Glorious Betsy

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Glorious Betsy
Glorious Betsy 1928 poster.jpg
1928 theatrical poster
Directed by
Screenplay by
Based onGlorious Betsy
1908 play
by Rida Johnson Young
Starring
Cinematography Hal Mohr
Edited by Thomas Pratt
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • April 26, 1928 (1928-04-26)
Running time
80 minutes (7-8 reels; 7,091 feet)
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSound (Part-Talkie)
English Intertitles
Budget$198,000 [1]
Box office$965,000 [1]

Glorious Betsy is a 1928 sound part-talkie drama film. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The film is based on the 1908 play of the same name by Rida Johnson Young, and it stars Dolores Costello. It was produced by Warner Bros. and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Adaptation in 1929. The film was directed by Alan Crosland with cinematography by Hal Mohr. [2]

Contents

A mute print of this sound film survives in the Library of Congress. The Vitaphone soundtrack discs, which are needed to restore the sound to the film, may exist in private hands but are not currently known to exist at any archive. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Vitaphone track survive incomplete at UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Although the film was written by both Anthony Coldeway and Jack Jarmuth (the latter credited only for title cards); only Coldeway was nominated for the Academy Award.

The 1961 Warner Bros. film Splendor in the Grass features a scene in which Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty) and his friends watch the film in a theater.

Plot

Elizabeth “Glorious Betsy” Patterson (Dolores Costello) falls in love with Jerome (Conrad Nagel), her French tutor. When her father, Colonel Patterson (Marc McDermott), informs her that the brother of Napoleon will be attending a ball in Baltimore, Jerome secretly writes to Betsy asking for a moment alone. She meets him, and he pleads for her hand in marriage. Betsy accepts.

At the ball, Captain Bonaparte is announced—and Betsy realizes that her lover is Napoleon’s brother. They marry immediately. Soon after, Jerome receives word that Napoleon wants him to return to France to wed Princess Fredericka of Wurtemburg (Betty Blythe).

Betsy and Jerome travel to France, but the Emperor refuses to recognize their marriage, denying Betsy the right to set foot on French soil. Jerome swears he will never enter France without his wife. Napoleon privately convinces Betsy that if she truly loves Jerome, she must give him up for the good of France. Betsy bids him goodbye “until tomorrow,” knowing it is forever.

In Baltimore, months later, a despairing Betsy gives birth to a son. Jerome, on his way to be wed to the princess, escapes his carriage and returns to America. He and Betsy are reunited, while their baby gurgles contentedly in his cradle.

Production

The film is based on the 1908 Broadway play written by Rida Johnson Young and starring Mary Mannering. It was produced by Lee and Jake Shubert, and opened at the Lyric Theatre on September 7, 1908. It only ran 24 performances and closed in September 1908. Future film players Charles Clary, Harrison Ford, and Maude Turner Gordon had roles in the production. [9]

Cast

Still from the movie Glorious Betsy (SAYRE 14892).jpg
Still from the movie

Premiere Vitaphone short films

Glorious Betsy premiered at Warners Theatre in New York City on April 26, 1928.[ citation needed ]

TitleYear
Marion Talley, Soprano, and Beniamino Gigli, Tenor, of the Metropolitan Opera Company, Singing "Verranno a te sull'aura" (Borne on the Sighing Breeze) from Act 1 of Lucia di Lammermoor 1927

Box office

According to records at Warner Bros., the film earned $815,000 in the U.S. and $153,000 in other markets. [1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 6 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  2. ↑ "The 1st Academy Awards (1929) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences . Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  3. ↑ Glorious Betsy at silentera.com database
  4. ↑ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1921-30 by The American Film Institute, c. 1971
  5. ↑ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:Glorious Betsy
  6. ↑ Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artist Collection at The Library of Congress by The American Film Institute, c.1978
  7. ↑ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Glorious Betsy
  8. ↑ 1957 MOVIES FROM AAP Warner Bros Features & Cartoons SALES BOOK DIRECTED AT TV
  9. ↑ Glorious Betsy, a play, at the Lyric Theatre New York 1908
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