The Battle of the Sexes | |
---|---|
Directed by | D. W. Griffith |
Written by | Gerrit J. Lloyd (adaptation & titles) |
Based on | The Single Standard by Daniel Carson Goodman |
Produced by | Joseph M. Schenck |
Starring | Jean Hersholt Phyllis Haver Belle Bennett Don Alvarado Sally O'Neil |
Cinematography | Karl Struss G.W. Bitzer |
Edited by | James Smith |
Music by | Hugo Riesenfeld Nathaniel Shilkret [1] [2] |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Sound (Synchronzied) (English Intertitles) |
Budget | $750,000 [3] |
The Battle of the Sexes is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score, singing and sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film starred Jean Hersholt, Phyllis Haver, Belle Bennett, Don Alvarado, and Sally O'Neil. It was released by United Artists. The film was a remake by Griffith of an earlier film he directed in 1914, which starred Lillian Gish. Both films are based on the novel The Single Standard by Daniel Carson Goodman; the story was adapted for this production by Gerrit J. Lloyd. [4]
The film was recorded using the Movietone sound-on-film system but discs were made for those theatres that only had equipment to play sound-on-disc sound films. In 2004, the film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment without its original soundtrack. The theme song of the motion picture, "Just a Sweetheart", by Dave Dryer, Josef Pasternack, and Nathaniel Shilkret (recorded versions of which are available, for example, on a commercially issued Paul Whiteman CD [5] ) was omitted from the DVD. A completely modern score was substituted which bears no resemblance to the original score.
Marie Skinner (Phyllis Haver) is a gold digger with her hooks out for devoted middle-aged family man J.C. Judson (Jean Hersholt), a portly real estate tycoon, who falls for her when she contrives to meet him. When his wife (Belle Bennett) and grown children, Ruth (Sally O'Neil) and Billy (William Bakewell) discover him dancing with Marie at a nightclub, J.C. leaves home the next day. Ruth seeks out Marie to shoot her, but is interrupted by Marie's boyfriend, jazz hound Babe Winsor (Don Alvarado), who takes a shine to her. When Judson walks in on them he condemns her licentiousness, but is forced to face his double standard when he witnesses a violent argument between Marie and Babe. Full of contrition, J.C. returns to home and hearth and the bosom of his loving family. [6] [7] [8]
The film featured a theme song entitled "Just a Sweetheart" with music and lyrics by Josef A. Pasternack, Nathaniel Shilkret and Dave Dreyer. Another song featured on the soundtrack was entitled "Rose in The Bud" with music by Dorothy Forster and lyrics by Percy Barrow. Both titles were recorded by Allen McQuhae for Brunswick records and are available on the Internet Archive.
The Divine Lady is a 1929 American pre-Code Vitaphone sound film with a synchronized musical score, sound effects, and some synchronized singing, but no spoken dialogue. It stars Corinne Griffith and tells the story of the love affair between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton. It featured the theme song "Lady Divine", with lyrics by Richard Kountz and music by Nathaniel Shilkret, which became a popular hit in 1929 and was recorded by numerous artists, such as Shilkret, Frank Munn, Ben Selvin, Smith Ballew, Adrian Schubert, Sam Lanin, and Bob Haring.
The following is an overview of 1930 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
The following is an overview of 1927 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1914 American silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. The picture is the first feature-length comedy and was the only feature-length comedy made by the Keystone Film Company.
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. Born in Manhattan to future actress Tippi Hedren, she was raised mainly in Los Angeles, where she graduated from the Hollywood Professional School at age 16. In 1975, 17-year-old Griffith appeared opposite Gene Hackman in Arthur Penn's neo-noir film Night Moves. She later rose to prominence as an actor in films such as Brian De Palma's Body Double (1984), which earned her a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. Griffith's subsequent performance in the comedy Something Wild (1986) attracted critical acclaim before she was cast in 1988's Working Girl, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her a Golden Globe.
Joseph Schildkraut was an Austrian-American actor. He won an Oscar for his performance as Captain Alfred Dreyfus in the film The Life of Emile Zola (1937). He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance as Otto Frank in the film The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and a Primetime Emmy for his performance as Rabbi Gottlieb in a 1962 episode of the television series Sam Benedict.
Mary Brian was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films.
Phyllis Maude Haver was an American actress of the silent film era.
Karl Struss, A.S.C. was an American photographer and a cinematographer of the 1900s through the 1950s. He was also one of the earliest pioneers of 3-D films. While he mostly worked on films, such as F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator and Limelight, he was also one of the cinematographers for the television series Broken Arrow and photographed 19 episodes of My Friend Flicka.
Olivia Joyce Compton was an American actress.
Don Alvarado was an American actor, assistant director and film production manager.
Sally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She appeared in more than 40 films, often with her name above the title.
William Robertson Bakewell was an American actor. He achieved his greatest fame as one of the leading juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Dorothy Burgess was an American stage and motion-picture actress.
John Miljan was an American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1924 and 1958.
Frances Lee was an American film actress during Hollywood's silent film era, and well into the sound film era of the 1930s.
America, also called Love and Sacrifice, is a 1924 American silent historical war romance film. It describes the heroic story of the events during the American Revolutionary War, in which filmmaker D. W. Griffith created a film adaptation of Robert W. Chambers' 1905 novel The Reckoning. The plot mainly centers itself on the Northern theatre of the war in New York, with romance spliced into the individual movie scenes.
Lilies of the Field is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by John Francis Dillon, produced by and starring actress Corinne Griffith, and distributed by Associated First National Pictures. It is based on a 1921 play, Lilies of the Field, by William J. Hurlbut. The film was remade by Griffith as an early sound film in 1930.
JamesSmith and Rose Smith were film editors known for their work in the early days of Hollywood, specifically for their work at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company working as editors for D.W. Griffith.