| Winterset | |
|---|---|
.jpg) DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Alfred Santell |
| Screenplay by | Anthony Veiller |
| Based on | Winterset byMaxwell Anderson |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Starring | Burgess Meredith Margo Eduardo Ciannelli John Carradine Edward Ellis |
| Cinematography | J. Peverell Marley |
| Edited by | William Hamilton |
| Music by | Nathaniel Shilkret(uncredited) |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 77 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $407,000[2] |
| Box office | $682,000[2] |
Winterset is a 1936 Americancrime film directed byAlfred Santell, based on the 1935play of the same name byMaxwell Anderson, in a loose dramatization of theSacco and Vanzetti trial and execution in 1928. The script retains elements of theblank verse poetic meter on which Anderson based his 1935WintersetBroadway theater production.[3]
ActorBurgess Meredith made his credited film debut as the avenging son Mio Romagna.[4]
The film greatly changes the ending of the play, in which the lovers Mio and Miriamne are shot to death by gangsters. In the film, the two are cornered, but Mio deliberately causes a commotion by loudly playing a nearby abandonedhurdy-gurdy and deliberately causing himself and Miriamne to be arrested, thus placing them out of reach from the gangsters. The film made a loss of $2,000.[2]
Writing forThe Spectator in 1937,Graham Greene gave the film a good review, noting that "this play (in the original it was in blank verse) has [...] solid merits". Despite its genre, Greene commented that "there are situations [...] which have more intensity than mere 'thriller' stuff". He praised the "evil magnificence" of Ciannelli's acting as Trock, pointing out that "here, as in all good plays, it is in the acts themselves, as much as in the dialogue, that the poetic idea is expressed."[5]
The film was nominated for twoAcademy Awards, one forBest Art Direction byPerry Ferguson and the other forOriginal Score byNathaniel Shilkret.[6][7]
