pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...
romantic-musical film set at the end of World War I. Marianne is French farm girl who, although her French fiancé is away, fighting, falls in love with an American soldier. It is a remake of a
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
that was released earlier in 1929. Although the films feature mostly different casts,
Marion Davies
Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...
starred in both versions. This was Davies' first released talking movie. The pictures were released less than eleven years after the Armistice, and the title would have had a profound meaning for European audiences. “
Marianne
Marianne () has been the national personification of the French Republic since the French Revolution, as a personification of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason, as well as a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty.
Marianne is displayed i ...
” has been a beloved personification of France and the battle for democracy—and the courage of French women in particular—since the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
. She was a key figure in French
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
, and American men who served in Europe in 1917-1918 would have seen representations of her all around them, in public buildings, on posters and in newspapers, on coins and postage stamps.
Plot
The synopsis on
TCM.com
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...
is wrong in too many ways to list here. Perhaps it is a synopsis of the silent version, but TCM does not have separate entries for the two films.
Cast
*
Marion Davies
Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...
as Marianne
*
Lawrence Gray
Lawrence Gray (July 28, 1898 – February 2, 1970) was an American actor of the 1920s and 1930s.
Biography
Born in San Francisco in 1898, Gray served during World War I in the U. S. Navy and gained a commission. After the war he began i ...
as Private Stagg
*
Cliff Edwards
Clifton Avon "Cliff" Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971), nicknamed "Ukulele Ike", was an American singer, musician and actor. He enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standar ...
as "Soapy" Soapstone
*
Benny Rubin
Benny Rubin (February 2, 1899 – July 15, 1986) was an American comedian and film actor. Born in Boston, Rubin made more than 200 radio, film and television appearances over a span of 50 years.
Career
In 1929, Rubin went to Hollywood, where he ...
as Sam "Sammy" Samuels
* George Baxter as André
* Scott Kolk as Lieutenant Frane
*
Robert Edeson
Robert Edeson (June 3, 1868 – March 24, 1931) was an American film and stage actor of the silent era and a vaudeville performer.
Life and career
Edeson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of manager and actor George R. Edeson. Afte ...
as The General
*
Émile Chautard
Émile Chautard (7 September 1864 – 24 April 1934) was a French-American film director, actor, and screenwriter, most active in the silent era. He directed more than 100 films between 1910 and 1924. He also appeared in more than 60 films ...
as Père Joseph
Music
The song “
Just You, Just Me
"Just You, Just Me" is a song from the 1929 musical film ''Marianne'', composed by Jesse Greer with lyrics by Raymond Klages. It was introduced by Marion Davies and Lawrence Gray. The song has had many revisions after its first appearance and has b ...
”, composed by
Jesse Greer Jesse Greer (August 26, 1896 New York City – October 3, 1970 Columbia, Connecticut) was an American Broadway songwriter. His musical '' Shady Lady'' was staged in 1933 with additional music by Sam H. Stept. Greer composed " Just You, Just Me" for ...
, with lyrics by Raymond Klages, was introduced in this film by Lawrence Gray, playing the
ukulele
The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The tone and volume of the instrumen ...
, and Marion Davies in a comic reprise. It quickly became a standard, and has been covered by countless performers through almost a century. Greer and Klages also wrote “Hang on to Me”. They are given on-screen credits for “Interpolations,” along with
Nacio Herb Brown
Ignacio Herbert "Nacio Herb" Brown (February 22, 1896 – September 28, 1964) was an American songwriter, writer of popular songs, movie scores and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s. Amongst his most enduring work ...
and
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed (September 9, 1894 – April 12, 1973) was an American lyricist and Hollywood film producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture twice, in 1951 for ''An American in Paris'' and in 1958 for '' Gigi''. Both films were musicals. ...
, who wrote “Blondy”.
The “Music and Lyrics” credit goes to
Roy Turk
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
and Fred E Ahlert, who were responsible for “Marianne”, “When I See My Sugar”, “Oo-la-la-la-la” and “The Girl from Noochateau”. All these songs were composed in 1929.
Songs popularized during the war include: “Oh! Frenchy”, music by
Con Conrad
Con Conrad (born Conrad K. Dober, June 18, 1891 – September 28, 1938) was an American songwriter and producer.
Biography
Conrad was born in Manhattan, New York, and published his first song, "Down in Dear Old New Orleans", in 1912. Conrad p ...
Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934. He also noted that the film was "by no means a production that is suited to Miss Davies's talents."