Editing Mervyn LeRoy (section)

=== ''Anthony Adverse'' (1936) ===

Based on the popular twelve-hundred page [[historical romance]] by [[Hervey Allen]], Warner's ''[[Anthony Adverse]]'' (1936) was LeRoy's most prestigious undertaking to date. Only two-thirds of the vast and unwieldy [[Picaresque novel|picaresque]] tale, set during the [[Napoleonic Era|Napoleonic era]], is depicted onscreen (a sequel was planned but abandoned).<ref>Barson, 2020: "LeRoy was finally given a prestige property with Anthony Adverse (1936), a hugely successful costume drama set in the 18th century and based on the Hervey Allen best seller."<br />Canham, 1976 p. 151: "...a story that had ''too many'' possibilities [for film adaptation]...it is a sprawling but ''busy'' picture..." (italics in original)</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 85: "...the sprawling Hervey Allen novel of Napoleonic Europe..."<br />LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 128: LeRoy: "...a romantic adventure film..."</ref> The sheer scale of the project remains impressive, and LeRoy's ability to handle a film with high production values that possessed a "Metro-like glossiness" elevated him to becoming a protective executive producer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 150: LeRoy's "most ambitious film of the Thirties..."<br />Steinberg, 2009 TMC: "...very much a prestige project of its era...the impressive production values..." And: The studio was "eager to demonstrate that they could mount a lush [costume drama] as well as the next studio."</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 85-86: LeRoy endowing the picture with "Metro-like glossiness...suggesting a taste" for the M-G-M style "which may explain his decision to change studios." And: shortly after competing Anthony Adverse in 1938 LeRoy "went to Metro to become executive producer on ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939)."</ref>

The "lively performances" from a large cast, which included [[Fredric March]], [[Olivia de Havilland]], [[Claude Rains]], [[Anita Louise]] and [[Gale Sondergaard]], as well as LeRoy's "technical excellence," led to five Academy Award nominations.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 151: "lively" and "excellence" quotes<br />Steinberg, 2009: "...problems of scale in distilling the 1,200+ page book into two hours and twenty minutes of screen time, problems that were apparent even to critics of its day. Still, the impressive production values and the efforts of a uniformly fine cast make any kind of offhanded dismissal unwarranted."</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 86: "...successful for historical pageant and personal drama, especially interesting for Fredric March [in the title role]."</ref>

LeRoy reported in his 1974 memoir that "by the time 1936 arrived, I was slowing my pace somewhat. Gone were the assembly-line tactics, the grinding-them-out methods of a few years before...I was working slower, trying to achieve more beauty on film, looking for cinematic perfection."<ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 126</ref>