''The Gay Bride'' is a 1934

gangster film A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform certain illegal acts. The ...

screwball comedy Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary charact ...

starring

Carole Lombard Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard ...

as a wisecracking gold-digger and

Chester Morris John Chester Brooks Morris (February 16, 1901 – September 11, 1970) was an American stage, film, television, and radio actor. He had some prestigious film roles early in his career, and received an Academy Award nomination for ''Alibi'' ( ...

as the poor man she despises. It was directed by Jack Conway and written by the husband-and-wife team of Sam and Bella Spewak, based on the story "Repeal" by Charles Francis Coe.

Plot

Gold-digging chorus girl Mary (

) marries the head of a bootlegging syndicate, gangster "Shoots" Magiz (

Nat Pendleton Nathaniel Greene Pendleton (August 9, 1895 – October 12, 1967) was an American Olympic wrestler, film actor, and stage performer. His younger brother, Edmund J. Pendleton (1899–1987), was a well-known music composer and choir ...

), but his illegal liquor business goes down the drain when

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

is repealed, and Shoots is knocked off by rival Daniel Dingle (Sam Hardy). Mary, looking for a new sugar daddy, hooks up with Dingle, and when Dingle is removed from the scene by Mickey "The Greek" Mikapopoulis (

Leo Carrillo Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo (; August 6, 1880 – September 10, 1961) was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist. He was notable for playing Pancho in the television series ''The Cisco Kid'' (1950–1956 ...

), transfers her attention to him in return for a "trust fund." All the time, fast-talking straight-shooter Jimmy "Office Boy" Burnham (

), Shoots' former bodyguard and errand boy, has looked after Mary, passing her advice and snappy remarks whenever needed. In the end, Mary and Office Boy end up together but only after "Merry Widow Mary" gives away all the dirty money she was given.

Cast

as Mary Magiz *

as Jimmy "Office Boy" Burnham *

ZaSu Pitts ZaSu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, starred in many silent film drama film, dramas, such as Erich von Stroheim's 1924 epic ''Greed (1924 film), Greed'', along wi ...

as Mirabelle *

as Mickey "The Greek" Mikapopoulis *

as William T. "Shoots" Magiz * Walter Walker as MacPherson, the lawyer ;Cast notes: *

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson Edmund Lincoln Anderson (September 18, 1905 – February 28, 1977) was an American actor and comedian. To a generation of early radio and television comedy audiences, he was known as "Rochester". Anderson entered show business as a teenager on ...

has a small uncredited part as a bootblack. *

Gene Lockhart Edwin Eugene Lockhart (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957)"Gene Lockhart"
''The ...

also has a small part as a crooked politician, Jim Smiley.

Production

''The Gay Bride'' began shooting on 20 September 1934 and finished on 23 October. It used the working title of "Repeal", which was the title of the short story by Charles Francis Coe it was based on,TC
Overview
/ref> which had been published in the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

'' at the end of 1933. The title refers to the repeal of

, which ruined the business of the bootlegger played by Nat Pendelton. When casting the film,

Jean Harlow Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...

was considered for the female lead, and

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American actor often referred to as the "King of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". He appeared in more than 60 Film, motion pictures across a variety of Film genre, genres dur ...

Lyle Talbot Lyle Talbot (born Lisle Henderson, also credited Lysle Talbot; February 8, 1902 – March 2, 1996) was an American stage, screen and television actor. His career in films spanned three decades, from 1931 to 1960, and he performed on a wide ...

Ricardo Cortez Ricardo Cortez (born Jacob Kranze or Jacob Krantz; September 19, 1900 – April 28, 1977) was an American actor and film director. He was also credited as Jack Crane early in his acting career. Early years Ricardo Cortez was born Jacob K ...

Russell Hardie William Russell Hardie (May 21, 1904 – July 21, 1973) was an American film actor. Hardie was the son of William and Katherine Hardie. He appeared in '' The Costello Case'', '' Broadway to Hollywood'', ''Stage Mother'', '' Christopher Bean' ...

and

Richard Arlen Richard Arlen (born Sylvanus Richard Mattimore, September 1, 1899 – March 28, 1976) was an American actor of film and television. Early days Arlen served in Canada as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. He later taught as ...

for the male lead. For the role played by

Una Merkel Una Merkel (December 10, 1903 – January 2, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress. Merkel was born in Kentucky and acted on stage in New York in the 1920s. She went to Hollywood in 1930 and became a popular fil ...

and

Isabel Jewell Isabel Jewell (July 19, 1907 – April 5, 1972) was an American actress, who rose to prominence in the 1930s and early 1940s. Some of her more famous films were '' Ceiling Zero'', ''Marked Woman'', ''A Tale of Two Cities'', and ''Gone with the Wi ...

were considered.TC
Notes
/ref>

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

borrowed Lombard from

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

for the film, the only one she was to make for the studio despite her non-exclusive contract with Paramount that allowed her to work wherever she wanted in Hollywood.LoBianco, Lorrain
"The Gay Bride" (TCM article)
/ref>Osborne, Robert. Introduction to Turner Classic Movies broadcast of ''The Gay Bride'' (7 October 2008).

Reception

The film was released in the United States on 14 December 1934, and did not earn praise from the critics nor was it successful at the box office. ''Variety'' wrote that

Gangster pictures are gone, and this one won’t do anything to bring them back. It’ll do more to consign them permanently to Davey Jones’ locker down where ox officegrosses don’t count. It deals with hoodlums in a post-prohibition era, but fails to freshen up the story and the conventional means taken to carry it out.

''Photoplay'' wrote that the film was "A good story loaded with plot complications and blurry character drawings. Even ZaSu Pitts seems more bewildered than usual." Lombard considered the picture one of her worst, and co-star Chester Morris was aware that the film was a "turkey" while they were filming it.

Notes

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gay Bride, The 1934 films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films Films directed by Jack Conway Films about organized crime in the United States Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films American crime comedy films 1930s crime comedy films 1934 comedy films 1930s American films English-language crime comedy films