Mandalay | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
Screenplay by | Austin Parker Charles Kenyon |
Story by | Paul Hervey Fox |
Produced by | Robert Presnell Sr. |
Starring | Kay Francis Ricardo Cortez Warner Oland Lyle Talbot |
Cinematography | Tony Gaudio |
Edited by | Thomas Pratt |
Music by | Uncredited: Heinz Roemheld Songs: Sammy Fain (music) Irving Kahal (lyrics) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 65 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $294,000 [1] |
Box office | $629,000 [1] |
Mandalay is a 1934 American pre Code drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and written by Austin Parker and Charles Kenyon based on a story by Paul Hervey Fox. The film stars Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland and Lyle Talbot, and features Ruth Donnelly and Reginald Owen.
The film is about a world-weary woman (Francis) nicknamed "Spot White" at the local brothel-bar who does what she can to survive. Curtiz used cutting edge wipes and opticals in the film. [2] Future child star Shirley Temple won a small role in the film as the daughter of the Donnelly and Littlefield characters, but the role was little more than a walk-on. Originally, her name was not listed in the credits and was only included years later. [3]
Russian refugee Tanya Borisoff is suddenly abandoned penniless in Rangoon, Burma, by her lover, Tony Evans, who accepted a gunrunning deal from Nick, the owner of an amoral nightclub. Nick made the deal hoping to get Tanya as his main "hostess," which Tanya accepts after an initial refusal, just to make the best of a bad situation. She becomes notorious using the name "Spot White," but her affairs cause the commissioner of police to deport her. She reminds the commissioner of a previous tryst he had with her and extorts 10,000 rupees from him with which to make a new life. She uses a new name, Marjorie Lang, going to Mandalay, Burma, via the Irrawadi River by steamer, where she meets alcoholic Dr. Gregory Burton, who is on his way to help in an area plagued with a deadly contagious fever. As they slowly fall in love, she learns he's doing that to make amends for once operating on a patient while drunk, causing his death. She decides to go with him so they can put their pasts behind them together. But Tony is on the steamer too, and tries to convince Tanya he still loves her. Tony gets a wire from Nick telling him the police are on his trail and will pick him up at the next port, so he leaves evidence to suggest he took poison and jumped overboard, but actually he hides in the hold of the boat. The captain finds the evidence and believes Tanya murdered Tony, but at the urging of Dr. Burton and the first mate who finds the wire, he finally decides it was a suicide and frees her. When Tony returns to an astonished Tanya, he tries to convince her to open a club with him in Mandalay, where she could be a "hostess" again. Through with that life, she eyes the poison still in the cabin as Tony asks her to make him a drink.
The lead roles were initially offered to George Brent and his wife Ruth Chatterton. Chatterton turned down the role because she did not want to play a prostitute again, and Brent because he did not want to make the trip to the Stockton, California location on San Joaquin River, where the film shot for 10 days. Afterwards, Ricardo Cortez was assigned by the studio to play "Tony Evans". [6]
Although the critics did not see the film as anything better than a good "B-movie", it was well-received and was a moneymaker for the studio. [4]
According to Warner Bros records the film made a profit of $83,462. [1]
Four Daughters is a 1938 American romance film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a charming young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives. His cynical, bitter musician friend comes to help orchestrate his latest composition and complicates matters even more. The movie stars the Lane Sisters and Gale Page, and features Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield, and Dick Foran. The three Lanes were sisters and members of a family singing trio.
Michael Curtiz was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent.
Ruth Chatterton was an American stage, film, and television actress, aviator and novelist. She was at her most popular in the early to mid-1930s, and in the same era gained prominence as an aviator, one of the few female pilots in the United States at the time. In the late 1930s, Chatterton retired from film acting but continued her career on the stage. She had several TV roles beginning in the late 1940s and became a successful novelist in the 1950s.
Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star and highest-paid actress at Warner Bros. studio. She adopted her mother's maiden name (Francis) as her professional surname.
George Brent was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included Jezebel and Dark Victory.
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Goodbye Again is a 1933 pre-Code romantic comedy film made by First National Pictures and Warner Bros.
June Travis was an American film actress.
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Wonder Bar is a 1934 American pre-Code film adaptation of a Broadway musical of the same name directed by Lloyd Bacon with musical numbers created by Busby Berkeley.
Special Agent is a 1935 American drama film directed by William Keighley and starring Bette Davis and George Brent. The screenplay by Laird Doyle and Abem Finkel is based on a story by Martin Mooney. The film was produced by Cosmopolitan Productions and released by Warner Bros.
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Sybil Jason was a South African-born, American child film actress who, in the late 1930s, was presented as a rival to Shirley Temple.
British Agent is a 1934 American romantic espionage film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Leslie Howard and Kay Francis. It is based on Memoirs of a British Agent, the 1932 autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, who worked for the British Secret Service during the Russian Revolution and had an affair with a Russian agent, later known as Moura Budberg. The film was produced by First National, then a division of Warner Bros.
The Keyhole is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Kay Francis, George Brent, Glenda Farrell and Allen Jenkins. It was released by Warner Bros. on March 25, 1933. A woman with two husbands tries to divorce one of them by heading down to Havana where things get more complicated.
Private Detective 62 is a 1933 American pre-Code detective film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring William Powell as a private detective who falls for a woman whom he has been hired to frame in a scandal.
Man Wanted is a pre-Code 1932 romance film starring Kay Francis as a married magazine editor who hires a handsome secretary, David Manners. The film features Una Merkel and Andy Devine in supporting roles.
The House on 56th Street is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film. The film's plot involves a miscarriage of justice, wrongful conviction and imprisonment, and alienation of a prisoner from her only living relative.
Transgression is a 1931 Pre-Code American drama film directed by Herbert Brenon, using a screenplay written by Elizabeth Meehan, adapted from Kate Jordan's 1921 novel, The Next Corner. The film stars Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh, and Ricardo Cortez, and deals with the romantic entanglements of a wealthy English businessman, his wife and a Spanish nobleman.
This Woman is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Phil Rosen, written by Louis D. Lighton and Hope Loring, and starring Irene Rich, Ricardo Cortez, Louise Fazenda, Frank Elliott, Creighton Hale, and Marc McDermott. Based on the 1924 novel This Woman by Howard Rockey, it was released by Warner Bros. on November 2, 1924.