The Gold Diggers | |
---|---|
Directed by | Harry Beaumont |
Written by | Grant Carpenter (scenario) |
Based on | The Gold Diggers (1919 play) by Avery Hopwood |
Produced by | David Belasco |
Starring | Hope Hampton Wyndham Standing Louise Fazenda |
Edited by | Frank Mitchell Dazey |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 80 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Budget | $280,000 [1] |
Box office | $501,000 [1] |
The Gold Diggers is a Warner Bros. silent comedy film directed by Harry Beaumont with screenplay by Grant Carpenter [2] based on the play The Gold Diggers by Avery Hopwood which ran for 282 performances on Broadway in 1919 and 1920. Both the play and the film were produced by David Belasco. The film stars Hope Hampton, Wyndham Standing, and Louise Fazenda. It was also the (uncredited) film debut of Louise Beavers. [3]
The story of The Gold Diggers was filmed again as a talkie in 1929 as Gold Diggers of Broadway , which is now lost, and also in 1933 as Gold Diggers of 1933 , with musical numbers created by Busby Berkeley. Three other sequels followed: Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), and Gold Diggers in Paris (1938).
Wally Saunders (Johnny Harron) wants to marry chorus girl Violet Dayne (Anne Cornwall), but his uncle, Stephen Lee (Wyndham Standing) thinks that all chorines are gold diggers (people who date others to get money from them) and refuses to give his approval. Violet's friend Jerry La Mar (Hope Hampton) is not a gold digger, but she agrees to go after Lee so aggressively that Violet will look tame by comparison. Of course, the uncle and the friend fall in love and get married, even after he knows the truth about her, and he gives permission for Wally and Violet to get hitched too.
According to Warner Bros records the film earned $470,000 domestically and $31,000 foreign. [1]
With no prints of The Gold Diggers located in any archive it was for decades presumed to be a lost film. In May 2021, a collector found an incomplete nitrate 35mm Belgian print in England, which has been uploaded to YouTube. [4] The surviving footage includes reels 1,4,5 and 6, although some of the extant reels have missing sections at the beginning and end of the reels. In June 2021 the same collector uploaded a digitally scanned version of the first five minutes to YouTube, with plans to scan the remaining footage. [5]
Gold Digger, Gold Diggers or The Gold Diggers may refer to:
Associated Artists Productions, Inc. (a.a.p.) later known as United Artists Associated was an American distributor of theatrical feature films and short subjects for television. Associated Artists Productions was the copyright owner of the Popeye shorts by Paramount Pictures, and the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film library, notably the pre-August 1948 color Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated shorts, and the black-and-white Merrie Melodies shorts from Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising sans "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!"
Gold Diggers of 1933 is a pre-Code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics), staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, and Dick Powell, and features Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks and Ginger Rogers.
Louise Fazenda was an American film actress, appearing chiefly in silent comedy films.
Gold Diggers of Broadway is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film is the second all-talking, all-Technicolor feature-length film.
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Willard Louis was an American stage and film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1911 and 1926. He was born in San Francisco, California.
Anne Cornwall was an American actress best known for her roles in College (1927) and The Roughneck (1924).
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