The Green Goddess | |
---|---|
Directed by | Alfred E. Green |
Written by | Julien Josephson |
Based on | The Green Goddess 1921 play by William Archer |
Produced by | Walter Morosco |
Starring | George Arliss Ralph Forbes H.B. Warner Alice Joyce |
Cinematography | James Van Trees |
Edited by | James Gibbon |
Music by | Louis Silvers |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 73 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Green Goddess is a 1930 American pre-Code film directed by Alfred E. Green. It was a remake of the 1923 silent film, which was in turn based on the play of the same name by William Archer. It was produced by Warner Bros. using their new Vitaphone sound system, and adapted by Julien Josephson.
It stars George Arliss, Alice Joyce (in her final film role), Ralph Forbes and H.B. Warner. Arliss and Ivan F. Simpson played the same parts in all three productions, while Joyce reprised her role from the earlier film. Arliss was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance.
A small plane carrying three British citizens — Major Crespin (H.B. Warner), his estranged wife Lucilla (Alice Joyce), and pilot Dr. Traherne (Ralph Forbes) — becomes lost and is forced to crash land in the tiny realm of Rukh, somewhere near the Himalaya Mountains. The Raja (George Arliss) who rules the land welcomes them.
As it happens, the Raja's three brothers are soon to be executed for murder by the British. When the three plane-crash survivors appear, the Raja's subjects become convinced that their Green Goddess has delivered three victims into their hands for revenge. The three are to be killed once the Raja's three brothers are dead. The Raja professes no great love for his brothers, as they had posed a danger to the succession of his own children, but he sees no reason to anger his people by protecting his British guests. When he becomes attracted to Lucilla, however, he offers to spare her life if she will become his wife. She refuses.
The prisoners become aware that the Raja has a telegraph, operated by the Raja's renegade British exile and chief assistant, Watkins (Ivan F. Simpson). Hoping to send for help, they try to bribe Watkins, but when they realize he is only leading them on, they throw him off the balcony to his death. Major Crespin manages to send a message before the Raja's men break into the room. The Raja personally shoots Crespin in the back, killing him in mid-transmission.
The next day, Traherne and Lucilla are taken to the temple of the Green Goddess. Once more, the Raja renews his offer to Lucilla, but is again turned down. Given a moment alone, Traherne and Lucilla confess their love for each other. Then, in the nick of time, six British biplanes appear in the skies over Rukh. Lt. Cardew (Reginald Sheffield) lands and demands the release of the couple. The Raja gives in.
The Green Goddess was filmed in 1929 and completed before Disraeli (1929) but was held out of release until later at the request of George Arliss because he felt that Disraeli was a better vehicle for his sound debut.
The Green Goddess first was adapted for cinema in 1923. Produced by Distinctive Productions, it was directed by Sidney Olcott and played by George Arliss, Alice Joyce and Jetta Goudal.
The Green Goddess was adapted as a one-hour radio play on the January 6, 1935 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater , starring Claude Rains.
It was adapted to radio again by Orson Welles on The Campbell Playhouse on February 10, 1939 with Welles as The Rajah and Madeleine Carroll as Lucille. [1]
The House of Rothschild is a 1934 American pre-Code film written by Nunnally Johnson from the play by George Hembert Westley, and directed by Alfred L. Werker. It chronicles the rise of the Rothschild family of European bankers.
Disraeli is a 1929 American historical film directed by Alfred E. Green, released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., and adapted by Julien Josephson (screenplay) and De Leon Anthony (titles) from the 1911 play Disraeli by Louis N. Parker.
Matthew Reginald Sheffield Cassan was an English-American actor.
Ralph Forbes was an English film and stage actor active in Britain and the United States.
The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures. The Mercury also released promptbooks and phonographic recordings of four Shakespeare works for use in schools.
Mystery of the Wax Museum is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery-horror film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, and Frank McHugh. It was released by Warner Bros. in two-color Technicolor. It and Warner's Doctor X were the last two dramatic fiction films made using the two-color Technicolor process.
The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington, the second in his Growth trilogy after The Turmoil (1915) and before The Midlander. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was adapted into the 1925 silent film Pampered Youth. In 1942 it was again made into a movie, this time under its own title, with sound, and to a tightly clipped but effective script by Orson Welles, who also directed. Much later, in 2002, came a TV adaptation based on Welles' screenplay.
The Man Who Played God is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John G. Adolfi. George Arliss stars as a concert pianist embittered by the loss of his hearing, who eventually finds redemption by helping others; it also features a then little-known Bette Davis as the much younger woman engaged to the protagonist.
George Arliss was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he won for his performance as Victorian-era British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929) – as well as the earliest-born actor to win the honour. He specialized in successful biopics, such as Disraeli, Voltaire (1933), and Cardinal Richelieu (1935), as well as light comedies, which included The Millionaire (1931) and A Successful Calamity (1932).
The Green Goddess was a popular stage play of 1921 by William Archer. In the three years after its publication, the play toured in both America and England. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1920-1921.
Green Light is a 1937 American film directed by Frank Borzage.
The Millionaire is a 1931 all-talking pre-Code comedy film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and starring George Arliss in the title role. The film is a remake of the 1922 film titled The Ruling Passion, which also starred Arliss. The film was based on the short story "Idle Hands" by Earl Derr Biggers. In one of his early film roles, James Cagney had a brief but key appearance as a life insurance salesman. The supporting cast features Florence Arliss, David Manners, Evalyn Knapp, Noah Beery Sr., Cagney, J. Farrell MacDonald, Charley Grapewin and Tully Marshall.
Margaret Dale was an American stage and film actress. She performed on Broadway for over fifty years and occasionally did films in the 1920s. She appeared in a large number of Broadway hits over the course of her years as an actress.
The Green Goddess is a 1923 American silent adventure film based on the play The Green Goddess by William Archer. Set during the British Raj, it stars George Arliss as the Rajah of Rukh, into whose land arrive three British subjects, played by Alice Joyce, David Powell, and Harry T. Morey. Arliss, Joyce and Ivan F. Simpson reprised their roles from the play and also in the 1930 talking film version The Green Goddess.
This is a comprehensive listing of the radio programs made by Orson Welles. Welles was often uncredited for his work, particularly in the years 1934–1937, and he apparently kept no record of his broadcasts.
Radio is what I love most of all. The wonderful excitement of what could happen in live radio, when everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I was making a couple of thousand a week, scampering in ambulances from studio to studio, and committing much of what I made to support the Mercury. I wouldn't want to return to those frenetic 20-hour working day years, but I miss them because they are so irredeemably gone.
Disraeli is a biographical play by the British writer Louis N. Parker, which was first staged in 1911. The play was commissioned by the actor George Arliss who saw a portrayal of the Victorian British statesman Benjamin Disraeli as an ideal vehicle for his stage career. It was written in London during 1910. Parker suffered from writer's block at one point and received some assistance from Arliss. Parker included a subplot lifted from the 1839 play Richelieu by Edward Bulwer-Lytton which was later the subject of some controversy. He added a number of fictitious characters to add excitement and drama to the story. The real role of Lionel de Rothschild in the purchase was changed to that of the fictional banker Meyers. The play premièred at Wallack's Theatre in New York City on 18 September 1911.
Ivan F. Simpson was a Scottish film and stage actor.
Jungle Goddess is a 1948 American action/adventure crime film starring George Reeves, Ralph Byrd, and Wanda McKay. Directed by Lewis D. Collins, the film was based on an idea by producer William Stephens.
Old English is a 1930 American pre-Code drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and produced by Warner Bros. The film is based on the 1924 Broadway play of the same name by John Galsworthy. The film stars George Arliss, Leon Janney, Betty Lawford and Doris Lloyd.
Louise Jordan Miln was an American novelist.
Streaming audio