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 ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...
, directed by
Harlan Thompson
Harlan Thompson (24 September 1890 – 29 October 1966) was an American theatre director, screenwriter, lyricist, film director, and film and television producer. He wrote the Broadway hit ''Little Jessie James'' (1923–24), and several other B ...
and
Slavko Vorkapich
Slavoljub "Slavko" Vorkapić ( sr-Cyrl, Славољуб "Славко" Воркапић; March 17, 1894 – October 20, 1976), known in English as Slavko Vorkapich, was a Serbian-born Hollywood montagist, an independent cinematic artist, chair ...
, and released by RKO. The film is a remake of the silent film ''
The Goose Woman
The Goose Woman is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Louise Dresser with Jack Pickford as her son. The film was released by Universal Pictures.
Mary Holmes, once a famous opera star known as Maria di Nardi, now lives in a run-down shanty and suffers from alcoholism. Known for her eccentric behavior, Mary breeds geese, and is thus known in her neighborhood as "the Goose Woman". She blames her grown son Geoffrey for the deterioration of her voice and does everything to destroy his life.
When Geoffrey, a commercial artist, tells her that he is going to marry actress Joan Hoyt, she becomes torn with jealousy and threatens to reveal to Joan that he is illegitimate. Not allowing his mother the satisfaction of destroying his life, Geoffrey decides to break the news to Joan himself. Joan, who has just ended an affair with a womanizing theatre backer, G. K. Ethridge, tells him that she wants to proceed their wedding plans. Geoffrey then breaks ties with his mother and heads out to Chicago on an assignment.
Meanwhile, Jacob Riggs, a doorman at the Ethridge theatre, shoots and kills his boss on the evening when he is awaiting his final rendezvous with Joan, due to his constant affairs with innocent women. Mary, who lives next to the place where the crime is committed, sees opportunity in getting recognition and fame as Maria di Nardi, after hearing the gunshots. She fabricates a sensational story for the press and media, unaware that her story implicates Geoffrey as a prime suspect.
Following drunken testimony by Mary, Geoffrey is indicted on circumstantial evidence by a grand jury. Despite denying the testimony when she realizes what she is doing to Geoffrey, he is found guilty and sent to jail, awaiting the death penalty. Overcome with grief, Mary uses Joan's help to convince Jacob to turn himself in for the crime. Geoffrey is freed from jail and can finally marry Joan. Mary burns down her shanty as a symbolic gesture of leaving her past behind, in order to join Geoffrey and her daughter-in-law in a joyful future.
Cast
*
Helen MacKellar
Helen MacKellar (February 13, 1895 – August 5, 1966) was an American actress.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, MacKeller's ancestry was Scottish and French-Canadian. She studied acting in Chicago and Spokane. Her stage debut came in Spokane in ''Th ...
as Mary Holmes/Maria di Nardi
* Eric Linden as Geoffrey Holmes
*
Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s.
Arthur had feature roles in three F ...
as Joan Hoyt
*
Richard "Skeets" Gallagher
Richard "Skeets" Gallagher (July 28, 1891 – May 22, 1955) was an American actor. He had blue eyes and his naturally blond hair was tinged with grey from the age of sixteen.
Biography
He was born on July 28, 1891 in Terre Haute, Indiana. ...
as Ben Pratt
*Ivan F. Simpson as Jacob Riggs
*
Clay Clement
Clay Clement (May 19, 1888 – October 20, 1956) was an American stage, film, and TV actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1918 and 1947. Clement was one of the earliest members of the Screen Actors Guild.J. Carrol Naish as Gary Kent
*
Roscoe Ates
Roscoe Blevel Ates (January 20, 1895 – March 1, 1962) was an American vaudeville performer, actor of stage and screen, comedian and musician who primarily featured in western films and television. He was best known as western character S ...
Edward J. Nugent
Edward James Nugent (February 7, 1904 – January 3, 1995) was an American film and stage actor.
Biography
Born in 1904 in New York City, Nugent appeared in more than 80 films between 1928 and 1937. He subsequently had a second acting career ...
as Flanagan
Background
Based on the short story of the same name, the film was initially in production under the title ''The Goose Woman''. Initially, screenwriter Samuel Ornitz was to adapt the story with Marion Dix, but
Eddie Doherty
Edward J. "Eddie" Doherty (October 30, 1890 – May 4, 1975) was an American newspaper reporter, author and Oscar-nominated screenwriter. He is the co-founder of the Madonna House Apostolate, and later ordained a priest in the Melkite Greek ...
later took over.
Produced on a low budget, the film was released as a
double feature
The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.
Opera use
Opera h ...