The Gay Diplomat | |
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Directed by |
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Written by | Benn W. Levy [1] Doris Anderson (adaptation and dialogue) Alfred Jackson (additional dialogue) |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Leo Tover |
Edited by | Arthur Roberts |
Music by | Max Steiner |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 67 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $184,000 [2] |
Box office | $131,000 [2] |
The Gay Diplomat is a 1931 American pre-Code film. Directed by Richard Boleslawski for RKO Radio Pictures, it starred Ivan Lebedeff, Genevieve Tobin and Betty Compson.
Captain Orloff is a Russian military officer who is sent to Bucharest to discover and dispose of a female spy. The three suspected spies are Countess Diana Dorchy, Baroness Alma Corri, and Madame Blinis. Before learning the identity of the spy, Orloff falls in love with Diana. In the course of events, the spy is revealed to be Alma who is ultimately tricked into confessing. Orloff returns with his prisoner to St. Petersburg and is joined on the train by Diana. [1]
According to the trade journal Film Daily , RKO reported the original story "Strange Women" was written by Lebedeff and Benn W. Levy. [3] In addition to Strange Women, working titles included Woman Pursued and Kisses By Command.
Shooting took place in June 1931. Henry Hobart, the original production supervisor of Gay Diplomat, was so upset by the film's inadequacies and by Lebedeff's lack of star quality that he walked off the project. Pandro Berman replaced Hobart as supervising producer in mid-production, thus earning Berman his first screen credit. [1] [4]
The picture was Lebedeff's first starring role and he figured heavily in RKO's marketing campaign, which touted him as another Valentino and portrayed the story as based on events from his life. [5] [6] Tobin was borrowed from Universal to play the female lead. [1]
The film was released September 19, 1931. According to RKO records, the film was the studio's lowest grossing film of the 1930–31 season and lost $115,000 at the box office. [2]
The Gay Diplomat was generally poorly received by critics. New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall called it "highly predictable". [7] The Variety reviewer found the story incomprehensible and called the dialog "inane" and the acting "some of the poorest"; [8] Film Daily, summed it up as "mechanical and slow moving ... with artificial treatment and acting". [5]
Roland Young was an English-born actor. He began his acting career on the London stage, but later found success in America and received an Academy Award nomination for his role in the film Topper (1937).
Bed of Roses is a 1933 pre-Code romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Constance Bennett. The picture was released by RKO Radio Pictures with a supporting cast featuring Joel McCrea and Pert Kelton.
Pandro Samuel Berman, also known as Pan Berman, was an American film producer.
Love on the Run is a 1936 American romantic comedy film, directed by W.S. Van Dyke, produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and starring Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone and Reginald Owen in a story about rival newspaper correspondents assigned to cover the marriage of a socialite. The screenplay by John Lee Mahin, Manuel Seff and Gladys Hurlbut was based on a story by Alan Green and Julian Brodie. Love on the Run is the seventh of eight cinematic collaborations between Crawford and Gable. At the time of its release, Love on the Run was called "a lot of happy nonsense" by critics, but a huge financial success, nonetheless.
Tala Birell was a Romanian-born stage and film actress.
Genevieve Tobin was an American actress.
Street Girl is a 1929 pre-Code musical film directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Betty Compson, John Harron and Jack Oakie. It was adapted by Jane Murfin from "The Viennese Charmer", a short story by William Carey Wonderly. While it was the first film made by RKO Radio Pictures, its opening was delayed until after Syncopation, making it RKO's second release. It was very successful at the box office, accounting for almost half of RKO's profits for the entire year.
Ivan Lebedeff was a Russian film actor, lecturer and writer. He appeared in 66 films between 1926 and 1953. In 1940, his novel, Legion of Dishonor, was published.
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After Tonight is a 1933 American pre-Code World War I spy film directed by George Archainbaud and starring Constance Bennett and Gilbert Roland. The studio considered firing Bennett after the film lost $100,000 at the box office.
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Bachelor Apartment is a 1931 American pre-Code romance film directed by and starring Lowell Sherman as a bachelor/playboy, Wayne Carter, who falls in love with Irene Dunne's honest working girl, Helene Andrews. The credits for the film, and all sources from that time show that the film was based on a story by New York playwright John Howard Lawson, the screenplay was adapted by J. Walter Ruben. However, Lawson would later claim that the final screenplay had not been altered from what he had originally written. The cast features Mae Murray, Norman Kerry and Ivan Lebedeff.
Beau Ideal is a 1931 American pre-Code adventure film directed by Herbert Brenon and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film was based on the 1927 adventure novel Beau Ideal by P. C. Wren, the third novel in a series of five novels based around the same characters. Brenon had directed the first in the series, Beau Geste, which was a very successful silent film in 1926. The screenplay was adapted from Wren's novel by Paul Schofield, who had also written the screenplay for the 1926 Beau Geste, with contributions from Elizabeth Meehan and Marie Halvey.
The Case of Sergeant Grischa is a 1930 American pre-Code drama film directed by Herbert Brenon, based on the German novel of the same name by Arnold Zweig. John Tribby was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording. No known copy of this film exists and is considered lost, the only sound film to have been nominated for an Oscar and subsequently suffered this fate.
The Lady Refuses is a 1931 American pre-Code melodrama film, directed by George Archainbaud, from a screenplay by Wallace Smith, based on an original story by Guy Bolton and Robert Milton. It stars Betty Compson as a destitute young woman on the verge of becoming a prostitute, who is hired by a wealthy man to woo his ne'er-do-well son away from the clutches of a gold-digger. The plot is regarded as risqué enough to appear in at least one collection of pre-Code Hollywood films.
Inside the Lines is a 1930 American pre-Code spy drama film starring Betty Compson, Ralph Forbes, and Mischa Auer. It was directed by Roy Pomeroy from a screenplay by John Farrow and Ewart Adamson, which in turn was based on the 1915 Broadway play of the same name by Earl Derr Biggers. This version is a remake of the 1918 silent version, also with the same name. This film exists in the public domain because the claimants did not renew the copyright after 28 years.
Laugh and Get Rich is a 1931 pre-Code American comedy film, directed by Gregory La Cava, from a screenplay he also wrote with contributions from Douglas MacLean, who also was the associate producer, and Ralph Spence. The film stars Dorothy Lee, Edna May Oliver, Hugh Herbert, and Russell Gleason, and revolves around the antics in a boarding house in the early 1930s, run by Oliver, and the complications caused by her husband.
By Your Leave is a 1934 American domestic comedy film directed by Lloyd Corrigan from a script by Allan Scott, Lewis Foster, and Sam Mintz. The screenplay was based on a play of the same name by Gladys Hurlbut and Emma B. C. Wells, which had a short run early in the year at the Morosco Theatre. The film was produced by Pandro S. Berman, and starred Frank Morgan and Genevieve Tobin, although several other actresses were initially scheduled to appear in the film, including Mary Astor and Ann Harding. Both stars were on loan to RKO from other studios. It marked the film debuts of two notable Broadway actors, Glenn Anders and Gene Lockhart, the latter of which had a lengthy Hollywood career. By Your Leave opened on November 9, 1934, and received mostly positive reviews.
Hugh Trevor was an American actor whose short career began at the very end of the silent era in 1927. He would appear in nineteen films in the scant six years during which he was active. He did not fare well with the advent of talking pictures, and retired from the industry in 1931. His life was cut short when he unexpectedly died from complications following appendectomy surgery in 1933.