''Merely Mary Ann'' a 1931 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

romantic comedy drama film starring Janet Gaynor and

Charles Farrell Charles David Farrell (August 9, 1900 – May 6, 1990) was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor. Farrell is probably best recalled for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor ...

. Gaynor and Farrell made almost a dozen films together, including Frank Borzage's classics '' Seventh Heaven'' (1927), '' Street Angel'' (1928), and '' Lucky Star'' (1929); Gaynor won the first

Academy Award for Best Actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year ...

for the first two and

F. W. Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...

's '' Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans''. The film, involving an orphan (Gaynor) and a flat-broke composer (Farrell), was written by

Jules Furthman Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 – September 22, 1966) was an American magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter. Biography Furthman was born in Chicago. His brother was the writer Charles Furthman. During World War I he wr ...

based upon

Israel Zangwill Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and ...

's play of the same name and directed by Henry King.

Plot

Orphan drudge Mary Ann finds love and hope in the arms of a promising but poor composer, John Lonsdale.

Cast

* Janet Gaynor as Mary Ann *

as John Lonsdale *

Beryl Mercer Beryl Mercer (August 13, 1882 – July 28, 1939) was a Spanish-born American actress of stage and screen who was based in the United States. Early years Beryl Mercer was born to British parents in Seville on 13 August 1882. Her father wa ...

as Mrs. Leadbatter * J. M. Kerrigan as First Drayman * Tom Whiteley as Second Drayman * Lorna Balfour as Lorna Leadbatter *

Arnold Lucy Arnold Lucy (born Walter George Campbell, 8 August 1865 – 15 December 1945) was a British theatre and film actor, best known as Professor Kantorek in ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930). Life and career Lucy was the youngest of the six ...

as Vicar Smedge * G. P. Huntley as Peter Brooke *

Harry Rosenthal Harry Rosenthal (15 May c. 1893 – 10 May 1953) was an orchestra leader, composer, pianist and actor. Biography Rosenthal was born in Belfast in 1893, and by the 1920s he was in London where he had a thriving musical career as a composer ...

References

External links

* * * (Original novel) 1931 films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films American films based on plays Films directed by Henry King 1930s romantic comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films Films with screenplays by Jules Furthman Fox Film films 1931 comedy films 1931 drama films 1930s American films Silent romantic comedy-drama films Silent American comedy-drama films {{1930s-comedy-drama-film-stub