Themes: Clearing One's Name, Haunted By the Past, Murder Investigations
Main Cast: Burgess Meredith, Margo, Eduardo Ciannelli, John Carradine, Edward Ellis
Release Year: 1936
Country: US
Run Time: 85 minutes
Plot
Maxwell Anderson combined the Sacco-Vanzetti story with elements of the still-unsolved disappearance of Judge Crater, and the result was the blank-verse theatrical piece Winterset. Burgess Meredith, Margo and Eduardo Cianelli repeat their Broadway roles, respectively playing the grown son of an executed political radical, the woman who loves and stands by Meredith, and a menacing gangster with plenty to hide. 15 years after the execution, Meredith endeavors to clear his father's name, and to that end seeks out the judge (Edward Ellis) who presided over the trial, now a drunken, guilt-ridden derelict. Screenwriter Anthony Veiller remove most of Anderson's flowery dialogue and substituted a happy ending for the original play's cynically tragic denouement. Neither of these changes hurt the property, and in fact were heartily endorsed by Maxwell Anderson himself. But depression-era audiences, too wrapped in their own current problems to shed tears over the long-dead Sacco and Vanzetti, stayed away from Winterset in droves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Burgess Meredith made an auspicious film debut in Winterset, bringing to the screen his strangely unsettling intensity -- perhaps a little too unsettling, since Meredith never really achieved widespread audience acceptance, despite his considerable talent. Here, as in many of his other roles, Meredith resembles a bantam rooster, but one that's definitely the number two rooster in the yard. He's wary and wiry, coiled and ready to spring, but always keeping himself in check, knowing that in general he's outclassed. But when the right moment comes, when those searing eyes take a solid lock on someone or something, there's nothing that will stop him. Meredith is just the strongest of an outstanding cast, with particularly notable work from the strangely beautiful Margo and John Carradine. Maxwell Anderson';s play has been tightened and shorn of some of its blank verse; enough remains, however, to give the film an uneven tone in terms of dialogue, and there are several places where the plot turns jar. Director Alfred Santell doesn't resolve the problems in tone, but he does provide a moody atmosphere, greatly aided by Peverell Marley's evocative cinematography and some find editing by William Hamilton. Much of the language makes Winterset dated and a bit difficult to take at times, but it still packs a nice little punch. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
