The Story of Louis Pasteur
(1936)
84-85 or 87 mins | Drama | 22 February 1936
Director:
William DieterleWriters:
Sheridan Gibney, Pierre CollingsCinematographer:
Tony GaudioEditor:
Ralph DawsonProduction Designer:
Robert M. HaasProduction Company:
First National Productions Corp.At various times prior to release the film was entitled Enemy of Man, The Fighter, and Death Fighter. Paul Muni won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Pasteur. Writers Sheridan Gibney and Pierre Collings also won Oscars for Best Original Story and Best Screenplay. The film was nominated for Best Picture and was on the NYT list of the best films of 1936, and the FD list of ten best films. The National Board of Review named it the best picture of 1936 and it was one of the top moneymaking films of the year.
A news item in DV notes that over 100 notes were received from anti-vivesectionists angered by a film honoring Pasteur, claiming that his experiments were cruel to animals. Modern sources note that Muni was also awarded the Volpi Cup by the International Cinema Exposition Committee in Venice, Italy. Muni and Leiber repeated their roles for a radio adaptation which was broadcast on the Lux Radio Theatre over CBS on 23 Nov 1936. In his autobiography, producer Hal Wallis notes the extensive research performed by the studio. Files at the Mayo Clinic trophy room and the Bausch-Lomb Corporation Library were studied. The Breen office insisted that dead or dying sheep must not be shown on screen. Modern sources note that Gibney worked almost alone on the screenplay as co-author Collings was too seriously ill to write; Wallis did not like the material and asked to have Gibney replaced by Laird Doyle, but at Muni's insistence Gibney was retained, and to punish Muni, the ...
At various times prior to release the film was entitled Enemy of Man, The Fighter, and Death Fighter. Paul Muni won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Pasteur. Writers Sheridan Gibney and Pierre Collings also won Oscars for Best Original Story and Best Screenplay. The film was nominated for Best Picture and was on the NYT list of the best films of 1936, and the FD list of ten best films. The National Board of Review named it the best picture of 1936 and it was one of the top moneymaking films of the year.
A news item in DV notes that over 100 notes were received from anti-vivesectionists angered by a film honoring Pasteur, claiming that his experiments were cruel to animals. Modern sources note that Muni was also awarded the Volpi Cup by the International Cinema Exposition Committee in Venice, Italy. Muni and Leiber repeated their roles for a radio adaptation which was broadcast on the Lux Radio Theatre over CBS on 23 Nov 1936. In his autobiography, producer Hal Wallis notes the extensive research performed by the studio. Files at the Mayo Clinic trophy room and the Bausch-Lomb Corporation Library were studied. The Breen office insisted that dead or dying sheep must not be shown on screen. Modern sources note that Gibney worked almost alone on the screenplay as co-author Collings was too seriously ill to write; Wallis did not like the material and asked to have Gibney replaced by Laird Doyle, but at Muni's insistence Gibney was retained, and to punish Muni, the film was budgeted at under $400,000 and was filmed partially on converted musical film sets--in one case a Busby Berkeley set became the palace of Napoleon III--and the laboratory set from The Mystery of the Wax Museum. Modern sources also note that Warner Bros. was not convinced that the film would attract an audience and initially sold it to exhibitors for a smaller than usual percentage of the gross. The film's success convinced Wallis to proceed with another medical biography, he notes in his autobiography, and he and Robert Lord soon began preparations for a film on Florence Nightingale (See Entry for The White Angel). Modern sources add the following credits: Makeup Clay Campbell.
Enemy of Man
The Fighter
In 1860, chemist Louis Pasteur is scorned by most doctors because of his theory that germs cause disease. When a doctor is killed by the husband of one of his patients who died of puerperal fever, because the husband read Pasteur's pamphlet advocating the sterilization of instruments, Pasteur is ordered to stop publishing. Ten years later, there is an epidemic of anthrax in France which is decimating the livestock needed to pay war reparations to Prussia. Only one area has no problem with the disease. Dr. Radisse and his assistant, Dr. Jean Martel, investigate and learn that Pasteur has been inoculating the district's sheep for free. Although Martel is curious and stays behind to study with Pasteur, Radisse is skeptical. He believes that for some reason the soil in the area is free of the disease, and to prove his theory he imports sheep. Pasteur tries to stop him, and another doctor proposes that Pasteur inoculate half the sheep to see if his vaccine is really effective. At the end of the test, all the inoculated sheep are alive while the uninoculated ones are dead. After watching a villager die from rabies, Pasteur begins work on a cure for the disease. He has no luck until Dr. Charbonnet injects himself with rabies virus to prove it cannot cause the illness. When he does not become ill, Pasteur realizes that the virus loses its virulence over time and conceives the idea of injecting increasing amounts of rabies virus in order to build resistance. He reluctantly experiments on a small boy bitten by a rabid dog. In the ...
In 1860, chemist Louis Pasteur is scorned by most doctors because of his theory that germs cause disease. When a doctor is killed by the husband of one of his patients who died of puerperal fever, because the husband read Pasteur's pamphlet advocating the sterilization of instruments, Pasteur is ordered to stop publishing. Ten years later, there is an epidemic of anthrax in France which is decimating the livestock needed to pay war reparations to Prussia. Only one area has no problem with the disease. Dr. Radisse and his assistant, Dr. Jean Martel, investigate and learn that Pasteur has been inoculating the district's sheep for free. Although Martel is curious and stays behind to study with Pasteur, Radisse is skeptical. He believes that for some reason the soil in the area is free of the disease, and to prove his theory he imports sheep. Pasteur tries to stop him, and another doctor proposes that Pasteur inoculate half the sheep to see if his vaccine is really effective. At the end of the test, all the inoculated sheep are alive while the uninoculated ones are dead. After watching a villager die from rabies, Pasteur begins work on a cure for the disease. He has no luck until Dr. Charbonnet injects himself with rabies virus to prove it cannot cause the illness. When he does not become ill, Pasteur realizes that the virus loses its virulence over time and conceives the idea of injecting increasing amounts of rabies virus in order to build resistance. He reluctantly experiments on a small boy bitten by a rabid dog. In the meantime, Pasteur's daughter Annette, who has married Martel, is about to give birth. The only doctor available to attend her is Pasteur's old enemy Charbonnet. Pasteur insists that he use sterile means to deliver the child, and Charbonnet agrees if Pasteur will sign a letter testifying that his studies are worthless in light of the fact that Charbonnet did not contract rabies. To save his daughter, Pasteur agrees. When the bitten child recovers, however, Charbonnet is humbled and admits Pasteur's genius. After suffering a stroke, Pasteur is at long last honored for his achievements on his seventieth birthday.
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement AwardTOP SEARCHES
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
According to HR news items, "The Gentleman from Montana" (an unpublished story by Lewis R. Foster, alternately called "The Gentleman from Wyoming" by both contemporary and modern ... >>
Casablanca
In the onscreen credits, actor S. Z. Sakall's name is incorrectly spelled "S. K. Sakall." HR news items add the following information about the production: ... >>
The Grapes of Wrath
According to materials contained in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, Fox paid John Steinbeck $70,000 for the rights to his ... >>
Citizen Kane
This film's end credits begin with the statement, “Most of the principal actors in Citizen Kane are new to motion pictures. The Mercury Theatre is proud ... >>
Gone with the Wind
[Note from the Editors : the following information is based on contemporary news items, feature articles, reviews, interviews, memoranda and corporate records. Information obtained from modern sources is ... >>
