America America **** (1963 Stathis Giallelis, Frank Wolff, Elena Karam) – Classic Movie Review 9401

Elia Kazan was Oscar-nominated as writer, producer (Best Picture) and director for this uplifting, if seemingly endless chunk of his own family biography about a young Anatolian Greek, living in the oppressions of Turkey more than 100 years ago, who loses his family’s fortune en route to Istanbul and struggles to set off to make a new life in America in the 1890s.

America America [The Anatolian Smile] (1963) has many moving sequences. Gene Callahan’s Oscar-winning Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Manos Hadjidakis’s music score help us through the intricacies of this epic of courage and determination.

Kazan did not win in any of his three Oscar chances, but he won the Golden Globe as Best Director.

Newcomer Stathis Giallelis plays Kazan’s uncle, here named Stavros Topouzoglou, on whose experiences the story is based. Stathis Giallelis shared the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Male award with with Robert Walker Jr for The Ceremony (1963) and Albert Finney for Tom Jones (1963).

Also in the cast are Frank Wolff, Harry Davis, Elena Karam, Estelle Hemsley, Gregory Rozakis and Lou Antonio.

America America [The Anatolian Smile] is directed by Elia Kazan, runs 174 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Elia Kazan, is shot in black and white by Haskell Wexler, is produced by Elia Kazan, is scored by Manos Hadjidakis and is designed by Gene Callahan.

 © Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9401

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