''Enchanted April'' is a 1935 American comedy drama film directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Ann Harding, Frank Morgan and Katharine Alexander. It was made by

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

. The original 1922 novel ''

The Enchanted April ''The Enchanted April'' is a 1922 novel by British writer Elizabeth von Arnim. The work was inspired by a month-long holiday to the Italian Riviera, probably the most widely read (as an English and American best seller in 1923) and perhaps the ...

'' has also been adapted for the stage multiple times, and adapted for the 1991 film by screenwriter Peter Barnes.

Plot

At Hampstead Court Housewives Club, two women sit in the living room with a fireplace. Outside it's raining. One of the women reads a book (a biography of

Madame Du Barry Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (19 August 1743 – 8 December 1793) was the last ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of King Louis XV of France. She was executed, by guillotine, during the French Revolution due to accounts of treason—particularly being ...

); the other woman is nervously looking around the room and finally decides to look up the newspaper. When she sees a certain announcement, she has to talk, saying to the other woman how beautiful it would be to leave dreadful London and go south to Italy, renting a Castle for two or more people and splitting the costs. So they find the way to San Salvatore, and the Enchanted April is there from the very minute they arrive. Their husbands and lovers are soon popping up and passing by, and the Italians who know, understand the English people. A mixture of slapstick comedy and on the other side the rarefied figure of Ann Harding.

Setting

San Salvatore is based on

Castello Brown Castello Brown is a historic house museum located high above the harbour of Portofino, Italy. Its site has been used for military defence since Roman times. As a Genoese coastal fort, it was called the ''Castello di Saint George, San Giorgio''. A ...

, overlooking Portofino, where Elizabeth von Arnim had stayed. The film was not shot on location, but Jane Baxter did visit later "to see what the house was really like".

Cast

* Ann Harding as Lottie Wilkins * Katharine Alexander as Rose Arbuthnot * Frank Morgan as Mr. Wilkins * Reginald Owen as Mr. Arbuthnot * Jane Baxter as Lady Caroline Dester * Ralph Forbes as Mr. Briggs * Jessie Ralph as Mrs. Fisher * Charles Judels as Domenico * Rafaela Ottiano as Francesca

Home video

As of 2017, ''Enchanted April'' has only seen one authorised home video release: a 2005 region 2 French DVD on the Éditions Montparnasse label, titled ''Avril enchanté''. It features a very clean print from an unconverted NTSC-PAL master, hence its unaltered 66 minute running time, and optional French subtitles in a small yellow font. Additionally, there is an informative 2 minute intro – in French, without subtitles – by film historian and restorer Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films. There is also a lesser-quality counterfeit 2013 Spanish DVD, titled ''Un Abril Encantado''.

References

External links

*
''Enchanted April''
at TCMDB
''Enchanted April''
TCMDB article
''Enchanted April''
1935 '' The New York Times'' review 1935 films 1930s romantic comedy-drama films Films set in London Films set in Liguria American black-and-white films RKO Pictures films Films based on British novels American romantic comedy-drama films 1935 comedy films 1935 drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-comedy-drama-film-stub