Christopher Bean

Last updated

Christopher Bean
Directed by Sam Wood
Written byLaurence E. Johnson
Sylvia Thalberg
Based on The Late Christopher Bean
by Sidney Howard;
Prenez garde à la peinture by René Fauchois
Produced by Harry Rapf
Starring Marie Dressler
Lionel Barrymore
Helen Mack
Beulah Bondi
Russell Hardie
Cinematography William H. Daniels
Edited by Hugh Wynn
Music by Herbert Stothart
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • November 17, 1933 (1933-11-17)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Christopher Bean is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Sam Wood and written by Laurence E. Johnson and Sylvia Thalberg, based on the 1932 play, The Late Christopher Bean , by Sidney Howard. The film stars Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore, Helen Mack, Beulah Bondi, and Russell Hardie. The film was released on November 17, 1933, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. [1] [2] It was Dressler's final role before her death from cancer in July 1934.

Contents

Plot

After learning that several paintings by deceased artist Christopher Bean, whose life few people know anything about, may be located at the home of Dr. Milton Haggett, New York art critic Maxwell Davenport and rival art dealers Rosen and Tallant set off for Haggett's Massachusetts home. There, the unsuspecting, impoverished Haggett family receives a telegram from Davenport, informing them that he'll arrive at noon to discuss Bean, his favorite artist. Milton and Hannah Haggett and their unmarried daughters, Susan and Ada, are surprised by the telegram, as they had always regarded Bean as a failed incompetent. Only their maid, Abby, who is about to quit and leave for Chicago, has fond memories of the dead painter.

Before Davenport's arrival, Warren Creamer, a former student of Bean's who makes his living as a paperhanger, comes by the Haggett house to court Susan. Because Warren's prospects appear dim, Susan's social-climbing mother discourages his visit, while Ada, who is determined to marry before her younger sister does, boldly competes for his attentions. When Warren makes clear his intentions to marry Susan, however, Ada and her mother angrily throw him out of the house.

A short time later, Tallant arrives; while posing as the magnanimous Davenport, he gives Milton one hundred dollars as payment for Bean's long-outstanding medical bills. Surprised by his apparent good fortune, Milton happily gives Tallant a Bean painting, which he had been using to stop leaks in his chicken house. When Tallant learns that the back of another Bean painting has been used as a canvas by Ada, he buys her amateurish painting for fifty dollars. Later, Abby—who has agreed to help Susan and Warren elope—is approached by the conniving Tallant, who knows that Bean had a special rapport with her. She reveals that Bean painted a portrait of her just before he died but refuses to sell it to Tallant.

Moments later, Rosen shows up at the house and offers Milton $1,000 for any Bean paintings he has. Before Milton agrees to Rosen's deal, Davenport arrives and, after identifying himself, explains to the Haggetts that Bean's work is now worth tens of thousands of dollars. The Haggetts then receive a telegram from the New York Metropolitan Museum, which offers them a sizable sum for their Bean paintings. Inspired by the promise of big money, the Haggetts begin a desperate search throughout the house, but quit when Hannah finally confesses that, years before, she threw a bundle of Bean canvases into a bonfire.

Determined to cash in on their old acquaintance, Milton, Hannah and Ada try to trick the still-uninformed Abby out of her portrait by offering to buy it for fifty dollars. After Abby refuses to sell, the painting's true worth is revealed to her, and she angrily decries her employers while admitting that she had saved seventeen canvases from Hannah's fire and has them packed in a trunk. Despite Milton's attempts to bargain with her, Abby hangs on to her paintings and prepares to leave for Chicago. In greedy desperation, Milton snatches the canvases from Abby's trunk, but relents when she states that she married Bean on his deathbed and is his legal widow. On the train to Chicago, Abby then ponders the future of the valuable paintings, while the eloping Susan and Warren plan their future together.

Cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drew Barrymore</span> American actress (born 1975)

Drew Blythe Barrymore is an American actress, producer, talk show host and author. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received several awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for nine Emmy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. She is also the Chief Gifting Officer for Etsy as of January 2024.

Sadie Thompson is a 1928 American silent drama film that tells the story of a "fallen woman" who comes to Pago Pago to start a new life, but encounters a zealous missionary who wants to force her back to her former life in San Francisco. The film stars Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore, and Raoul Walsh, and it is one of Swanson's more successful films. Due to the public's apathy towards silent films, a sound version was prepared in the latter half of 1928. While the sound version has no audible dialog, it features a synchronized musical score with sound effects along with a theme song.

<i>Sister Kenny</i> 1946 American movie

Sister Kenny is a 1946 American biographical film about Sister Elizabeth Kenny, an Australian bush nurse, who fought to help people who suffered from polio, despite opposition from the medical establishment. The film stars Rosalind Russell, Alexander Knox, and Philip Merivale.

<i>Tillies Punctured Romance</i> (1914 film) 1914 film by Mack Sennett

Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1914 American silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. The picture is the first feature-length comedy and was the only feature-length comedy made by the Keystone Film Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Fleming</span> American actress (1908–2002)

Susan Alva Fleming was an American actress and the wife of comic actor Harpo Marx and sister in law to Groucho, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo. Fleming was known as the "Girl with the Million Dollar Legs" for a role she played in the W. C. Fields film Million Dollar Legs (1932). Her big stage break, which led to her Hollywood career, was as a Ziegfeld girl, performing in Rio Rita.

<i>Peyton Place</i> (TV series) American prime-time soap opera

Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera that aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964, to June 2, 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Shipman</span> American actress (1899–1984)

Helen Phyllis Shipman was an American singer, dancer and actress who starred in various Broadway musicals, in musical comedies in vaudeville, and in films.

<i>Caravaggio</i> (1986 film) 1986 film directed by Derek Jarman

Caravaggio is a 1986 British historical drama film directed by Derek Jarman. The film is a fictionalised retelling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It is Tilda Swinton's film debut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Beavers</span> American actress (1900–1962)

Louise Beavers was an American film and television actress who appeared in dozens of films and two hit television shows from the 1920s to 1960. She played a prominent role in advancing the lives of Black Americans through her work and collaborated with fellow advocates to improve the social standing and media image of the Black population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Knowles</span> American visual artist, performances, soundworks, and publications (born 1933)

Alison Knowles is an American visual artist known for her installations, performances, soundworks, and publications. Knowles was a founding member of the Fluxus movement, an international network of artists who aspired to merge different artistic media and disciplines. Criteria that have come to distinguish her work as an artist are the arena of performance, the indeterminacy of her event scores resulting in the deauthorization of the work, and the element of tactile participation. She graduated from Pratt Institute in New York with an honors degree in fine art. In May 2015, she was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by Pratt.

Minnie Pwerle was an Australian Aboriginal artist. She came from Utopia, Northern Territory, a cattle station in the Sandover area of Central Australia 300 kilometres (190 mi) northeast of Alice Springs.

The Late Christopher Bean is a comedy drama adapted from Prenez garde à la peinture by René Fauchois. It exists in two versions: an American adaptation by Sidney Howard (1932) and an English version by Emlyn Williams (1933). Williams's is an anglicisation of Howard's, with the action moved from near Boston to the English countryside. The events are unchanged, although two characters are renamed. The family maid, Abby in Howard's version, becomes Gwenny, a Welsh woman of mature years, and the ingénue's young admirer Warren Creamer becomes the Scottish Bruce McRae in Williams's adaptation.

<i>Captain Tugboat Annie</i> 1945 film by Phil Rosen

Captain Tugboat Annie is a 1945 second sequel to the classic Tugboat Annie (1933), this time starring Jane Darwell as Annie and Edgar Kennedy as Horatio Bullwinkle. The film was directed by Phil Rosen, and is also known as Tugboat Annie's Son.

<i>Return to Peyton Place</i> (TV series) American TV series or program

Return to Peyton Place is an American daytime serial that aired on NBC from April 3, 1972 to January 4, 1974. The series was a spin-off of the prime time drama series Peyton Place, and not an adaptation of the 1959 novel by Grace Metalious or the 1961 film of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Macdowell Eakins</span> American photographer (1851–1938)

Susan Hannah Eakins was an American painter and photographer. Her works were first shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she was a student. She won the Mary Smith Prize there in 1879 and the Charles Toppan prize in 1882.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillie P. Bliss</span> American art collector and patron

Lizzie Plummer Bliss, known as Lillie P. Bliss, was an American art collector and patron. At the beginning of the 20th century, she was one of the leading collectors of modern art in New York. One of the lenders to the landmark Armory Show in 1913, she also contributed to other exhibitions concerned with raising public awareness of modern art. In 1929, she played an essential role in the founding of the Museum of Modern Art. After her death, 150 works of art from her collection served as a foundation to the museum and formed the basis of the in-house collection. These included works by artists such as Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Hampton</span> British actress (1879–1954)

Louise Hampton was a British actress. Although her career began when she was a child, it was for "the pathos and dignity of her elderly, motherly roles" that she was best known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">René Fauchois</span>

René Fauchois was a French dramatist, librettist and actor. Stagestruck from his youth, he moved from his native Rouen to Paris as a teenager to pursue a stage career. He had early success both as an actor and as a playwright. Among those with whom he collaborated as his career flourished were Sarah Bernhardt and Sacha Guitry. His career lasted for more than sixty years, and his output was prolific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Emmet Rand</span> American painter

Ellen Emmet Rand was a painter and illustrator. She specialized in portraits, painting over 500 works during her career including portraits of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and her cousins Henry James and William James. Rand studied at the Cowles Art School in Boston and the Art Students League in New York City and produced illustrations for Vogue Magazine and Harper's Weekly before traveling to England and then France to study with sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies. The William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut owns the largest collection of her painted works and the University of Connecticut, as well as the Archives of American Art within the Smithsonian Institution both have collections of her papers, photographs, and drawings.

Elections are held every two years to elect the mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts.

References

  1. "Christopher Bean (1933) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  2. "Christopher Bean". TV Guide. Retrieved November 17, 2014.