''Winterset'' is a 1936 American

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

Alfred Santell Alfred Allen Santell (1895–1981), was an American film director and film producer. Santell directed over 60 films, beginning in 1917, most of which were two-reel comedy short subjects for Hal Roach and other productions companies. Taking up f ...

, based on the 1935

play of the same name Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Background Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...

, in a loose dramatization of the

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...

trial and execution in 1928. The script retains elements of the

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and P ...

poetic meter on which Anderson based his 1935 Winterset

Broadway theater Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the List of ...

production. Actor

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

made his credited film debut as the avenging son Rio Romagna. 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 abandoned

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vio ...

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.

Cast

as Mio Romagna *

Margo *** People * Margo (actress) (1917–1985), Mexican-American actress and dancer * Margo (magician), American magic performer and actress * Margo (singer), Irish singer * Margo (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name P ...

as Miriamne Esdras *

Eduardo Ciannelli Eduardo Ciannelli (30 August 1888 – 8 October 1969), was an Italian baritone and character actor with a long career in American films, mostly playing gangsters and criminals. He was sometimes credited as Edward Ciannelli. Early life Ciannelli ...

as Trock Estrella *

Maurice Moscovitch Maurice Moscovich (born Morris Maaskov; November 23, 1871 – June 18, 1940) was a Russian American actor who was well-known for his roles in Yiddish theatre. His 14 films, which he made at the end of his life, include Charlie Chaplin's ''The Gr ...

as Esdras *

Paul Guilfoyle Paul Vincent Guilfoyle () (born April 28, 1949) is an American television and film actor. He was a regular cast member of the CBS crime drama ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', on which he played Captain Jim Brass from 2000 to 2014. He return ...

as Garth Esdras * Edward Ellis as Judge Gaunt *

Stanley Ridges Stanley Charles Ridges (17 July 1890 – 22 April 1951) was an English-born, American actor who made more than 100 appearances in theatre and movies from 1917 to 1951. After his American film debut in '' Success'' (1923), he appeared in films ...

as Shadow *

Mischa Auer Mischa Auer (born Mikhail Semyonovich Unkovsky (Михаил Семёнович Унковский; 17 November 1905 – 5 March 1967) was a Russians, Russian-born American actor who moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He first appeared in fi ...

as A radical *

Willard Robertson Willard Robertson (January 1, 1886 – April 5, 1948) was an American actor and writer. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1924 and 1948. He was born in Runnels, Texas, and died in Hollywood, California. Biography Robertson first w ...

as Policeman *

Alec Craig Alexander Younger Craig (30 March 1884 – 25 June 1945) was a Scottish-born American character actor, particularly known for his roles in ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1935) and ''National Velvet'' (1944). He was particularly known for portraying ...

as Oak *

John Carradine John Carradine ( ; born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later Jo ...

as Bartolomeo Romagna *

Myron McCormick Myron McCormick (February 8, 1908 – July 30, 1962) was an American actor of stage, radio and film. Early life and education Born in Albany, Indiana, in 1908, Walter Myron McCormick was the middle child of Walter P. and Bessie M. McCormick' ...

as Carr *

Helen Jerome Eddy Helen Jerome Eddy (February 25, 1897 – January 27, 1990) was a motion picture actress from New York City. She was noted as a character actress who played genteel heroines in films such as ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' (1917). Early years Edd ...

as Maria Romagna *

Barbara Pepper Barbara Pepper (born Marion Pepper; May 31, 1915 – July 18, 1969) was an American stage, television, radio, and film actress. She is best known as the first Doris Ziffel on the sitcom ''Green Acres''. Early life and career Marion Pepper ...

as A girl * Fernanda Eliscu as Piny

Reception

Writing for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' in 1937,

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

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." (reprinted in: )

Awards

The film was nominated for two

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

, one for

Best Art Direction The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted fro ...

Perry Ferguson Perry Ferguson (November 13, 1901 – December 27, 1963) was an American art director. He was nominated for five Academy Awards in the category Academy Award for Best Production Design, Best Art Direction. He was born in Texas and died in Lo ...

and the other for

Original Score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

Nathaniel Shilkret Nathaniel Shilkret (December 25, 1889 – February 18, 1982) was an American musician, composer, conductor and musical director. Early career Shilkret (originally named Natan Schüldkraut) was born in New York City, United States, to parents ...

Footnotes

References

*Ross, Donna. W''interset, 1936''. UCLA Film and Television Archive: 12th Festival of Preservation, July 22-August 21, 2004. Festival guest handbook.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Winterset (Film) 1936 films 1936 crime drama films American black-and-white films American crime drama films American gangster films American films based on plays 1930s English-language films Films about capital punishment Films about miscarriage of justice Films directed by Alfred Santell Films set in 1920 Films set in 1936 Films set in New York (state) Films scored by Nathaniel Shilkret RKO Pictures films Works about Sacco and Vanzetti 1930s American films