Burgess Meredith made an auspicious film debut in Winterset, an adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's play set among the downtrodden in the Brooklyn slums. The story, based on the Sacco-Vanzetti case, follows a young man in his determined search for the perpetrator of a crime for which his innocent father paid with his life. The film retains the stylized blank verse of the stage play, while visually, it is an American version of German Expressionism in its treatment of a socialist theme.
Charles Hopkins of the UCLA Film Archives notes, “Burgess Meredith, Margo, and Maurice Moscovitch capably recreated the roles they had played on the stage. You may agree, though, that the movie's acting honors were won by Eduardo Cianelli for his terrifying and totally convincing portrayal of the dying gangster, Trock Estrella.”