Green Light (1937 film)

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Green Light
Green-light-1937.jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed by Frank Borzage
Screenplay by Milton Krims
Paul Green
Based onGreen Light
by Lloyd C. Douglas
Produced byFrank Borzage
Starring
Cinematography Byron Haskin
Edited byJames Gibbon
Music by Max Steiner
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • February 12, 1937 (1937-02-12)(New York) [1]
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$513,000 [2] [3]
Box office$1.7 million [3]

Green Light is a 1937 American drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Errol Flynn, Anita Louise and Margaret Lindsay. The film is adapted from a novel written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The novel is closely related to Douglas' previous book, Magnificent Obsession , which was also adapted as a film. [4] It was Flynn's first starring role in a studio film not based on action. [5]

Contents

Plot

Dr. Newell Paige is a surgeon whose refusal to name the real culprit in an operation gone fatally awry results in the ruin of his career. Dismissed from the hospital staff, Paige leaves Massachusetts and travels to Montana to assist a researcher into Rocky Mountain spotted fever, almost dying when he subjects himself to an experimental serum. Eventually Paige returns to his former post and is cleared of all charges.

Cast

Production

Originally Warner Bros. announced that Leslie Howard would be the star [6] and he was scheduled to begin filming Green Light at the end of June 1935 after completion of his run in The Petrified Forest on Broadway. However, a persistent bout of boils repeatedly hospitalized Howard throughout the production and forced him to withdraw. [7] Warner Bros. then announced the leads as Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, [8] but De Havilland withdrew and the female leads were announced as Anita Louise and Ann Dvorak. [9] However, Dvorak was replaced by Margaret Lindsay. [10]

After starring in the swashbuckling films Captain Blood and The Charge of the Light Brigade , Flynn asked Warner Bros. for a different type of role and was cast in Green Light as the result following Howard's withdrawal. However, Flynn would return to a swashbuckling role in his next film, The Prince and the Pauper .

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Frank S. Nugent wrote that Green Light suffered in its transition to the screen: "[I]t is unable to disguise (as the novel did) the author's weakness as a story-teller. Mr. Douglas dealt with familiar, well-worn plot materials and he unraveled them more often by coincidence than by reason. It was chiefly the conversation—the readable, intelligent, even inspirational theorizing—of his characters that kept his narrative alive. ... [The film] exposes serious structural weaknesses and probably will cause many who had not read the original to wonder what all the shouting was about." [1]

Released theatrically on February 20, 1937, [11] Green Light was popular at the American box office. [12] According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $1,254,000 domestically and $416,000 foreign, making it the studio's second-most popular film of 1937 (the first was The Prince and the Pauper). [3]

Home media

The Warner Archive Collection, a made-on-demand disc branch of Warner Home Video, released the film on DVD-R on November 10, 2010. [13]

References

  1. 1 2 Nugent, Frank S. (1937-02-13). "The Screen". The New York Times . p. 9.
  2. ↑ Glancy, H. Mark. (March 1995). "Warner Bros film grosses, 1921–51". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. doi:10.1080/01439689500260031.
  3. 1 2 3 "Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: 15:sup1, 1–31 p 18. 1995. doi:10.1080/01439689508604551.
  4. ↑ "The Green Light". The New York Times . Archived from the original on May 19, 2011.
  5. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (November 10, 2019). "The Films of Errol Flynn: Part 2 The Golden Years". Filmink.
  6. ↑ Bell, Nelson B. (November 2, 1935). "With Production Schedules Nearing Completion, Film Makers Plan Season Ahead: Major Studios Establish New Speed Records Warners Are Out in Front; Illness Lays Stars Low; Notes of Playhouses". The Washington Post . p. 6.
  7. ↑ "Leslie Howard Is Ill". The New York Times . July 9, 1935. p. 24.
  8. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (June 3, 1936). "James Dunn Going to Sea in Classic Story, "Two Years Before the Mast": Other Players Cast in Important Roles Ernst Lubitsch Begins Organization of His Film Unit; Virginia Bruce to Appear in "Born to Dance; Young Going Abroad". Los Angeles Times. p. A19.
  9. ↑ "NEWS OF THE SCREEN: THE WARNERS LAUGH LAST -- THE DAVIS IMBROGLIO -PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT -- ONE OPENING TODAY". The New York Times . July 4, 1936. p. 18.
  10. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (July 11, 1936). "'Directed by Mary Pickford~' Credit Line Slated for Theater Marquees: Star-Producer Will Favor Child Themes Peggy Conklin Cast in "Devil Is a Sissy;' Ratoff Adds Supervision to Other Jobs; Two Charmers for Errol Flynn in Next". Los Angeles Times . p. A7.
  11. ↑ "Green Light". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . American Film Institute . Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Tony Thomas, Rudy Behlmer * Clifford McCarty, The Films of Errol Flynn, Citadel Press, 1969 p 52".
  13. ↑ "Green Light (1937) Releases". AllMovie . Archived from the original on January 29, 2023.
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