, when he was accused of communism and imprisoned as one of the Hollywood Ten in the early 1950s. For me, she is a heroine.

The cast

The cast are Fredric March as Anthony Adverse, Olivia de Havilland as Angela Guisseppi, Donald Woods as Vincent Nolte, Anita Louise as Maria, Edmund Gwenn as John Bonnyfeather, Claude Rains as Marquis Don Luis, Rollo Lloyd as Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis Hayward as Denis Moore, Gale Sondergaard as Faith Paleologus, Steffi Duna as Neleta, Billy Mauch as Anthony Adverse (age 10), Akim Tamiroff as Carlo Cibo, Ralph Morgan as Debrulle, Henry O’Neill as Father Xavier, Pedro de Cordoba as Brother François, Alma Lloyd as Florence Udney (as an adult), Marilyn Knowlden as Florence Udney (as a child), Anne Howard as Angela as a child.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,732

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