Anthony Adverse (1936)

ANTHONY ADVERSE is a sprawling, episodic, adventurous costume drama adapted from the Hervey Allen best-selling novel. The story follows the globetrotting saga of Anthony Adverse, the illegitimate heir to the fortune of his cruel stepfather, Don Luis. Luis leaves the boy in the hands of the church after killing his real father, and the church in turn deposits Anthony into the hands of his grandfather, a wealthy merchant. Anthony, now played by the debonair Fredric March, grows up to love the beautiful Angela (Olivia de Havilland), daughter of his grandfather's cook. But neither romance nor his rightful inheritance proves easy to achieve as Angela becomes a glamorous opera star and the mistress of Napoleon while Don Luis and his new wife, Faith (Gale Sondergaard, in an Oscar-winning performance), conspire against him. In spite of all the intricacies of the plot, it is the plushness of the production, the beautiful cinematography, and the mellifluous score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold that allow this epic picture to stand the test of time.