The Male Animal
Encyclopedia
The Male Animal is a Warner Brothers film starring Henry Fonda
, Olivia de Havilland
and Joan Leslie
.
The film was based on a hit 1940 Broadway play of the same name written by James Thurber
and Elliott Nugent
. The screenplay was written by Stephen Morehouse Avery
, Julius J. Epstein
, and Philip G. Epstein
, based on Nugent and Thurber's play. The film was also directed by Elliott Nugent.
The school's conservative trustees threaten to fire him if he doesn't withdraw the reading from his lecture. The subject of free speech and Turner's dilemma of conscience anchor the film's drama. A lighter subplot concerns a return visit by Joe Ferguson (Jack Carson
), a football hero and former love interest of Turner's wife (de Havilland) at the very moment when their marriage is being tested by the events on campus.
who had starred as Patricia Stanley in the original Broadway
production was unable to appear in the film because she was contracted to star in John Ford
's movie version of Tobacco Road
. Don DeFore, another member of the Broadway cast, repeated his role in the film. Co-writer Elliott Nugent played the lead role on the stage before coming to Hollywood to direct Henry Fonda in the film version.
called She's Working Her Way Through College (1952), starring Virginia Mayo
and Ronald Reagan
. In this adaptation, the characters' names are changed. Also, the political theme is discarded in favor of a conflict surrounding the professor's attempt to mount a musical play featuring a student who is discovered to be a former burlesque dancer.
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
and Joan Leslie
Joan Leslie
Joan Leslie is a retired American film and television actress.-Early life:Leslie was born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel in Detroit, Michigan, and raised Roman Catholic. She began performing as a singer at the age of nine as part of a vaudeville act with her two sisters; Betty and Mae Brodel...
.
The film was based on a hit 1940 Broadway play of the same name written by James Thurber
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...
and Elliott Nugent
Elliott Nugent
Elliott Nugent was an American actor, writer, and film director. He successfully made the transition from silent film to sound. He directed The Cat and the Canary , starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard...
. The screenplay was written by Stephen Morehouse Avery
Stephen Morehouse Avery
Stephen Morehouse Avery was an American author who wrote numerous Hollywood screenplays. His daughter is the actress Phyllis Avery....
, Julius J. Epstein
Julius J. Epstein
Julius J. Epstein was an American screenwriter, who had a long career, best remembered for the adaptation - in partnership with his twin brother, Philip, and others - of the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's that became the screenplay for the film Casablanca , for which its team of writers...
, and Philip G. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein was an American screenwriter most known for his adaptation in partnership with his twin brother, Julius, and others, of the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's which became the Academy Award-winning screenplay of the film Casablanca .Epstein was born in New York City and...
, based on Nugent and Thurber's play. The film was also directed by Elliott Nugent.
Plot
Tommy Turner (Fonda) is an English teacher at football-crazed Midwestern University in this comedy-drama. Although he is uninvolved with the politics of the day, Turner suddenly finds himself the center of a free-speech debate on campus. An editorial in a student magazine reveals that he plans to read Bartolomeo Vanzetti's sentencing statement to his class as an example of English composition.The school's conservative trustees threaten to fire him if he doesn't withdraw the reading from his lecture. The subject of free speech and Turner's dilemma of conscience anchor the film's drama. A lighter subplot concerns a return visit by Joe Ferguson (Jack Carson
Jack Carson
John Elmer "Jack" Carson was a Canadian-born U.S.-based film actor.Jack Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the 'golden age of Hollywood', with a film career spanning the 1930s, '40s and '50s...
), a football hero and former love interest of Turner's wife (de Havilland) at the very moment when their marriage is being tested by the events on campus.
Cast
- Henry FondaHenry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
as Tommy Turner - Olivia de HavillandOlivia de HavillandOlivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
as Ellen Turner - Joan LeslieJoan LeslieJoan Leslie is a retired American film and television actress.-Early life:Leslie was born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel in Detroit, Michigan, and raised Roman Catholic. She began performing as a singer at the age of nine as part of a vaudeville act with her two sisters; Betty and Mae Brodel...
as Patricia Stanley - Jack CarsonJack CarsonJohn Elmer "Jack" Carson was a Canadian-born U.S.-based film actor.Jack Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the 'golden age of Hollywood', with a film career spanning the 1930s, '40s and '50s...
as Joe Ferguson - Eugene PalletteEugene PalletteEugene William Pallette was an American actor. He appeared in over 240 silent era and sound era motion pictures between 1913 and 1946....
as Ed Keller - Herbert AndersonHerbert AndersonHerbert Anderson was an American character actor from Oakland, California, probably best remembered for his part as Henry Mitchell in the classic television sitcom Dennis The Menace.-Career:...
as Michael Barnes - Hattie McDanielHattie McDanielHattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
as Cleota - Don DeForeDon DeForeDonald John DeFore was an American actor who played "the regular guy" and "the good, ol' boy next door" in many films in the 1940s and 1950s.-Life and career:...
as Wally Myers - Gig YoungGig YoungGig Young was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.-Early life and career:Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St...
as a student (uncredited)
Production
Gene TierneyGene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include...
who had starred as Patricia Stanley in the original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production was unable to appear in the film because she was contracted to star in John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's movie version of Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road (film)
Tobacco Road is a 1941 film directed by John Ford starring Charley Grapewin, Marjorie Rambeau, Gene Tierney, William Tracy and Dana Andrews. It was based on the novel of the same name by Erskine Caldwell, but the plot was rewritten for the film.-Cast:...
. Don DeFore, another member of the Broadway cast, repeated his role in the film. Co-writer Elliott Nugent played the lead role on the stage before coming to Hollywood to direct Henry Fonda in the film version.
She's Working Her Way Through College
The Male Animal was loosely reworked by Warner Brothers as a musicalMusical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
called She's Working Her Way Through College (1952), starring Virginia Mayo
Virginia Mayo
Virginia Mayo was an American film actress.After a short career in vaudeville, Mayo progressed to films and during the 1940s established herself as a supporting player in such films as The Best Years of Our Lives and White Heat .Mayo remained an A-list actress into the mid-'50s, but then went...
and Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
. In this adaptation, the characters' names are changed. Also, the political theme is discarded in favor of a conflict surrounding the professor's attempt to mount a musical play featuring a student who is discovered to be a former burlesque dancer.