Anthony Adverse (Warner Bros.) (1936)

PUBLICITY Hervey Allen Likes Script Of ‘Anthony Adverse’ Famous writers are notoriously hard to please. Theodore Dreiser threatened law suits when he saw the film version of “An American Tragedy.” Ernest Hemingway refused to see the picture “Farewell To Arms.” Bernard Shaw howled at the mention of motion pictures unless they were newsreels of himself, So when Warner Bros. made the bulky best selling novel, “Anthony Adverse,” into a pieture, which comes to the Theatre on , the world wondered what the author, Hervey Allen, would think of it. Now it seems the impossible has been attained. A motion pieture studio has pleased a novelist. News that Allen had placed his stamp of approval on the script of “Anthony Adverse” was brought to Warner Bros. by Sheridan Gibney, who wrote the script. “Both Allen and his publisher were immensely pleased with what we had done with the novel,” Gibney told Warner Bros., executives. “They were enthusiastie about the script and said they believed it would make a great picture. Allen said we had lost nothing of the flavor of his work, nothing of its strength.” Allen’s reaction to the seript of the novel he took four years to write, came as a surprise to Hollywood. It was remembered that when the book was _purchased by Warner Bros., he refused to go to Hollywood to write the sereen play. At that time he expressed the belief that no one in the world could make a motion picture from the novel. “IT was dubious as to what Allen would say about the script,” said Gibney. “Seldom is an artist pleased with what another man has done with his work. Allen, like all novelists, considered the book a part of his being. To change the basic conception would have been to attack the man himself. I think, when I gave him the seript, that he rather expected his whole story would be changed. I hadn’t changed it.” In Finest Role 5 : As ‘‘ Anthony Adverse,’’ in the Warner Bros. production of that name coming nezt ..... ; to the a Theatre, Fredric March reaches the peak of his noted career as a film star. The picture takes two and one-quarter hours to show. Mat No. 116—1l0c * Page Thirty-eight Here is one of the gripping scenes from Warner Bros.’ production of ‘* Anthony Adverse’’ which is coming to the ......... Sees Theatre on Pe re ee Claude Rains (right) as Don Luis, the domineering Spanish grandee battles Louis Hayward (left) for the love of Anita Louise, who plays the role of Maria, mother of Anthony Adverse. Fredric March has the title part of this film based on the Hervey Allen’s novel of world-wide adventure and tumultous thrills. Mat No. 201—20c 612 Persons Try Movie Tests For ‘Anthony Adverse’ The most difficult picture to cast in all the history of Hollywood was “Anthony Adverse,” the Warner Bros. production which comes to the ................... Theatre on .................., Six hundred and twelve players were given photographie and dialogue tests. Another 109 players were considered for various roles and discarded for one reason or another. Mervyn LeRoy, who directed the picture realized at the outset that casting would be one of the biggest problems that the 450,000 word novel presented. There are 98 speaking parts, every one of which is highly significant to the story. Peasants, courtiers, professional men, actors, singers, soldiers, sea captains, clerks, clerics, men and women in every walk of life, form this highly diversified cast of characters. The nationalities are just as diverse. French, English, Italian, Afriean, Arabian, Spanish, Cuban and Seotch are represented, not as atmosphere, but with speaking parts. The amount of film required for the extensive testing operations that preceded the announcement of the “Anthony Adverse” cast was 12,000 feet. More than enough for a 12-reel feature picture. “Anthony Adverse” is a dynamic production, filmed on a eblossal scale from the famous novel by Hervey Allen. Fredric March has the stellar role while others in the cast include Olivia de Havilland, Edmund Gwenn, Claude Rains, Anita Louise, Louis Hayward, Gale Sondergaard, Billy Mauch, Donald Woods, and Henry O’Neill. The screen play is by Sheridan Gibney while opera sequences were staged by Natale Carossio. 206 Wanted To Play Napoleon In ‘Anthony Adverse’ Two hundred and six persons wanted to play Napoleon in “Anthony Adverse,” the Warner Bros. picture which comes to tha. Theatre on ............ : Sixty-seven were professional actors, sixty-one were college or dramatic students, seventy-eight had never been on any stage, but had the Napoleonic mania. The man who won the role never asked for it. The director who is making “Anthony” for Warner Bros. which comes to the theatre on SeAs ah caesss , Sent for him. Director Mervyn LeRoy remembered him in a sketch at the Belasco Theatre. It was ealled “Napoleon’s Barber.” His name is Rollo Lloyd. After he made a test for the screen role, the 206 applicants were doomed to disappointment. Height, build, facial contours, everything was-just like Napoleon. Rollo Lloyd has been a prominent figure in the American theatre for years. Lloyd has always been an avid reader of Napoleonic literature. He knows the character thoroughly, “I don’t believe,” said Lloyd, “that Napoleon ever put his hand into his coat. In the hundred or more books on Napoleon that I have read, there has never appeared anything authentic to indicate he did.” “Anthony Adverse,” is a dynamic drama produced on a gigantic scale from the novel by Hervey Allen. Fredric March has the stellar role while others in the cast include Olivia de Havilland, Edmund Gwenn, Claude Rains, Anita Louise, Gale Sondergaard, Steffi Duna, Donald Woods and Henry O’Neill. The picture was directed by Mervyn LeRoy from the screen play by Sheridan Gibney. F vedric March Is A Full Star In Latest Film An important featured player and co-star for many years, Fredric March emerges as a full fledged star in the Warner Bros. production of “Anthony Adverse,” which comes to the ..... so nee “Without being superstitious about it,” said March, “it seems significant that my first starring role should so closely parallel the first role that gave me my ‘break’ on the stage. “It was the title role of ‘Experience,’ a play by George Hobart. It was the sort of part that ran through the entire fabric of the play. He influenced whatever happened to the other characters. He motivated the flow of the lives around him. He remained more or less the same, while every life that touched his, changed. “‘Anthony Adverse’ is similar in all these respects. The only difference in the two roles, if there is a difference, is that ‘Experience’ was allegorical, while ‘Anthony’ is of the earth, earthly. “I have always believed that actors gravitate toward certain types of parts. It is not because of casting entirely, but because there are certain things to which an actor reacts so definitely that the role is part of his own personality.” Heralded as the most colorful figure ever to be screened, “Anthony Adverse” is considered by Fredric March the one character he has ever played that gives such wide range to his talents. “Anthony Adverse” is a mammoth production based on the popular novel by Hervey Allen. Besides March, the cast includes Olivia de Havilland, Edmund Gwenn, Claude Rains, Anita Louise, Louis Hayward, Gale Sondergaard, Steffi Duna, Billy Mauch, Donald Woods and Henry’ O’Neill. Mervyn LeRoy directed. Sings In Film One of the highlights of Warner Bros.’ filmization of ‘‘ Anthony Adverse’’ coming to the... EROGUE OR ooo... ccsn.es.:.. , ts the remarkable performance of Olivia de Havilland as the woman beloved of Anthony Adverse, which role is played by Fredric March. Miss de Havilland not only does remarkable work in her romantic role, but displays a charming singing voice in two grand opera sequences in the film. Mat No. 113—10e¢