''Strictly Dishonorable'' is a 1951
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film written, produced and directed by
Melvin Frank
Melvin Frank (13 August 1913 – 13 October 1988) was an American screenwriter, film producer and film director. He is known for his partnership with Norman Panama and their work on films such as '' Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' (1948), ...
and
Norman Panama, and starring
Ezio Pinza
Ezio Fortunato Pinza (May 18, 1892May 9, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 ...
and
Janet Leigh
Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, ...
. It is the second film to be based on
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film '' The Great McGinty'' (1940), h ...
' 1929 hit
Broadway play of the same name after a
pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the 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 censorship guidelines, popularly known ...
film released by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
in 1931 with
the same title.
Plot
In New York in the 1920s, amorous opera star Augustino "Gus" Caraffa (
Ezio Pinza
Ezio Fortunato Pinza (May 18, 1892May 9, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 ...
) crosses paths with Isabelle Perry (
Janet Leigh
Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, ...
), a naive music student from Mississippi who is his biggest fan. When a news photographer catches them in a kiss, it is proposed that they get married in name only to avoid a scandal. Isabelle, who is in love with Gus, agrees to the charade, hoping that he will eventually fall in love with her.
Cast
*
Ezio Pinza
Ezio Fortunato Pinza (May 18, 1892May 9, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 ...
as '' Count Augustino "Gus" Caraffa''
*
Janet Leigh
Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, ...
as '' Isabelle Perry''
*
Millard Mitchell
Millard Mitchell (August 14, 1903 – October 13, 1953) was an American character actor whose credits include roughly 30 feature films and two television appearances.
He appeared as a bit player in eight films between 1931 and 1936. Mitchell ...
as ''Bill Dempsey''
*
Gale Robbins
Gale Robbins (born Betty Gale Robbins or Betty Gale Murphy, May 7, 1921 – February 18, 1980) was an American actress and singer.
Early years
Born in Chicago, Illinois, although one source claims she was born in Mitchell, Indiana and her fami ...
as ''Marie Donnelly''
*
Maria Palmer
Maria Palmer (born Maria Pichler, 5 September 1917 – 6 September 1981) was an Austrian-born American actress.
Early life
Palmer was born and raised in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Vienna, Austria) on 5 September 1917. She first appeared on st ...
as ''Countess Lili Szadvany''
*Esther Minciotti as ''Mme. Maria Caraffa''
*Silvio Minciotti as ''Uncle Nito''
*
Arthur Franz as ''Henry Greene''
*Sandro Giglio as ''Tomasso''
*Hugh Sanders as ''Harry Donnelly''
*Mario Siletti as ''Luigi''
Production notes
*Opera and Broadway star Pinza had previously appeared in the film ''
Mr. Imperium'' which was shot before ''Strictly Dishonorable'', but ''Strictly Dishonorable'' was released first, so that film marked his dramatic acting debut. Pinza went on to make only one more film, ''
Tonight We Sing
''Tonight We Sing'' is a 1953 American musical biopic film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring David Wayne, Ezio Pinza and Roberta Peters. It is based on the life and career of the celebrated impresario Sol Hurok.
The film is based on the 19 ...
'' (1953) for
Twentieth Century-Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
, with
Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters (May 4, 1930 – January 18, 2017) was an American coloratura soprano.
One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Oper ...
and
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist.
Born in Poland, Stern came to the US when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union and China, and ...
.
*
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic ch ...
,
John Gilbert and
Lewis Stone
Lewis Shepard Stone (November 15, 1879 – September 12, 1953) was an American film actor. He spent 29 years as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was best known for his portrayal of Judge James Hardy in the studio's popular ''Andy H ...
among others, appear in archival footage from the MGM silent film ''
A Woman of Affairs
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
'' (1928). Stone played the part of "Judge Dempsey" in the 1931 version of ''Strictly Dishonorable''.
* The operatic scenes were staged by
Vladimir Rosing
Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Розинг) (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United ...
.
*"Dempsey" was the maiden name of Preston Sturges' mother.
*The prolific comic character actress
Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman (February 17, 1923August 23, 2001) was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost in ...
appears uncredited as a movie theatre organist.
*Scott R. Beal, who appears uncredited in the bit part of a vendor, was primarily an assistant director. He received an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
as "Best Assistant Director" in 1934 and was nominated again in 1935.
Songs
*"I'll See You in My Dreams" - by
Isham Jones (music) and
Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn (November 6, 1886October 8, 1941) was an American lyricist who contributed a number of songs to the Great American Songbook, including " Pretty Baby", " Ain't We Got Fun?", " Carolina in the Morning", " Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo ...
(lyrics)
*"Everything I Have Is Yours" - by
Burton Lane (music) and
Harold Adamson
Harold Campbell Adamson (December 10, 1906 – August 17, 1980) was an American lyricist during the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life
Adamson, the son of building contractor Harold Adamson and Marion "Minnie" Campbell Adamson, was born and raised in ...
(lyrics)
*"La veau d'or" from the opera ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
'' - by
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
(music) and
Jules Barbier
Paul Jules Barbier (8 March 182516 January 1901) was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré. He was a noted Parisian bon vivant and man of letters.Michel Carré
Michel Carré (20 October 1821, Besançon – 27 June 1872, Argenteuil) was a prolific French librettist.
He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing lib ...
(libretto)
*"Se a caso madama" from the opera ''
Le nozze di Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
'' - by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
(music) and
Lorenzo da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte (; 10 March 174917 August 1838) was an Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: ''The Marr ...
(libretto)
*Unnamed aria from the opera ''Il ritorno di Césare'' - by
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (3 April 1895 – 16 March 1968) was an Italian composer, pianist and writer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In ...
(music and lyrics)
Notes:
*''Il ritorno di Césare'' is a fictitious opera created by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco for the film, and staged by
Vladimir Rosing
Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Розинг) (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United ...
.
[TC]
Notes
/ref>
Production
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film '' The Great McGinty'' (1940), h ...
approached Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
with the idea of doing a remake of ''Strictly Dishonorable'' with Ezio Pinza, and received $60,000 for the rights, but was disappointed when he was not hired to write the screenplay.
''Strictly Dishonorable'' was in production from mid-January to mid-March 1951, and was released on 3 July of that year.
Reception
According to MGM records the film earned $660,000 in the US and Canada and $221,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $664,000.
Adaptations
Lux Radio Theatre
''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...
broadcast a radio adaptation of the film on December 8, 1952, with Janet Leigh reprising her role and Fernando Lamas
Fernando Álvaro Lamas y de Santos (January 9, 1915 – October 8, 1982) was an Argentine-American actor and director, and the father of actor Lorenzo Lamas.
Biography Argentina
Fernando Álvaro Lamas y de Santos was born in Buenos Aires, Ar ...
replacing Pinza.[ ]
Notes
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strictly Dishonorable (1951 Film)
1951 films
1951 romantic comedy films
American romantic comedy films
American black-and-white films
1950s English-language films
American films based on plays
Films directed by Melvin Frank
Films directed by Norman Panama
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Films based on works by Preston Sturges
Films about opera
Films about singers
Films set in the 1920s
1950s American films