Directed by:
King VidorCinematography:
Harold RossonCast:
Brian Donlevy, Ann Richards, Walter Abel, John Qualen, Stephen McNally, Mary McLeod, Rudolf Myzet, Charles Irwin, Kay Medford, Paul Porcasi, Frank Faylen (more)Plots(1)
Director King Vidor intended An American Romance as the third entry in his "War, Wheat and Steel" trilogy (the War had been covered in The Big Parade, while Wheat was dispensed with in Our Daily Bread). Two years in production, the film cost nearly $3 million-little of which actually shows up on screen due to heavy post-production editing and rearranging of scenes. Brian Donlevy stars as immigrant laborer Steve Dangon, who becomes convinced early on that the only way he'll get anywhere in life is to accumulate huge sums of money. He takes a job in a midwestern steel mill, calculatedly working his way up the ladder from foreman to owner of an auto manufacturing firm. Though he regards himself as a "man of the people", Dangon resists the efforts of his workers to form a union.--even when his son Teddy (Horace McNally) is won over to the workers' point of view. A bitter three-month strike forces Dangon's board of directors to give in to the workers' wishes Disillusioned, Dangon retires from his business, but returns to work determined to switch over to the manufacture of airplanes when WW2 creates a demand for defense products. The "documentary" aspects of the story are far more compelling that the dramatic passages, with Donlevy's performance vacillating from strong to so-so. Minus any real star names (the leading lady is MGM contractee Ann Richards, a graduate of short subjects), An American Romance flopped at the box office, and Vidor in later years tended to dismiss the film as a misfire, severly damaged by studio tampering. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Jack George
USA
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Phyllis Kennedy
USA
Best movies:
My Fair Lady (1964)
La Vallée du bonheur (1968)
Stage Door (1937)
Alexis Davidoff
Russia
Best movies:
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
5 Fingers (1952)
Dishonored (1931)
Carol Coombs
Canada
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Peter Pan (1953)
John Bohn
USA
Best movies:
Dead Reckoning (1947)
Joan of Arc (1948)
Elliott Sullivan
USA
Best movies:
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
John Merton
USA
Best movies:
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Erville Alderson
USA
Best movies:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
Edison, the Man (1940)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Michael Visaroff
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Freaks (1932)
Midnight (1939)
Madame Curie (1943)
Billy Lechner
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
Battleground (1949)
Jack Deery
Australia
Best movies:
Limelight (1952)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
All About Eve (1950)
Thomas Martin
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
North by Northwest (1959)
Greta Meyer
German Empire
Best movies:
These Three (1936)
Come Live with Me (1941)
Libeled Lady (1936)
Charles Bates
USA
Best movies:
Bernadette (1943)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
The Sullivans (1944)
Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins
USA
Best movies:
National Velvet (1944)
Frederick Brady
USA