The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944 film)
Encyclopedia
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a 1944
drama film made by Benedict Bogeaus Productions and released by United Artists
. It was produced and directed by Rowland V. Lee
with Benedict Bogeaus
as co-producer. The screenplay by Howard Estabrook
and Herman Weissman was adapted from the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey
by Thornton Wilder
. The music score was by Dimitri Tiomkin
and the cinematography by John W. Boyle and an uncredited John J. Mescall
.
The film stars Lynn Bari
, Francis Lederer
, Akim Tamiroff
, Alla Nazimova
and Louis Calhern
.
Despite a low budget and several notable deviations from the Thornton Wilder novel, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score
(Dimitri Tiomkin
).
(1748—1819), a famous Peruvian entertainer known as La Perichole, whose life was also the inspiration for the novella Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée
, an opéra bouffe
, La Périchole
by Jacques Offenbach
, Jean Renoir
’s 1953 film Le Carrosse d'or
(The Golden Coach) and an earlier part-talkie
film version of The Bridge of San Luis Rey
(1929) starring Lili Damita
.
The film was remade once more in 2004 with the title The Bridge of San Luis Rey
and starring F. Murray Abraham
, Kathy Bates
and Pilar López de Ayala
.
1944 in film
The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....
drama film made by Benedict Bogeaus Productions and released by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. It was produced and directed by Rowland V. Lee
Rowland V. Lee
Rowland Vance Lee was a U.S. film director, writer, and producer....
with Benedict Bogeaus
Benedict Bogeaus
Benedict Bogeaus born Chicago 4 May 1904 died of a heart attack Hollywood 23 August 1968 was an independent film producer and former owner of General Service Studios.-Biography and filmography:...
as co-producer. The screenplay by Howard Estabrook
Howard Estabrook
Howard Estabrook was an American actor, film director and producer, and screenwriter.-Biography:Born Howard Bolles in Detroit, Michigan, Estabrook began his career in 1904 as a stage actor in New York. He made his film debut in 1914 during the silent era, and would go on to appear in several...
and Herman Weissman was adapted from the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. It tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope-fiber suspension bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the...
by Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
. The music score was by Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a Russian-born Hollywood film score composer and conductor. He is considered "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music." Musically trained in Russia, he is best known for his westerns, "where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact." Tiomkin...
and the cinematography by John W. Boyle and an uncredited John J. Mescall
John J. Mescall
John J. Mescall, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. He photographed such silent films as Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg , but he is best known for his work in the 1930s at Universal Pictures, where he often worked on the films of James Whale...
.
The film stars Lynn Bari
Lynn Bari
Lynn Bari , born Margaret Schuyler Fisher, was a movie actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in over one hundred 20th Century Fox films from the early 1930s through the 1940s.-Career:Bari was born in Roanoke, Virginia...
, Francis Lederer
Francis Lederer
Francis Lederer was a film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States.-Europe:...
, Akim Tamiroff
Akim Tamiroff
Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...
, Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova , was a Russian American film and theatre actress, a screenwriter and film producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff.-Early life:...
and Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
.
Despite a low budget and several notable deviations from the Thornton Wilder novel, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
(Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a Russian-born Hollywood film score composer and conductor. He is considered "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music." Musically trained in Russia, he is best known for his westerns, "where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact." Tiomkin...
).
Background and production
The film and novel are very loosely based on the real life story of Micaela VillegasMicaela Villegas
Maria Micaela Villegas Hurtado , known as La Perricholi, was arguably the most famous Peruvian woman of the eighteenth century. She was a celebrated entertainer and the famous mistress of Manuel de Amat y Juniet, Viceroy of Peru from 1761 to 1776...
(1748—1819), a famous Peruvian entertainer known as La Perichole, whose life was also the inspiration for the novella Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
, an opéra bouffe
Opéra bouffe
Opéra bouffe is a genre of late 19th-century French operetta, closely associated with Jacques Offenbach, who produced many of them at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens that gave its name to the form....
, La Périchole
La Périchole
La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...
by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
’s 1953 film Le Carrosse d'or
The Golden Coach
The Golden Coach is a 1952 film directed by Jean Renoir that tells the story of a commedia dell'arte troupe in 18th century Peru. The screenplay was written by Renoir, Jack Kirkland, Renzo Avanzo and Giulio Macchi and is based on the play, Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée...
(The Golden Coach) and an earlier part-talkie
Part-talkie
A part-talkie is a partly, and most often primarily, silent film which includes one or more synchronous sound sequences with audible dialog or singing. During the silent portions lines of dialog are presented as "titles" -- printed text briefly filling the screen -- and the soundtrack is used only...
film version of The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929 film)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in both silent and part-talkie versions. The was film directed by Charles Brabin and starred Lili Damita and Don Alvarado...
(1929) starring Lili Damita
Lili Damita
Lili Damita was a French actress who appeared in 33 movies between 1922 and 1937.-Early life and education:...
.
The film was remade once more in 2004 with the title The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004 film)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a 2004 drama film directed by Mary McGuckian and featuring an ensemble cast of American and international actors. It is based on Thornton Wilder's novel of the same name. The film was released in 2004 in Spain and 2005 in the U.S. and abroad...
and starring F. Murray Abraham
F. Murray Abraham
Fahrid Murray Abraham is an American actor. He became known during the 1980s after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. He has appeared in many roles, both leading and supporting, in films such as All the President's Men and Scarface...
, Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
and Pilar López de Ayala
Pilar López de Ayala
Pilar López de Ayala Arroyo is a Spanish film actress. She received a Goya for her role as Queen Joanna of Castile in the 2001 film Juana la Loca, directed by Vicente Aranda ....
.
Cast
- Lynn BariLynn BariLynn Bari , born Margaret Schuyler Fisher, was a movie actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in over one hundred 20th Century Fox films from the early 1930s through the 1940s.-Career:Bari was born in Roanoke, Virginia...
as Micaela VillegasMicaela VillegasMaria Micaela Villegas Hurtado , known as La Perricholi, was arguably the most famous Peruvian woman of the eighteenth century. She was a celebrated entertainer and the famous mistress of Manuel de Amat y Juniet, Viceroy of Peru from 1761 to 1776... - Akim TamiroffAkim TamiroffAkim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...
as Uncle Pio - Francis LedererFrancis LedererFrancis Lederer was a film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States.-Europe:...
as Esteban / Manuel - Alla NazimovaAlla NazimovaAlla Nazimova , was a Russian American film and theatre actress, a screenwriter and film producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff.-Early life:...
as Doña Maria - Louis CalhernLouis CalhernLouis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
as Don Andre - Donald WoodsDonald Woods (actor)Donald Woods was a Canadian-born American film and television actor whose career spanned six decades....
as Brother Juniper - Blanche YurkaBlanche YurkaBlanche Yurka was an American theatre and film actress.Born in St Paul, Minnesota, Yurka was an opera star before she became an actress. She made her Broadway debut in 1910 and established herself as a character actor, also appearing in several films...
as The Abbess - Emma DunnEmma DunnEmma Dunn was an English-born American film actress. She appeared in 108 films between 1914 and 1948....
as Doña Mercedes - Barton HepburnBarton HepburnBarton Hepburn was an American actor who specialized in drama and comedy,Hepburn was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was spotted as a stage actor in Los Angeles by the screen director Cecil B. DeMille. He starred in a 1929 production, Painted Faces, an early film with sound...
as Don Rubio - Joan LorringJoan LorringJoan Lorring is a Hong Kong-born American actress.-Early life:Lorring fled with her mother in 1939 following the Japanese invasion...
as Pepita