Viva Zapata

Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox, 1952. Vintage studio still photograph from the 1952 film. Snipe printed on the verso.

The culmination of screenwriter Steinbeck's long-standing fascination with Zapata, it was said that Steinbeck had begun work on a screenplay as early as 1948. The subject was a touchy one, as the MPAA's Production Code Administration had been discouraging studios from working on such a film, and there were prolonged negotiations with the Mexican government about approval over the film's release that culminated in a second cut of the film especially for Mexican distribution. Kazan and Steinbeck, both ex-communists, are said to have used this film to metaphorically express how they felt communism in the Soviet Union had gone off the rails.

The film won Anthony Quinn an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and it was nominated for four others. It also won Best Actor at Cannes and was nominated for the Grand Prize.

Set in early twentieth century Mexico, shot at the Twentieth Century-Fox back lot with location shooting along the Rio Grande and across the American Southwest.

8 x 10 inches. Near Fine, two manuscript annotations, one in black ink one in graphite, to the verso.

[Book #141345]