The Power and the Glory

The Power and the Glory (1933)

A man's life is retold just after his funeral. Beginning as a track walker, Tom Garner rose through all sorts of railroad jobs to head the company. In the meantime he lost touch with his family. When he saw what was happening it was already too late.

Date of release
1933-10-06
TMDB
5.9 / 10 (17)
Runtime
1h 16m
Genres
Drama
Director
William K. Howard

Casting

Interesting facts

The Power and the Glory is a 1933 pre-Code film starring Spencer Tracy and Colleen Moore, written by Preston Sturges, and directed by William K. Howard. The picture's screenplay was Sturges' first script, which he delivered complete in the form of a finished shooting script, for which he received $17,500 and a percentage of the profits. Profit-sharing arrangements, now a common practice in Hollywood, were then unusual and gained Sturges much attention.

Production

Sturges originally wrote the script as a freelance project after being let go by Universal Pictures. He told the story to producer Jesse L. Lasky, who had his own unit at Fox Film, and requested a treatment. Sturges refused to do a treatment, and instead delivered a finished shooting script, which Lasky said was "the most perfect script I'd ever seen", with nothing that needed to be trimmed.

Sturges offered the script to Lasky for $62,475, but Lasky instead structured a deal in which Sturges got $17,500 upon signing, 31⁄2% of the first $500,000 in receipts, 5% of the next $500,000, and 7% of all receipts over $1,000,000. Such a percentage deal was highly unusual at that time, and caused an uproar among producers and writers.

Both director William K. Howard and Spencer Tracy were supposed to have worked on Marie Galante, but when it was postponed, they were transferred to The Power and the Glory. Irene Dunne and Mary Astor were both considered for the part of Sally Garner, played by Colleen Moore. Moore was lent to Fox by MGM, as was Helen Vinson, and had not appeared in a film since 1929.

The film was in production from 23 March to late April 1933, with some re-shooting in June 1933. It had originally been set to begin in late February 1933, but was postponed several times.

Location shooting took place at the Hasson station beyond the Santa Susana Pass, using the largest locomotive in the west, leased from the Southern Pacific Railroad; and at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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