Behold My Wife! (1934 film)

Last updated
Behold My Wife!
BeholdMyWife1934Poster.jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Written bySir Gilbert Parker (novel)
Grover Jones (screenplay)
Vincent Lawrence (screenplay)
Produced by B. P. Schulberg
Adolph Zukor
Starring Sylvia Sidney
Gene Raymond
Cinematography Leon Shamroy
Music by John Leipold
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • December 7, 1934 (1934-12-07)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Behold My Wife! is a 1934 drama film directed by Mitchell Leisen. It stars Sylvia Sidney and Gene Raymond. [1] Based on a novel by Sir Gilbert Parker, The Translation of a Savage, [2] the story had been filmed before in the silent era in 1920 as Behold My Wife! starring Mabel Julienne Scott and Milton Sills. One of the plot's themes is a white man's romance and eventual marriage to an Apache woman.

Contents

Plot

Michael Carter, a young New York socialite, returns home drunk, telling the butler that he intends to marry Mary White the next day. The butler talks to Michael's parents, and the next morning, Michael's sister Diana pays a visit to Mary's apartment and ends the relationship because Michael's family finds the girl disgraceful. Diana tells Mary that Michael has left for France, and that he often falls in love with women and promises to wed them but then leaves them "at the church." Mary can't believe it, but Diana's lies are confirmed over the phone by Michael's butler. Diana presents the sobbing Mary with a check and a ticket to California, then exits. But just as Diana is about to drive in triumph, she hears a scream and sees the lifeless body of Mary on the street below her apartment. Diana tries to make excuses to Michael, who only vows vengeance.

In his despair about the loss of Mary, Michael drives out West stopping at many bars. At one bar he meets an intoxicated Apache man named Pete and invites him to share a drink from his bottle. Pete's girlfriend is the Apache Indian Tonita. Pete pulls out his pistol and in a fight he shoots Michael in the shoulder. Tonita tries to save her Indian friend, and Michael asks her to marry him as a way to get even with his prejudiced, status-seeking family.

At the station the family is awaiting Michael and everyone knows about Michael and Tonita. Michael's sister Diana proposes a big reception for the newlyweds and invites important people. The evening of the reception she sneaks into Tonita's room and convinces her to wear a beautiful night dress, whereas Michael wanted to dress her in her traditional Apache clothes to embarrass his parents. Tonita is beautiful and answers cleverly to impertinent people, but Michael is furious because he feels his family has triumphed over him. He tells Tonita about his rage against his family, and she angrily leaves with Bob Prentice. Diana follows them to Prentice's apartment and tells Prentice (who is her lover) that she left her husband for him. But Prentice doesn't want her back, so Diana finds a revolver and shoots him. Tonita proposes to take the blame as she feels she hasn't any reason to live and gives herself up to the police. Michael comes to Prentice's apartment and finds the body of Prentice. Michael makes up a confession and tells the police that he killed Prentice. But at the police station, his wife Tonita said that she killed Prentice in order to save Michael. When Michael is alone with Tonita, she confesses that his sister Diana killed Prentice. The police have been secretly listening to Tonita's confession so the married couple can now pursue their own life together.

Cast

Rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Related Research Articles

<i>My Man Godfrey</i> 1936 American comedy-drama film directed by Gregory La Cava

My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, who had been briefly married years before appearing together in the film. The screenplay for My Man Godfrey was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on 1101 Park Avenue, a short novel by Eric S. Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her family's butler, and then falls in love with him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Acker</span> American actress

Jean Acker was an American actress with a career dating from the silent film era through the 1950s. She was perhaps best known as the estranged wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino.

<i>Fort Apache</i> (film) 1948 film by John Ford

Fort Apache is a 1948 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. The film was the first of the director's "Cavalry Trilogy" and was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950), both also starring Wayne. The screenplay was inspired by James Warner Bellah's short story "Massacre" (1947). The historical sources for "Massacre" have been attributed both to George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn and to the Fetterman Fight.

<i>Oh, Boy!</i> (musical)

Oh, Boy! is a musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. The story concerns befuddled George, who elopes with Lou Ellen, the daughter of Judge Carter. He must win over her parents and his Quaker aunt. His dapper polo champion friend Jim is in love with madcap actress Jackie, but George must hide her while she extricates herself from a scrape with a bumbling constable whom she punched at a party raid.

<i>Romance in Manhattan</i> 1935 film by Stephen Roberts

Romance in Manhattan is a 1935 American comedy/romance film directed by Stephen Roberts, starring Francis Lederer and Ginger Rogers, and released by RKO Radio Pictures.

<i>Neath Brooklyn Bridge</i> 1942 film by Wallace Fox

'Neath Brooklyn Bridge is a 1942 film released by Monogram Pictures. It is the eleventh installment in the East Side Kids series and one of the more dramatic films of the series, released at a time when they were making lighter, more humorous fare. The film is now in public domain and can be downloaded legally from numerous web sites.

<i>The Phantom of Crestwood</i> 1932 film

The Phantom of Crestwood is a 1932 American pre-Code murder-mystery film released by Radio Pictures, directed by J. Walter Ruben, and starring Ricardo Cortez, Karen Morley, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Anita Louise, H.B. Warner, and Pauline Frederick. Morley plays Jenny Wren, who plans to extort money from various wealthy ex-lovers, after she lures them to a ranch called “Casa de Andes” near Crestwood, California. The picture features what Leonard Maltin called an "eye-popping" flashback technique, where the camera seems to whirl from one scene to the next, although William K. Howard had actually pioneered this technique earlier that year in The Trial of Vivienne Ware.

<i>Street Scene</i> (film) 1931 American pre-Code drama film by King Vidor

Street Scene is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by King Vidor. With a screenplay by Elmer Rice adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, Street Scene takes place on a New York City street from one evening until the following afternoon. Except for one scene which takes place inside a taxi, Vidor shot the entire film on a single set depicting half a city block of house fronts.

<i>Night World</i> (film) 1932 film

Night World is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film featuring Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, and Boris Karloff. The supporting cast includes George Raft and Hedda Hopper.

<i>Go Naked in the World</i> 1961 American drama Metrocolor film

Go Naked in the World is a 1961 American drama film written and directed by Ranald MacDougall and co-directed by an uncredited Charles Walters and produced by Aaron Rosenberg. The film stars Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Franciosa, and Ernest Borgnine. It is based on a 1959 novel of the same name by Tom T. Chamales.

<i>Old Wives for New</i> 1918 film

Old Wives for New is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Prints of the film survive at the International Museum of Photography and Film at George Eastman House.

<i>Lady Killer</i> (1933 film) 1933 film by Roy Del Ruth

Lady Killer is a 1933 American pre-Code crime drama film starring James Cagney, Mae Clarke, and Margaret Lindsay, based on the story "The Finger Man" by Rosalind Keating Shaffer. The picture was directed by Roy Del Ruth.

<i>My Best Girl</i> 1927 film by Sam Taylor

My Best Girl is a 1927 American silent romantic comedy film directed by Sam Taylor starring Mary Pickford and Charles "Buddy" Rogers that was produced by Pickford. Rogers later married Pickford. Charles Rosher received an Academy Award nomination for his cinematography of this film in 1928. The film is extant and was screened at the Eastman Museum in 2015.

<i>Turn Back the Clock</i> (film) 1933 film by Edgar Selwyn

Turn Back the Clock is a 1933 American pre-Code MGM fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Edgar Selwyn, written by Selwyn and Ben Hecht, and starring Mae Clarke and Lee Tracy. The protagonist has 20 years of his life to live over.

<i>Eyes in the Night</i> 1942 film by Fred Zinnemann

Eyes in the Night is a 1942 American crime mystery directed by Fred Zinnemann, based on Baynard Kendrick's 1941 novel The Odor of Violets and starring Edward Arnold, Ann Harding and Donna Reed.

<i>The Rise of Jennie Cushing</i> 1917 American film

The Rise of Jennie Cushing is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur, produced by Famous Players–Lasky, and distributed by Artcraft Pictures, an affiliate of Paramount Pictures. The story based upon the novel The Rise of Jennie Cushing by Mary Watts and stars Broadway's Elsie Ferguson. The film marked Ferguson's second motion picture. It is a lost film.

<i>Behold My Wife!</i> (1920 film) 1920 film by George Melford

Behold My Wife! is a lost 1920 American silent drama film directed by George Melford and starring Mabel Julienne Scott and Milton Sills in a filmization of Sir Gilbert Parker's novel, The Translation of a Savage. Famous Players–Lasky produced the film and Paramount Pictures distributed.

<i>Locked Doors</i> 1925 film

Locked Doors is a 1925 American silent romantic drama film directed by William C. deMille and starring Betty Compson. It was produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

<i>Affair in Reno</i> 1957 film by R. G. Springsteen

Affair in Reno is a 1957 American comedic crime adventure film directed by R. G. Springsteen from a screenplay by John K. Butler. The film stars John Lund, Doris Singleton, John Archer, Angela Greene and Alan Hale. The film was released on February 15, 1957 by Republic Pictures.

<i>Murder Is My Business</i> 1946 film by Sam Newfield

Murder Is My Business is a 1946 American action film directed by Sam Newfield and written by Fred Myton. It is based on the 1940 novel The Uncomplaining Corpses by Brett Halliday. The film stars Hugh Beaumont, Cheryl Walker, Lyle Talbot, George Meeker, Pierre Watkin, and Richard Keene. The film was released on March 7, 1946, by Producers Releasing Corporation.

References