The Duke Steps Out

The Duke Steps Out
Theatrical poster
Directed by	James Cruze
Written by	Raymond L. Schrock Dale Van Every Joseph Farnham (titles)
Story by	Lucian Cary
Produced by	James Cruze
Starring	William Haines Joan Crawford Karl Dane Tenen Holtz
Cinematography	Ira H. Morgan
Edited by	George Hively
Music by	William Axt (uncredited)
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	March 16, 1929 (1929-03-16)
Running time	62 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	Sound (Synchronized) (English Intertitles)
Budget	$218,000 [1]
Box office	$920,000 [1]

The Duke Steps Out is a 1929 American synchronized sound comedy-drama film directed by James Cruze and starring William Haines and Joan Crawford. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film is lost, but the Vitaphone sound discs track of music and sound effects survive in the UCLA Film and Television Archive. ^{[2] [3]}

Plot

Duke (Haines) a pampered millionaire's son, who longs to be a boxer, takes an interest in Susie (Crawford), a college coed, after he defends her from being bullied. Duke's interest in Susie leads him to enroll in the same school as Susie. After a misunderstanding between Duke and Susie, they realize they are meant to be together and are reunited.

Cast

• William Haines as Duke
• Joan Crawford as Susie
• Karl Dane as Barney, Duke's Chauffeur
• Tenen Holtz as Jake, Duke's Manager
• Edward Nugent as Tommy Wells
• Jack Roper as Poison Kerrigan
• Delmer Daves as Bossy Edwards
• Luke Cosgrave as Professor Widdicomb
• Herbert Prior as Mr. Corbin
• Gwen Lee (uncredited)
• Harold Lockwood (uncredited)
• Gertrude Messinger (uncredited)
• Marie Messinger (uncredited)

Music

The film featured a theme song entitled "Just You" which was composed by William Axt, David Mendoza and Raymond Klages.

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $714,000 in the US and Canada and $206,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $343,000. ^[1]

See also

• List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)

References

1. The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
2. Arne Andersen's Lost Film Files; Metro/MGM
3. The Duke Steps Out at silentera.com

External links

• The Duke Steps Out at IMDb
• The Duke Steps Out at the TCM Movie Database