Winterset

Anderson received the NY Drama Critics Circle award for Winterset. As a movie it struggles to overcome staginess and some deep implausibility, but it is well filmed, even if it is hard to swallow The Penguin as a romantic lead. Inspired by the Sacco and Vinzetti case. Music by Nathaniel Shilkret. Nominated for best art direction and musical scoring Oscars. Good print.

Because of the poetic treatment of this contemporary urban tale, this film isn't going to appeal to everybody. But if you bring your imagaination, and let the film work its magic, you will be moved.

The original leading actors from the Broadway production are here -- Burgess Meredith (his movie debut), Margo, and Eduardo Cianelli, and all turn in sterling performances.

Print quality is very good -- a little worn, but still very watchable. You won't be disappointed.

I still have no idea what the title is supposed to mean, but the movie is fun if one doesn't mind melodrama. Obviously inspired by the Sacco & Vanzetti case, the story makes John Carradine a Christlike Italian immigrant unjustly convicted of murder due to "radical" beliefs not far from FDR's New Deal. Years later, his son, played by young Burgess Meredith, tries to clear his name, while the real killer (played by Eduardo Cianelli), just out of stir, tries to kill him and anyone else connected with the crime. The movie reflects its stage origins in using a small number of sets, setting up a nice claustrophobia when it looks like Meredith can't leave the crowded hovel of a vital witness without getting shot.