Editing The Story of Louis Pasteur

{{short description|1936 film by William Dieterle}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film 
| name           = The Story of Louis Pasteur
| image          = The Story of Louis Pasteur poster.jpg
| caption        = [[Film poster|Theatrical release poster]]
| director       = [[William Dieterle]] 
| producer       = [[Henry Blanke]] 
| writer         = [[Pierre Collings]]<br>[[Sheridan Gibney]]
| starring       = [[Paul Muni]]<br>[[Josephine Hutchinson]]<br>[[Anita Louise]]<br>[[Donald Woods (actor)|Donald Woods]]
| music          = [[Leo F. Forbstein]]
| cinematography = [[Tony Gaudio]] 
| editing        = [[Ralph Dawson]] 
| distributor    = [[Warner Bros.]] 
| runtime        = 87 minutes
| released       = {{Film date|1936|2|22}}
| language       = English
| country        = United States
}}

'''''The Story of Louis Pasteur''''' is a 1936 American [[black-and-white]]  [[biographical film]] from [[Warner Bros.]], produced by [[Henry Blanke]], directed by [[William Dieterle]], that stars [[Paul Muni]] as the [[Louis Pasteur|renowned scientist]] who developed major advances in [[microbiology]], which revolutionized [[agriculture]] and [[medicine]]. The film's screenplay—which tells a highly fictionalized version of Pasteur’s life—was written by [[Pierre Collings]] and [[Sheridan Gibney]], and [[Edward Chodorov]] (uncredited).

Muni won an [[Academy Award for Best Actor]], while Collings and Gibney won for [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Screenplay]] and [[Academy Award for Best Story|Best Story]]. The film was nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]].

Muni also won the [[Volpi Cup]] for Best Actor from the [[Venice Film Festival]] in 1936.

==Plot==
In 1860 Paris, a distraught man murders his wife's doctor. Chemist [[Louis Pasteur]] ([[Paul Muni]]) has publicized the theory that [[microbe]]s cause diseases. Therefore, doctors should avoid spreading by washing their hands and sterilizing their instruments in boiling water. The doctor did not do this, and the wife died of [[postpartum infections|puerperal fever]] after giving birth.

France's medical academy dismisses Pasteur&mdash;notably his most vocal critic, Dr. Charbonnet ([[Fritz Leiber (actor)|Fritz Leiber Sr.]])&mdash;as a crank whose recommendations are tantamount to witchcraft. Pasteur frankly calls attention to the risks of Charbonnet's non-sterile methods and correctly predicts that a member of [[Napoleon III]]'s royal family who Charbonnet is attending will die of puerperal fever. Pasteur is considered dangerous because his ideas have led to murder. When the Emperor comes down against him, Pasteur leaves Paris and moves to [[Arbois]].

In the 1870s, when the new French government tries to restore the economy after the [[Franco-Prussian War]], they learn that many sheep are dying of [[anthrax]], except around Arbois. They send representatives who realize that, after working with a small group of loyal researchers, Pasteur developed an anthrax vaccine.

The medical academy still opposes him and says Arbois must be free of anthrax, so the government buys land there and invites sheep farmers to use it. Pasteur objects strongly, saying the soil is full of anthrax [[spore]]s, and eventually proposes an experiment. He will vaccinate 25 of the newly arrived sheep; then they and a [[control group]] of 25 others will be injected with blood from a sheep with anthrax.

[[Joseph Lister]] ([[Halliwell Hobbes]]), the pioneer of antiseptic surgery in England, is interested enough to attend. He witnesses Pasteur's success as all the vaccinated sheep remain healthy after the other 25 die. At this point, Jean Martel ([[Donald Woods (actor)|Donald Woods]]), a young doctor who was formerly Charbonnet's assistant but now follows Pasteur, becomes engaged to Pasteur's daughter Annette ([[Anita Louise]]).

The celebrations are short-lived, as a [[rabies|rabid dog]] runs through the town and bites a man. As a woman attempts to cure him by witchcraft, Pasteur laments that doctors would have no more chance of success. Moving back to Paris, he makes rabies his next project. He spreads the disease from one animal to another by injection but cannot detect any microbe being transferred ([[virus]]es had not been discovered), and the method he used to create the anthrax vaccine fails.

Charbonnet visits the lab to gloat over Pasteur's failure. He is so confident Pasteur is a quack that he injects himself with rabies&mdash;and is triumphant, as he does not get the disease. Pasteur is puzzled until his wife Marie ([[Josephine Hutchinson]]) suggests the sample may have weakened with age. This sets him on the right path, giving dogs progressively stronger injections.

But before his experiments conclude, a frantic mother begs him to try his untested treatment on her son ([[Dickie Moore (actor)|Dickie Moore]]), who a rabid dog has bitten. Despite fearing imprisonment or even execution for [[Practicing without a license]] to provide medical treatment, Pasteur decides he must try to save the child. During the attempt, Dr. Zaranoff ([[Akim Tamiroff]]) arrives from Russia with a group of peasants exposed to rabies. They have volunteered to receive Pasteur's treatment.

Annette goes into labor with Martel's child. The doctor to attend to her is unavailable, and the boy urgently needs Martel. Pasteur searches for another doctor, but he can only find Charbonnet. He begs Charbonnet to wash his hands and sterilize his instruments; Charbonnet finally agrees that if Charbonnet lives another month, Pasteur will retract and denounce all his work on rabies. Both men are honorable enough to respect the agreement. The birth goes well, but Pasteur suffers a mild stroke.

Days later, word comes that Pasteur has permission to treat the still-alive Russians. He attends them in hospital for the first injections using a wheelchair and later a cane. The experiment is a success, and now even Charbonnet concedes he was wrong, tearing up Pasteur's retraction and asking for the shots himself.

Afterwards, Pasteur hears that Lister will denounce him at the medical academy. He angrily attends, but it is actually a surprise. Lister praises him, Zaranoff presents him with a Russian medal, and the once-skeptical doctors honor him.

==Cast==
* [[Paul Muni]] as [[Louis Pasteur]]
* [[Josephine Hutchinson]] as [[Marie Pasteur]]
* [[Anita Louise]] as Annette Pasteur
* [[Donald Woods (actor)|Donald Woods]] as Dr. Jean Martel
* [[Fritz Leiber, Sr.|Fritz Leiber]] as Dr. Charbonnet
* [[Henry O'Neill]] as Dr. [[Pierre Paul Émile Roux|Emile Roux]]
* [[Porter Hall]] as Dr. Rossignol
* Raymond Brown  as Dr. Radisse
* [[Akim Tamiroff]] as Dr. Zaranoff
* [[Halliwell Hobbes]] as [[Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister|Dr. Lister]]
* [[Frank Reicher]] as Dr. Pfeiffer
* [[Dickie Moore (actor)|Dickie Moore]] as [[Joseph Meister]]
* Ruth Robinson as Mrs. Meister
* [[Walter Kingsford]] as [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]]
* Iphigenie Castiglione as [[Eugénie de Montijo|Empress Eugénie]]
* [[Herbert Corthell]] as [[Adolphe Thiers|Louis Adolphe Thiers]], President of France
* [[Frank Mayo (actor)|Frank Mayo]] as [[Marie Francois Sadi Carnot|Sadi Carnot]] (uncredited)
* Leonid Snegoff as [[Arthur von Mohrenheim|Russian Ambassador]] (uncredited)
* [[Edward Van Sloan]] as Chairman of Medical Society (uncredited)

==Reception and accolades==
Writing for ''[[The Spectator]]'' in 1936, [[Graham Greene]] gave the film a good review, describing it as "an honest, interesting and well-made picture". Characterizing Paul Muni as "the greatest living actor" and as a "Protean figure", Greene asserts that Muni's depiction of Pasteur is accomplished "with his whole body [to establish] not only the bourgeois, the elderly, the stubborn and bitter and noble little chemist, but his nationality and even his period."<ref>{{cite journal |last= Greene|first= Graham|author-link= Graham Greene|date= 3 July 1936|title= Fury/The Story of Louis Pasteur|journal= [[The Spectator]]}} (reprinted in: {{cite book|editor-last= Taylor|editor-first= John Russell|editor-link= John Russell Taylor|date= 1980|title= The Pleasure Dome|url= https://archive.org/details/pleasuredomegrah00gree/page/85|pages= [https://archive.org/details/pleasuredomegrah00gree/page/85 85–86]|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 0192812866|url-access= registration}})</ref>

==Radio adaptations==
Paul Muni reprised his role in two radio play versions of the film: the November 23, 1936 episode of ''[[Lux Radio Theater]]'' and the April 13, 1946 episode of ''[[Academy Award Theater]]''. The Internet Archive holds this radio adaptation, which can be found in the external links below.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{TCMDb title|id=2615}}
* {{IMDb title|0028313|The Story of Louis Pasteur}}
* [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-story-of-louis-pasteur-am29000 ''The Story of Louis Pasteur'' at AllMovie]
* {{AFI film|id=6481|title=The Story of Louis Pasteur}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|story_of_louis_pasteur|The Story of Louis Pasteur}}
* [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/film/312/the-story-of-louis-pasteur ''The Story of Louis Pasteur''] at Virtual History
* The Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/Lux01 holds a radio adaptation of the film, originally broadcast on November 23, 1936] by Lux Radio Theater.

{{William Dieterle}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Story Of Louis Pasteur, The}}
[[Category:1936 films]]
[[Category:1930s biographical films]]
[[Category:American biographical films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Biographical films about scientists]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Louis Pasteur]]
[[Category:Films about infectious diseases]]
[[Category:Films based on biographies]]
[[Category:Films directed by William Dieterle]]
[[Category:Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award–winning performance]]
[[Category:Films set in France]]
[[Category:Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award]]
[[Category:First National Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films that won the Academy Award for Best Story]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Napoleon III]]
[[Category:Warner Bros. films]]
[[Category:Franco-Prussian War films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:English-language biographical films]]