Winterset is a 1936 crime film

Crime film

Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...

 directed by Alfred Santell

Alfred Santell

Alfred Santell was an American film director born September 14, 1895 in San Francisco, California. He directed over 60 films, including The Patent Leather Kid , Body and Soul , and Beyond the Blue Horizon...

, based on the play

Winterset (play)

Winterset is a play by Maxwell Anderson.A verse drama written largely in poetic form, the tragedy deals indirectly with the famous Sacco-Vanzetti case, in which two Italian immigrants with radical political beliefs were executed...

 by Maxwell Anderson

Maxwell Anderson

James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist.-Early years:Anderson was born in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to William Lincoln "Link" Anderson, a Baptist minister, and Charlotte Perrimela Stephenson, both of Scots and Irish descent...

.

The film greatly changes the ending of the play, in which the lovers Mio and Miriamne are shot to death by gangsters. In the film, the two are cornered, but Mio deliberately causes a commotion by loudly playing a nearby abandoned hurdy gurdy

Hurdy gurdy

The hurdy gurdy or hurdy-gurdy is a stringed musical instrument that produces sound by a crank-turned rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to a violin...

 and deliberately causing himself and Miriamne to be arrested, thus placing them out of reach from the gangsters.

Cast

• Burgess Meredith
  Burgess Meredith
  Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
  
   - Mio Romagna
• Margo - Miriamne Esdras
• Eduardo Ciannelli
  Eduardo Ciannelli
  Eduardo Ciannelli, sometimes credited as Edward Ciannelli, , was an Italian baritone and character actor with a long career in American films, mostly playing gangsters and criminals.-Early life:...
  
   - Trock Estrella
• Maurice Moscovitch - Esdras
• Paul Guilfoyle
  Paul Guilfoyle
  Paul Guilfoyle is an American television and film actor. He is currently a regular cast member of the forensic television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation where he plays Captain Jim Brass.-Early life:...
  
   - Garth Esdras
• Edward Ellis
  Edward Ellis (actor)
  Edward Mayne Ellis was an American film actor. He is best known for playing the title role in The Thin Man, as well as in A Man to Remember.-Early life:...
  
   - Judge Gaunt
• Stanley Ridges
  Stanley Ridges
  Stanley Ridges was a British-born actor who made his mark in films by playing a wide assortment of character parts...
  
   - Shadow
• Mischa Auer
  Mischa Auer
  Mischa Auer was a Russian-born American actor.-Early life:Auer was born Mikhail Semyonovich Unskovsky in St. Petersburg, Russia...
  
   - A radical
• Willard Robertson
  Willard Robertson
  Willard Robertson was an American actor. He appeared in 146 films between 1924 and 1948. He was born in Runnels, Texas and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:*Graft *Shanghaied Love...
  
   - Policeman
• Alec Craig - Oak
• John Carradine
  John Carradine
  John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
  
   - Bartolomeo Romagna
• Myron McCormick
  Myron McCormick
  Myron McCormick was an American actor of stage, radio and film.McCormick was born as Walter Myron McCormick in Albany, Indiana....
  
   - Carr
• Helen Jerome Eddy
  Helen Jerome Eddy
  Helen Jerome Eddy was a motion picture actress from New York, New York. She was noted as a character actress who played genteel heroines in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm .-Biography:...
  
   - Maria Romagna
• Barbara Pepper - A girl
• Fernanda Eliscu - Piny

Awards

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Art Direction

Academy Award for Best Art Direction

The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...

 by Perry Ferguson

Perry Ferguson

Perry Ferguson was an American art director. He was nominated for five Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.He was born in Texas and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:...

 and the other for Original Score

Academy Award for Original Music Score

The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...

 by Nathaniel Shilkret

Nathaniel Shilkret

Nathaniel Shilkret was an American composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, business executive, and music director born in New York City, New York to an Austrian immigrant family.-Early career:...

.