Love Before Breakfast

Last updated
Love Before Breakfast
Love Before Breakfast (1936 poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Walter Lang
Written byShort story:
Faith Baldwin
Film story:
Claude Binyon (uncredited)
Treatment:
Harry Clork
Doris Malloy
Preston Sturges
(all uncredited)
Add'l Dialogue:
Gertrude Purcell (uncredited)
Screenplay:
Herbert Fields
Produced by Edmund Grainger
Starring Carole Lombard
Preston Foster
Cesar Romero
Cinematography Ted Tetzlaff
Edited by Maurice Wright
Music by Arthur Morton
Franz Waxman
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • March 9, 1936 (1936-03-09)
Running time
70 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Love Before Breakfast is a 1936 American romantic comedy film starring Carole Lombard, Preston Foster, and Cesar Romero, based on Faith Baldwin's short story Spinster Dinner, published in International-Cosmopolitan in July 1934. The film was directed by Walter Lang from a screenplay by Herbert Fields assisted by numerous contract writers, including Preston Sturges.

Contents

Plot

Kay Colby (Carole Lombard) is a Park Avenue beauty with two suitors: fiancé Bill Wadsworth (Cesar Romero) and Scott Miller (Preston Foster). To clear his way, Scott buys the oil company Bill works for and sends him to Japan. Then he sends his own girl friend, Countess Campanella (Betty Lawford), to Honolulu to get her out of the way as well. Kay is upset by Bill's leaving, and annoyed by Scott pressing his suit, but Scott has the assistance and approval of Kay's mother (Janet Beecher) in his efforts, and the advice of his friend and business partner, Brinkerhoff (Richard Carle). [1]

Cast

Production

Love Before Breakfast had the working title of Spinster Dinner, the title of the Faith Baldwin short story it was based on. Several months before filming began, it was reported that Melvyn Douglas would take the male lead.

Carole Lombard was under contract to Paramount, who lent her to Universal for this film, in exchange for Margaret Sullavan going there to do So Red The Rose . Lombard also brought technical staff from Paramount, including photographer Ted Tetzlaff and costume designer Travis Banton. [2]

Lombard, who had the contractual right to reject scripts, did not like the ones she was presented for Love Before Breakfast, including those written by Preston Sturges, Claude Binyon, Samuel Hoffenstein, Harry Clork, Doris Malloy and William Conselman. Eventually, she accepted Herbert Fields's script. [2]

Love Before Breakfast was in production from 16 December 1935 to 27 January 1936, [3] and was released on 9 March 1936.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Screwball comedy</span> Genre of comedy film

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 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristics similar to film noir, distinguished by a female character who dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged, and the two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes.

<i>Oceans 11</i> 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone

Ocean's 11 is a 1960 American heist film directed and produced by Lewis Milestone from a screenplay by Harry Brown and Charles Lederer, based on a story by George Clayton Johnson and Jack Golden Russell. The film stars an ensemble cast and five members of the Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Centered on a series of Las Vegas casino robberies, the film also stars Angie Dickinson, Richard Conte, Cesar Romero, Patrice Wymore, Akim Tamiroff, and Henry Silva. It includes cameo appearances by Shirley MacLaine, Red Skelton, and George Raft.

<i>Twentieth Century</i> (film) 1934 film by Howard Hawks

Twentieth Century is a 1934 American pre-Code screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. Much of the film is set on the 20th Century Limited train as it travels from Chicago to New York City. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur adapted their 1932 Broadway play of the same name – itself based on the unproduced play Napoleon of Broadway by Charles Bruce Millholland – with uncredited contributions from Gene Fowler and Preston Sturges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cesar Romero</span> American actor (1907–1994)

César Julio Romero Jr. was an American actor and activist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost 60 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preston Sturges</span> American film director and screenwriter

Preston Sturges was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. Sturges took the screwball comedy format of the 1930s to another level, writing dialogue that, heard today, is often surprisingly naturalistic and mature, despite the farcical situations. It is not uncommon for a Sturges character to deliver an exquisitely turned phrase and take an elaborate pratfall within the same scene.

<i>Unfaithfully Yours</i> (1948 film) 1948 film by Preston Sturges

Unfaithfully Yours is a 1948 American screwball black comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallée and Barbara Lawrence. The film is about a jealous symphony conductor who imagines three different ways to deal with the supposed infidelity of his beautiful wife—murder, forbearance, and a suicidal game of Russian roulette—during a concert of three inspiring pieces of classical music. At home, his attempts to bring any of his fantasies to life swiftly devolve into farce, underscored with humorous adaptations of the relevant music. Although the film, which was the first of two Sturges made for Twentieth Century-Fox, received mostly positive reviews, it was not successful at the box office.

The comedy of remarriage is a subgenre of American comedy films of the 1930s and 1940s. At the time, the Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, banned any explicit references to or attempts to justify adultery and illicit sex. The comedy of remarriage with the same spouse enabled filmmakers to evade this provision of the Code. The protagonists divorced, flirted with strangers without risking the wrath of censorship, and then got back together.

<i>No Man of Her Own</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

No Man of Her Own is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic comedy-drama film starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard as a married couple in their only film together, several years before their own legendary marriage in real life. The film was directed by Wesley Ruggles, and originated as an adaptation of No Bed of Her Own, a 1931 novel by Val Lewton, but ended up based more on a story by Benjamin Glazer and Edmund Goulding, although it retained the title from Lewton's novel. It is not related to the 1950 film of the same name.

<i>Port of Seven Seas</i> 1938 film by James Whale

Port of Seven Seas is a 1938 drama film starring Wallace Beery and featuring Frank Morgan and Maureen O'Sullivan. The movie was written by Preston Sturges based on the plays of Marcel Pagnol and the films based on them, and was directed by James Whale, the director of Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933). The cinematography is by Karl Freund, who filmed Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and I Love Lucy (1951-1957).

<i>Diamond Jim</i> 1935 film

Diamond Jim is a 1935 biographical film based on the published biography Diamond Jim Brady by Parker Morell. It follows the life of legendary entrepreneur James Buchanan Brady, including his romance with entertainer Lillian Russell, and stars Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, Cesar Romero and Binnie Barnes.

<i>I Take This Woman</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

I Take This Woman is a 1931 American pre-Code romance film directed by Marion Gering and starring Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard.

<i>Julia Misbehaves</i> 1948 film

Julia Misbehaves is a 1948 American romantic comedy film starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon as a married couple who are separated by the man's snobbish family. They meet again many years later, when the daughter whom the man has raised, played by Elizabeth Taylor, invites her mother to her wedding. The film also features Peter Lawford and Cesar Romero.

<i>Strictly Dishonorable</i> (1951 film) 1951 film by Norman Panama, Melvin Frank

Strictly Dishonorable is a 1951 romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, and starring Ezio Pinza and Janet Leigh. It is the second film to be based on Preston Sturges' 1929 hit Broadway play of the same name after a pre-Code film released by Universal Pictures in 1931 with the same title.

<i>The Good Fairy</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by William Wyler

The Good Fairy is a 1935 romantic comedy film written by Preston Sturges, based on the 1930 play A jó tündér by Ferenc Molnár as translated and adapted by Jane Hinton, which was produced on Broadway in 1931. The film was directed by William Wyler and stars Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall, Frank Morgan and Reginald Owen.

<i>Fools for Scandal</i> 1938 film by Mervyn LeRoy

Fools for Scandal is a 1938 screwball comedy film starring Carole Lombard and Fernand Gravet, featuring Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, Isabel Jeans, Marie Wilson and Marcia Ralston, and produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. It was written by Herbert Fields and Joseph Fields with additional dialogue by Irving Brecher, and uncredited contributions by others based on the unproduced 1936 play Return Engagement by Nancy Hamilton, James Shute and Rosemary Casey. The songs are by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

<i>Fast and Loose</i> (1930 film) 1930 film

Fast and Loose is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and starring Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard and Frank Morgan. The film was written by Doris Anderson, Jack Kirkland and Preston Sturges, based on the 1924 play The Best People by David Gray and Avery Hopwood. Fast and Loose was released by Paramount Pictures.

<i>No More Orchids</i> 1932 film

No More Orchids is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy-drama film starring Carole Lombard and Lyle Talbot as mismatched lovers, based on the novel of the same name by Grace Perkins.

<i>It Pays to Advertise</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

It Pays to Advertise is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy film, based on the play of the same name by Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter C. Hackett, starring Norman Foster and Carole Lombard, and directed by Frank Tuttle.

<i>Dance Hall</i> (1941 film) 1941 film by Irving Pichel

Dance Hall is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Irving Pichel and written by Stanley Rauh and Ethel Hill. The film stars Carole Landis, Cesar Romero, William "Bill" Henry, June Storey, J. Edward Bromberg and Charles Halton. It is based on the novel The Giant Swing by W. R. Burnett. The film was released on July 18, 1941, by 20th Century Fox.

<i>Shes Dangerous</i> 1937 film

She's Dangerous is a 1937 American crime film directed by Milton Carruth and Lewis R. Foster and written by Lionel Houser and Albert R. Perkins. The film stars Tala Birell, Walter Pidgeon, Cesar Romero, Walter Brennan, Warren Hymer, and Samuel S. Hinds. The film was released on January 24, 1937, by Universal Pictures.

References