Anthony Adverse

The novel Anthony Adverse is well over 1,200 pages long. It is therefore no surprise that an adaptation of this work would come across as abrupt and lacking in the details needed to make this story cohesive and the motivations of the characters solid. At nearly two and a half hours long, this film feels every minute of that runtime because the details and the mtivations have been stripped away in an attempt to rein this behemoth of a novel into a single film. This kind of massive story needed more time than it is given to properly portray it. Lacking that, it should have been retooled to fit into the shorter structure. 

The novel, by Hervey Allen, was first published in 1933 to glowing reviews, topping the Publishers Weekly best-selling list for two straight years. It follows the life of the protagonist through many adventures throughout his life all the way through to his eventual incarceration and death in Mexico. There is so much territory to cover in this novel that it would seem impossible to make it into a film. In present days, this would either be adapted into a multi-part franchise or a limited-run streaming event, giving the story many hours to flesh out everything and present a satisfying viewing experience. 

That wasn’t really something being done in the 1930s, and thus when a film was commissioned, so much of what made the novel great was either cut completely or relegated to brief moments, bits of dialogue, or text on screen in an attempt to bridge scenes together. None of these methods are ideal, and the final result is a choppy narrative that poorly explains what is happening from scene to scene, with viewers either expected to have read the novel beforehand or try to keep up with the film on its own terms. A film shouldn’t require its audience to do homework before seeing it. It is ultimately up to the screenwriter to find a way to adequately get this information across. It’s telling that, even though this film was nominated for several Academy Awards, no nominations were for the screenplay. Director Mervyn LeRoy, who had several Oscar nominations already, was also left off the nominations list this year. Looking at what this movie did get nominated for, most are for technological achievements, which, to be fair, are top-notch for a film of this era. 

In the film, we are at once introduced to Maria Bonnyfeather (Anita Louise) and her new husband, the middle-aged Spanish Marquis Don Luis. Don Luis has not been able to consummate his marriage to Maria because of an attack of gout that had left him unable to walk. He arranges to be taken to a famous spa for treatment, leaving Maria behind. Maria’s true love, Denis Moore (Louis Haward), follows the two and, once Don Luis is gone, reconnects with her. When Don Luis returns, he discovers that Maria is pregnant and challenges Denis to a sword fight, killing the young man. He then takes her away to the Italian Alps, where she dies in childbirth. Uninterested in the child, he leaves the infant boy at a nearby convent and tells Maria’s father that she and the child died and are buried in the Alps.

Ten years later, the abandoned boy, christened Anthony (Billy Maurch, later played by Fredric March), is growing too old to stay at the convent where only girls are supposed to be in attendance. Anthony is sent to apprentice with wealthy merchant John Bonnyfeather, father of Maria. Upon seeing the boy, though, John realizes that this is his grandson and that Don Luis lied to him about the child’s death. He elects to keep the truth from Anthony lest the truth brand him as illegitimate. He gives the boy the last name of Adverse, acknowledging the hard life the boy has and will have, and raises him to be a shrewd businessman and a good person. 

Meanwhile, Anthony meets and falls in love with the young daughter of the cook, Angela Guisseppi (Anne Howard, later played by Olivia de Havilland), who dreams of being a great singer. But when Angela’s father wins the lottery, he relocates the family, separating the two. Much of the rest of the movie is these two lovebirds finding each other, getting separated again, and finding each other again. A misunderstanding at one point ends with Anthony traveling first to Havana, then to Africa where he loses himself and becomes a hardened slave trader. Eventually, through tragedy, he returns home and is one last time reunited with Angela. But this reunion is brief and it seems their union is not to be. 

The 1994 Best Picture winner Forrest Gump owes some of its structure and themes to Anthony Adverse. It was a source of disdain from author Winston Groom who felt the increased focus on Forrest finding Jenny again and again, ending with her gone and him taking custody of her son, undermined his intent. The screenwriters of Forrest Gump must have been thinking of Anthony Adverse as they wrote Forrest Gump because so much of the plotting follows the same beats. The only thing missing is Forrest turning into an absolute monster while becoming a slave trader. 

That plot point is a major problem in Anthony Adverse. It’s in the novel, too, but what leads him down this path in the film is poorly developed. Likewise, when he returns home and is suddenly righteous again, it feels unearned. Fredric March is a great actor, and he sells both the good and the bad side of Anthony, but the greatest actor in the world cannot overcome an underdeveloped character motive. The changes in character are abrupt and poorly fleshed out. We get the gist of why it happens but not enough to make it a believable change. 

The film feels unfinished, too. The ending is far from satisfying and feels like it should say Intermission instead of The End. There is nothing in that final moment that signifies that this is the end of the story. Perhaps the filmmakers were planning a follow-up film, but nothing in my research suggests that that is the case. The book continues on beyond this, ending with the tragic death of Anthony. It also includes many more romantic affairs throughout than just Angela. She is hardly the love of his life like she appears in the film. Olivia de Havilland is star-billed, but she only pops in and out of the story for a few minutes at a time. Like Fredric, she is outstanding in this but doesn’t really have a character to work with. Her final moments feel unearned, head-scratching, and overall disappointing. We don’t even get a final moment between her and Anthony to give us some real closure. 

Anthony Adverse feels like a movie that received its Oscar nominations based on technical achievement and not for being an overall good picture. All the right elements are there, but they just don’t line up properly to make for a compelling film. The usually great Claude Rains is miscast in this, too, hamming things up rather than creating a sufficiently menacing villain. Sometimes a book is just too complex to adequately make into a single film, especially when pared down as much as this is. Novels such as Gone With the Wind and War and Peace were given three hours or more of screen time to better represent the written word. This film is just too cut to pieces to work as a film and makes for an overall frustrating viewing experience. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Outstanding Production: Warner Bros.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Gale Sondergaard (won)

Best Cinematography: Gaetano Gaudio (won)

Best Film Editing: Ralph Dawson (won)

Best Music (Scoring): Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Leo F. Forbstein, and the Warner Bros. Studio Music Department (won)

Best Art Direction: Anton Grot

Best Assistant Director: William Cannon

____________________________________________________

Release Date: August 29, 1936

Running Time: 141 minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, and Gale Sondergaard

Directed By: Mervyn LeRoy