THE SILVER SCREEN

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 310, 16 December 1936, Page 3

THE SILVER SCREEN

‘ANTHONY ADVERSE” KEEPS HOLLYWOOD BUSY.

WORLD’S GREATEST RECENT NOVEL TO BE EQUALLY GREAT FILM. MOST DIFFICULT PICTURE IN HISTORY TO CAST.

The most difficult picture to cast in all .the history of Hollywood was “Anthony Adverse,” the Warner Bros’ production. Six hundred and ! twelve players were given photoi graphic and dialogue tests. I Another 109 players were corsidI ered for various roles and shbseII quently' discarded for one reason or another. Mervyn Leßoy, who directed the picture, realised at the outset that casting would be one of the biggest problems that the 450,000 word novel presented. There were 98 speaking parts. Of this number, all were 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 were just as diverse. French, English, African, Italian, Arabian, Spanish, Cuban and Scotch were represented, not as mere 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 no less

it than 12,000 feet. More than enough s | for a 12 reel feature picture or two r ) films of average length. 1 j “Anthony' Adverse” is a faithful - j picturisatiou of the huge novel writI ten by Hervey Allen and which has - been read by millions of people the - whole world over. In the United ’ States of America alone, some three. million copies of the novel were s sold; for a considerable time . “Anthony Adverse” pped the lists of best selling novels. In the Warner picture Fredric March has the stellar role, while other notables in the cast include Olivia De Havilland, Edmund Gwenn, Claude Rains, Anita Louise, Gale Sondergaard, Billy Mauch (the drummer boy of “White Angel”), Donald Woods, Henry O’Neil, and many others. The action of “Anthony Adverse” takes place against a moving background of three continents and six or seven countries, and the honour of being .the most travelled of screen characters can be claimed for the central character. “Anthony Adverse” is to be released throughout New Zealand by Warner Bros in the very near future.