The Animal Kingdom (1932 film)

Last updated

The Animal Kingdom
Poster - Animal Kingdom, The 01.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Screenplay by
Based onThe Animal Kingdom
1932 play
by Philip Barry
Produced by David O. Selznick
Starring
Cinematography George J. Folsey
Edited by Daniel Mandell
Music by Max Steiner
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • December 28, 1932 (1932-12-28)(US)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$458,000 [2]
Box office$528,000 [2]
The Animal Kingdom

The Animal Kingdom (also known as The Woman in His House in the UK) is a 1932 American pre-Code film directed by Edward H. Griffith based upon a comedy of manners play of the same name by Philip Barry. The film stars Leslie Howard, Ann Harding, Myrna Loy, William Gargan, Ilka Chase, and Neil Hamilton. Howard, Gargan, and Chase also starred in the play when it opened on Broadway on January 12, 1932. It was remade 1946 as One More Tomorrow .

Contents

Plot

Leni Stengel, with Don Dillaway and Ann Harding in The Animal Kingdom (1932) The Animal Kingdom (1932, Film).jpg
Leni Stengel, with Don Dillaway and Ann Harding in The Animal Kingdom (1932)

Tom Collier owns a small press that publishes deluxe books. He has been living in the city with his best friend and lover Daisy Sage without being married. Daisy is a successful commercial artist for a fashion magazine. She has just returned from three months in Paris. While Daisy was away, Tom has fallen in love with Cecelia Henry.

Tom's wealthy banker father, Rufus Collier, describes his lifelong frustration with his son to Cecelia and Owen Fiske, a family friend and attorney. Tom has had every advantage, including education at both Harvard and Oxford, and a position at the bank, yet he is an idler and his friends are uncouth. His father is now afraid that Tom might actually marry Daisy. Cecelia reassures him on that score: She is going to marry Tom in June. Owen is surprised and crushed—he thought that she loved him—but Tom's father doesn't notice and approves wholeheartedly.

Tom visits Daisy to tell her of his impending marriage, but before he can, she asks him to marry her long enough to father a child. When he tells her of his current marriage plans, he anticipates they'll remain friends, but Daisy is hurt and sends him away, saying "Good-Bye...’til Doomsday". Soon, Cecelia has persuaded Tom to publish a book that is "the worst tripe" that his press has ever published, but it sells wonderfully. She talks him into publishing bad books that will make money and getting rid of his old friends, including "Red", his prize-fighter friend and butler. She wants Tom to sell his publishing company, live in the city with his father as a "proper gentleman" and take their place in society, a prospect that Tom has been resisting all his life.

Despite her realization that she loves him deeply, Daisy avoids all contact with Tom, but it pains her and the friends she and Tom share to see him living a life he detests. Tom complains that he's losing his soul and integrity. Finally, when Cecelia offers Tom champagne to toast selling his publishing company and moving in with his father, Tom realizes that Cecelia's bedroom suite reminds him of a brothel he used to visit, as he says, "in vino veritas". When Red tells Tom he is going back to the city, that he can't stomach being at that house any longer, Tom insists on driving him to the station, saying, "I'm going back to my wife", referring to Daisy. As he leaves, he signs over to Cecelia a large birthday check from his father, and puts it on the mantle, just as he used to leave money for the girls in the bordello.

Cast

Production

"The Animal Kingdom" ad from, The Film Daily, 1932 "The Animal Kingdom" ad from, The Film Daily, Jul-Dec 1932 (page 1082 crop).jpg
"The Animal Kingdom" ad from, The Film Daily , 1932

Writing

The film is based on a 1932 play by Philip Barry of the same name set in 1930s New York and Connecticut. The film deviates from the play in two areas: the play emphasizes the estrangement between Tom and his father, who has never visited his son's house before; and Owen, his one "respectable gentleman" friend, introduced Cecelia to Tom. These two elements are not as significant in the film.

Development

Although RKO originally purchased the film rights to The Animal Kingdom as a vehicle for Ann Harding, Irene Dunne was substituted when scheduling conflicts arose with Harding. In an ironic twist, when filming of Smilin' Through did not finish on time and MGM refused to release Leslie Howard to RKO to begin filming The Animal Kingdom at the scheduled time, RKO realized Ann Harding would now be available and reassigned her to the role. [3] [4]

Reception

According to RKO records the film had a loss of $110,000 during its first year of release, in 1932–33. [2]

Legacy

In 1960, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. [5]

The film was preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in 1985. (Source: UCLA Archive website)

Rare home movie footage taken on set during the production by co-star Leslie Howard and featuring candid footage of Ann Harding, Myrna Loy, William Gargan and director Edward H Griffith is included in the 2016 documentary Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Howard</span> British actor (1893–1943)

Leslie Howard Steiner was an English actor, director, producer and writer. He wrote many stories and articles for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair and was one of the biggest box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myrna Loy</span> American actress (1905–1993)

Myrna Loy was an American film, television and stage actress. As a performer, she was known for her ability to adapt to her screen partner's acting style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Harding</span> American actress

Ann Harding was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress. Harding was a regular on Broadway and on tour in the 1920s. In the 1930s Harding, was one of the first actresses to gain fame in the new medium of "talking pictures," and she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1931 for her work in Holiday.

<i>Manhattan Melodrama</i> 1934 film by W. S. Van Dyke and George Cukor

Manhattan Melodrama is a 1934 American pre-Code crime drama film, produced by MGM, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, and starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy. The movie also provided one of Mickey Rooney's earliest film roles. The film is based on a story by Arthur Caesar, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Story. It was also the first of Myrna Loy and William Powell's fourteen screen pairings.

Vanity Fair is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Chester M. Franklin and starring Myrna Loy, Conway Tearle and Anthony Bushell. The film is modernized adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel of the same name with the original Regency-era story reset in Twentieth Century Britain. Three years later Thackeray's novel was adapted again as Becky Sharp, the first three-strip technicolor film.

<i>Thirteen Women</i> 1932 film

Thirteen Women is a 1932 American pre-Code psychological thriller film, produced by David O. Selznick and directed by George Archainbaud. It stars Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne and Ricardo Cortez. The film is based on the 1930 bestselling novel of the same name by Tiffany Thayer and was adapted for the screen by Bartlett Cormack and Samuel Ornitz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Gargan</span> American actor (1905–1979)

William Dennis Gargan was an American film, television and radio actor. He was the 5th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1967, and in 1941, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Joe in They Knew What They Wanted. He acted in decades of movies including parts in Follow the Leader, Rain, Night Flight, Three Sons, Isle of Destiny and many others. The role he was best known for was that of a private detective Martin Kane in the 1949–1952 radio-television series Martin Kane, Private Eye. In television, he was also in 39 episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane.

<i>Christopher Strong</i> 1933 film

Christopher Strong is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film produced by RKO and directed by Dorothy Arzner. It is a tale of illicit love among the English aristocracy and stars Colin Clive and Katharine Hepburn. The screenplay by Zoë Akins is an adaptation of the 1932 British novel Christopher Strong by Gilbert Frankau.

<i>The Prizefighter and the Lady</i> 1933 film by Howard Hawks, W. S. Van Dyke

The Prizefighter and the Lady is a 1933 pre-Code Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romance film starring Myrna Loy and the professional boxers Max Baer, Primo Carnera, and Jack Dempsey. The film was adapted for the screen by John Lee Mahin and John Meehan from a story by Frances Marion. Marion was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.

<i>The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer</i> 1947 film by Dore Schary, Irving Reis

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer is a 1947 American screwball romantic comedy-drama film directed by Irving Reis and written by Sidney Sheldon. The film stars Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple in a story about a teenager's crush on an older man.

<i>Of Human Bondage</i> (1934 film) 1934 film by John Cromwell

Of Human Bondage is a 1934 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and regarded by critics as the film that made Bette Davis a star. The screenplay by Lester Cohen is based on the 1915 novel Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham.

<i>When Ladies Meet</i> (1933 film) 1933 film by Robert Zigler Leonard, Harry Beaumont

When Ladies Meet is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Ann Harding, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery, Alice Brady, and Frank Morgan. The film is the first adaptation of the 1932 Rachel Crothers play of the same name. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons.

<i>When Ladies Meet</i> (1941 film) 1941 film by Robert Zigler Leonard

When Ladies Meet is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, Herbert Marshall and Spring Byington. The screenplay by S.K. Lauren and Anita Loos was based upon a 1932 play by Rachel Crothers. Made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, director Leonard also coproduced along with Orville O. Dull. The film was a remake of the 1933 pre-Code film of the same name, which had starred Ann Harding, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery and Frank Morgan in the roles played by Garson, Crawford, Taylor and Marshall.

<i>Double Harness</i> 1933 film

Double Harness (1933) is an American pre-Code film starring Ann Harding and William Powell. It was based on the play of the same name by Edward Poor Montgomery. A young woman maneuvers a lazy playboy into marrying her.

<i>Third Finger, Left Hand</i> 1940 American film

Third Finger, Left Hand is a 1940 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas and Raymond Walburn. The screenplay concerns a woman who pretends to be married to fend off would-be suitors and jealous wives, then has to live with her deception when she meets an artist who pretends to be her husband.

<i>Hardboiled Rose</i> 1929 film

Hardboiled Rose is a 1929 American sound part-talkie romantic drama film directed by F. Harmon Weight and released by Warner Bros. 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 starred Myrna Loy, William Collier, Jr., and John Miljan.

<i>Lucky Night</i> 1939 American comedy film directed by Norman Taurog

Lucky Night (1939) is a comedy movie from MGM starring Robert Taylor and Myrna Loy, directed by Norman Taurog.

<i>Devotion</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Devotion is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic drama film starring Ann Harding and Leslie Howard based on the 1930 Pamela Wynne novel A Little Flat in the Temple. Its plot involves a woman who disguises herself and gains employment in the home of the man she loves.

<i>Dangerous Number</i> 1937 film

Dangerous Number is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Richard Thorpe and written by Carey Wilson. The film stars Robert Young, Ann Sothern, Reginald Owen, and Cora Witherspoon, and features Dean Jagger. The film was released on January 22, 1937, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

<i>One More Tomorrow</i> (film) 1946 film by Peter Godfrey

One More Tomorrow is a 1946 American drama film directed by Peter Godfrey and written by Charles Hoffman and Catherine Turney from the play The Animal Kingdom by Philip Barry. The film, starring Ann Sheridan, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Alexis Smith, Jane Wyman and Reginald Gardiner. It was released by Warner Bros. on June 1, 1946. A pre-code 1932 film, The Animal Kingdom, is also based on the play.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Animal Kingdom". Allmovie. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 14 No 1, 1994 p39
  3. ↑ Hall, C. "Glimmerings from the Cinema Citadel." The New York Times, May 1, 1932. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com October 8, 2016. pp. 148-149.
  4. ↑ Hall, C. "Notes from the Hollywood Studios." The New York Times, August 14, 1932. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com October 8, 2016 p. 120.
  5. ↑ Pierce, David (June 2007). "Forgotten Faces: Why Some of Our Cinema Heritage Is Part of the Public Domain". Film History: An International Journal. 19 (2): 125–43. doi:10.2979/FIL.2007.19.2.125. ISSN   0892-2160. JSTOR   25165419. OCLC   15122313. S2CID   191633078.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.