The Story of Louis Pasteur **** (1936, Paul Muni, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise) – Classic Movie Review 10,830

Director William Dieterle’s 1936 historical drama The Story of Louis Pasteur won three Oscars: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Muni), Best Original Story (Pierre Collings, Sheridan Gibney) and Best Screenplay (Pierre Collings, Sheridan Gibney). However it missed out on Best Picture.

Warner Bros revives the biopic formula and comes up with a surprise hit, thanks to Paul Muni playing with Oscar-winning conviction the part of Louis Pasteur, the French pioneering microbiologist scientist looking for a cure for anthrax.

The Oscar winning script is both intelligent and riveting.

Studio boss Jack Warner thought he had a flop on his hands and made it cheaply using a former Busby Berkeley nightclub set as the Academy of Science amphitheatre.

Muni also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice Film Festival in 1936.

It was shot on Stage 12, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California.

It is unexpectedly short at 86 minutes.

Paul Muni was born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund in Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary.

Also in the cast are Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise, Donald Woods, Fritz Leiber, Henry O’Neill, Porter Hall, Akim Tamiroff, Raymond Brown, Herbert Heywood, Halliwell Hobbes, Frank Reicher, Dickie Moore, Ruth Robinson, Iphigenie Castiglioni, Herbert Corthell, Bill Elliott, Walter Kingsford, Robert Strange, Richard Alexander, George Beranger, William Burress, Wheaton Chambers, Mabel Colcord, Alphonse Ethier, Brenda Fowler, Baron Hesse, Otto Hoffman, Wilfred Lucas, Eric Mayne, Frank Mayo, Leonard Mudie, Tempe Pigott, Jack Santoro, Ferdinand Schumann-Heink, C Montague Shaw, Leonid Snegoff, Edward van Sloan, Fred Walton, Niles Welch and Lottie Williams.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,830

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com