''Rich Man's Folly'' is a 1931 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by John Cromwell and written by Edward E. Paramore Jr. and Grover Jones. The film stars George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Robert Ames, Juliette Compton, David Durand,

Dorothy Peterson Bergetta "Dorothy" Peterson (December 25, 1897 - October 3, 1979) was an American actress. She began her acting career on Broadway before appearing in more than eighty Hollywood films. Early years Peterson was born in Hector, Minnesota, the ...

, and Harry Allen. The film was released on November 14, 1931, by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

. This modern adaptation of the 1848 novel '' Dombey and Son'' is regarded as Hollywood's first major screen adaptation of a

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

work.

Plot

Cast

* George Bancroft as Brock Trumbull * Frances Dee as Ann Trumbull * Robert Ames as Joe Warren * Juliette Compton as Paula Norcross * David Durand as Brock Junior *

as Katherine Trumbull * Harry Allen as McWylie * Gilbert Emery as Kincaid * Guy Oliver as Dayton * Anne Shirley as Anne, as a child * George MacFarlane as Marston

Criticism

Director John Cromwell commented on the film and actor George Bancroft in an interview with historian Kinglesy Canham (circa 1975):

Preservation status

Although the film does still exist, ''Rich Man's Folly'' has not been seen publicly in decades. It has never been released onto VHS or DVD, and no re-showings or television broadcasts are known to have taken place. A surviving copy currently exists in the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the film can be viewed on Youtube. Paramount created a promotional film in 1931 called '' The House That Shadows Built'', with excerpts of ''Rich Man's Folly'' featured.

Footnotes

References

*Canham, Kingsley. 1976. ''The Hollywood Professionals, Volume 5: King Vidor, John Cromwell, Mervyn LeRoy.'' The Tantivy Press, London.

External links

* {{Dombey and Son 1931 films American drama films 1931 drama films Paramount Pictures films Films directed by John Cromwell American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films Films based on British novels Films based on works by Charles Dickens Films scored by W. Franke Harling Films scored by Bernhard Kaun Films scored by Rudolph G. Kopp Films scored by John Leipold Films scored by Oscar Potoker