The Road to Wellville *** (1994, Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda, John Cusack) – Classic Movie Review 1878

Anthony Hopkins slices some memorable ham as Dr John Harvey Kellogg, the eccentric inventor of the cornflake, in the 1994 comedy drama film The Road to Wellville.

The 1994 American comedy drama film The Road to Wellville is written and directed by Alan Parker, based on T Coraghessan Boyle’s 1993 novel, telling the story of eccentric doctor and clean-living advocate John Harvey Kellogg. Heading the cast are Anthony Hopkins as Dr Kellogg, Matthew Broderick as William Lightbody, Bridget Fonda as his spouse Eleanor, and John Cusack as Charles Ossining. Dana Carvey, Michael Lerner, Colm Meaney, John Neville and Lara Flynn Boyle also co-star.

They should perhaps have called director Alan Parker’s 1994 comedy Carry On Cornflake, or maybe just Carry On Flake. Complete with silly, Ken Dodd-style false teeth, Anthony Hopkins overeggs the pudding wildly and slices some memorable ham as Dr John Harvey Kellogg, the eccentric inventor of the cornflake, who runs an unusual health spa, the Battle Creek Sanitarium, in Michigan in 1907. ‘The bowels are our passage to health,’ he proudly declares.

Based on the inventive novel by T Coraghessan Boyle, this crazy comedy is a bit of a rum do. But it’s stylish-looking in Peter Biziou’s handsome cinematography and funny if you share its upmarket Carry On-style sense of humour. The story tells of William Lightbody (Matthew Broderick)’s stay at the health farm after his wife Eleanor (Bridget Fonda) persuades him to go there to have his body cleaned of impurities. Will Lightbody brings up the phrase The Road to Wellville and sparks Dr Kellogg’s fury. 

The cast are Anthony Hopkins as Dr Kellogg, Matthew Broderick as William Lightbody, Bridget Fonda as his spouse Eleanor, John Cusack as Charles Ossining, Dana Carvey as the doctor’s adopted son George, and Colm Meaney as Dr Lionel Badger, Jacob Reynolds as Young George Kellogg, Michael Lerner as Goodloe Bender, Colm Meaney as Dr Lionel Badger, John Neville as Endymion Hart-Jones, Lara Flynn Boyle as Ida Muntz, Traci Lind as Nurse Graves, Camryn Manheim as Virginia Cranehill, Roy Brocksmith as Poultney Dab, Norbert Weisser as Dr Spitzvogel, Monica Parker, Michael Goodwin, Marshall Efron, Carole Shelley, Gabriel Barre, Robert Tracey, Ann Tucker, and Jemila Ericson.

The French called it Docteur Kellogg and the Germans Willkommen in Wellville.

It was shot at the Mohonk Mountain House, an historic stick-frame hotel in New Paltz, New York, and at the North Carolina towns of Winnabow and Wilmington.

It cost $25 million, and took only $6,562,513 in the US and Canada after some negative reviews, but eventually took $26 million worldwide, and after cable TV, DVD and Blu-ray release, has some cult esteem.

The title comes from a booklet called The Road to Wellville written by C W Post, a former sanitarium patient, inspired by his diet there to found a cereal business as a competitor to Kellogg’s. The story is a fictionalisation of John Harvey Kellogg,

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1878

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