The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944 film)

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The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Original film poster
Directed by	Rowland V. Lee
Produced by	Rowland V. Lee Benedict Bogeaus
Written by	Howard Estabrook Herman Weissman Thornton Wilder (novel)
Starring	Lynn Bari Francis Lederer Akim Tamiroff Alla Nazimova
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography	John W. Boyle John J. Mescall
Editing by	Harvey Manger
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	11 February 1944
Running time	107 min
Country	U.S.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a 1944 drama film made by Benedict Bogeaus Productions and released by United Artists. It was produced and directed by Rowland V. Lee with Benedict Bogeaus as co-producer. The screenplay was by Howard Estabrook and Herman Weissman, adapted from the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. The music score was by Dimitri Tiomkin and the cinematography by John W. Boyle and John J. Mescall.

The film stars Lynn Bari, Francis Lederer, Akim Tamiroff, Alla Nazimova and Louis Calhern.

Despite a low budget and several notable deviations from the Thornton Wilder novel, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score (Dimitri Tiomkin).

[edit] Background and production

The film and novel are very loosely based on the real life story of Micaela Villegas (1748—1819), a famous Peruvian entertainer known as La Perichole, whose life was also the inspiration for the novella Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, an opéra bouffe, La Périchole by Jacques Offenbach, Jean Renoir’s 1953 film Le Carrosse d'or (The Golden Coach) and an earlier part-talkie film version of The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) starring Lili Damita.