Enchanted April (1935 film)

Enchanted April is a 1935 American comedy drama film directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Ann Harding, Frank Morgan and Katharine Alexander. It was made by RKO Pictures. The original 1922 novel The Enchanted April has also been adapted for the stage multiple times, and adapted for the 1992 film by screenwriter Peter Barnes.

Enchanted April (1935 film)
Directed byHarry Beaumont
Produced byKenneth Macgowan
Written bySamuel Hoffenstein
Ray Harris
Based onThe Enchanted April
by Elizabeth von Arnim
StarringAnn Harding
Frank Morgan
Katharine Alexander
Reginald Owen
Jane Baxter
Ralph Forbes
Jessie Ralph
Charles Judels
Rafaela Ottiano
Music byRoy Webb
CinematographyEdward Cronjager A.S.C.
Edited byGeorge Hively
Production
company
Release date
  • February 1, 1935 (1935-02-01)
Running time
66 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$346,000[1]
Box office$165,000[1]

Plot

At Hampstead Court Housewives Club, two women sit in the living room with a fireplace. Outside it's raining. One of the women reads a book (a biography of Madame Du Barry); the other woman is nervously looking around the room and finally decides to look up the newspaper. When she sees a certain announcement, she has to talk, saying to the other woman how beautiful it would be to leave dreadful London and go south to Italy, renting a Castle for two or more people and splitting the costs. So they find the way to San Salvatore, and the Enchanted April is there from the very minute they arrive.

Their husbands and lovers are soon popping up and passing by, and the Italians who know, understand the English people. A mixture of slapstick comedy and on the other side the rarefied figure of Ann Harding.

Setting

San Salvatore is based on Castello Brown, overlooking Portofino, where Elizabeth von Arnim had stayed. The film was not shot on location, but Jane Baxter did visit later "to see what the house was really like". [2]

Cast

Home video

As of 2017, Enchanted April has only seen one authorised home video release: a 2005 region 2 French DVD on the Éditions Montparnasse label, titled Avril enchanté. It features a very clean print from an unconverted NTSC-PAL master, hence its unaltered 66 minute running time, and optional French subtitles in a small yellow font. Additionally, there is an informative 2½ minute intro – in French, without subtitles – by film historian and restorer Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films. There is also a lesser-quality counterfeit 2013 Spanish DVD, titled Un Abril Encantado.

References
  1. Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951', Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television, Vol 14 No 1, 1994 p58
  2. Jocelyn Baber; John Baber (1965). Castello, Portofino. B.T. Batsford.:175


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