Anthony Adverse, nominated for Best Picture of 1936, is a sprawling historical epic set during the 18th Century in Europe. Warner Brothers, the studio behind the film, seemingly spared no expense in recreating the time period, and the actors chosen for the various roles give enthusiastic performances. This is, in many ways, old-fashioned entertainment, but when a movie is as skillfully made as Anthony Adverse, you can't help but enjoy it. The word "lavish" is often used to describe expensive movies, but a film like this one truly deserves the designation. It takes the viewer from Italy to Switzerland to Cuba to Africa to France and back again, and the journey is always worth taking.
The title character of Anthony Adverse is the child of Maria (Anita Louise) and Denis (Louis Hayward). Denis has followed Maria after her unfortunate marriage to the Marquis Don Luis (the great Claude Rains), a brute of a man known for beating his servants and always getting his way, no matter the cost to anyone else. Maria and Denis meet in secret several times while the Marquis is being treated for what appears to be a case of gout. When the Marquis discovers the affair, he kills Denis is a sword fight and takes the pregnant Maria to a Swiss chalet. She dies in childbirth, and he deposits the child at the Convent of the Holy Child. He's conveniently left Maria's luggage with the baby, luggage that includes a statue of the Virgin Mary that Anthony carries with him throughout this life.
Anthony faces a lonely life at the convent. He's the only boy at a school for girls, so he must be kept apart from the other students. His only real contact with the outside world is Father Xavier (Henry O'Neill), and the kindly priest realizes that Anthony might be better suited to an apprenticeship with a businessman in the local town of Leghorn. He asks for the help of a Scottish merchant, John Bonnyfeather (Edmund Gwenn), who almost immediately recognizes that the 10-year-old boy is the image of his late daughter Maria. Yes, that's right. The Marquis abandoned the child in his mother's hometown, and now he's been reunited with his grandfather. It's the devotional statue that clues Bonnyfeather in, but he chooses not to inform Anthony or anyone else.
Anthony grows up to be Fredric March, and he's started a budding romance with the daughter of two of Bonnyfeather's servants. They've even promised to marry each other when they grow up. Her name is Angela, and she's played by Olivia de Havilland. Bonnyfeather thinks that Anthony should socialize with more people his own age--Anthony is always at work, it seems--and then Vincent Nolte (Donald Woods) shows up. A banker's son, Vincent is a good candidate for Bonnyfeather's plans, so he encourages Anthony to spend more time with the handsome young man. I know where you think I'm going with this--and I easily could--but so much of the film is devoted to Anthony's attempts to be reunited with Angela that it would take a bit of effort to trace the homoerotic tension that is also present between Anthony and Vincent.
What follows are a series of meetings and separations between Anthony and Angela and adventures around the world for Anthony. She returns to Italy with a new name and a reputation as a rising opera star; he goes to hear to the opera one night and realizes that he's hearing Angela sing. She, however, is attracted to life on the stage, and he will likely never get Bonnyfeather's consent. They make love, but she then tries to get him to leave her. It's clear that she's hiding a relationship with another man from Anthony. Meanwhile, thanks to the loss of business during the Napoleonic Revolution, Bonnyfeather sends Anthony to Havana to get some money from a couple of creditors here. Unless the money is recovered, the business in Leghorn may have to be closed forever. While in Havana, Anthony learns that the creditors only have one remaining aspect to their business, the slave trade in Africa. In order to recoup the money owed to Bonnyfeather, he then spends three years overseeing the enslavement of Africans. He even begins a sexual relationship with a native woman, Neleta (Steffi Duna), to try to compensate for the loss of his beloved Angela. He leaves the slave trade after discovering the body of a friendly priest who had taken care of those who were too infirm to be enslaved.
I realize that you might have had a tough time following all of that, but this is a movie that clocks in at more than two hours long, and it has a lot of plot threads woven throughout its narrative. I haven't even mentioned the attempts by the Marquis and Bonnyfeather's housekeeper, Faith (Gale Sondergaard), to keep Anthony from inheriting his grandfather's fortune after the old man's death. Faith, in particular, has realized that Anthony is Bonnyfeather's grandson and attempts to keep news of the merchant's passing and the whereabouts of Angela from Anthony during the time that he is in Cuba and then in Africa. And there's also a silly subplot about Napoleon himself being entranced by Angela, now called Mademoiselle George, and realizing that he has a rival in Anthony. A lot happens in this film, and it's a rather engrossing series of events that draw the reader into the narrative.
March was frequently cast in intense parts like this one. He manages to make Anthony a complex character, one who spends his life devoted to the woman he loves yet capable of supporting the enslavement of other people in order to achieve his own ends. He has to remain sympathetic throughout the film, and March is a strong actor who can make you see just how conflicted his emotions are when he's in Africa but wants to be home in Italy with Angela. As Angela, de Havilland gets far less screen time, of course, this being a film primarily about the title character of Anthony. She's a charming presence, though, even when she's performing as an opera singer. I don't think it would be a surprise to anyone to learn that her singing voice was dubbed, but de Havilland is rather good at lip syncing. She, too, has to show just how much Angela desires to be with Anthony despite the other obligations she must fulfill.
The supporting cast is headed by Rains as the Marquis. As in most of his films, Rains seems to be having a blast. He gets to chew the scenery in a couple of his scenes, and he has the chance to portray a character with no apparent redeeming qualities. His performance is nicely contrasted by Gwenn's Bonnyfeather, one of the kindest of old men, someone to serve as a mentor and benefactor to Anthony. Gwenn would later become better known as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street from 1947, but he was a solid character actor in many films. And I'd also like to single out the performance by Donald Woods as Vincent. He's just the kind of friend a handsome young man like Anthony should have: devoted, cheerful, attractive, always available--if you know what I mean.
I'd also like to remind you of a little bit of Oscar trivia. Sondergaard, who plays Faith, was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She truly gives a stellar performance here, a most welcome beginning to a long tradition of having an actress give support to the stars of a movie yet manage to steal almost every scene in which she appears. I can't imagine a much better way to start off this award than by giving it Sondergaard, who plays Faith with such a malicious leer and sense of delight in her ability to outsmart others. She is scheming and manipulative, and it's great fun to watch her as the movie progresses. Those sideways glances of hers are very telling; you know she's a woman to be avoided if possible or, at the very least, handled cautiously.
Oscar Wins: Supporting Actress (Sondergaard), Cinematography, Film Editing, and Score
Other Oscar Nominations: Picture, Assistant Director, and Art Direction
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