Anthony Adverse

An early stab at the swashbuckler from Warner Brothers, which proved popular at the time but hasn't improved with age. A deluxe period production, adapted from Hervey Allen's doorstop novel about 'the adventures of a soul in quest of ultimate truth', it meanders along with its gallant hero through France, Africa, the Americas and countless contrivances, with little sense of discrimination or structure. Although there are plenty of welcome faces in the cast, March isn't one of them: he hasn't the dash or the zest of an adventurer, and the film quickly becomes arduous to sit through.