''The Great Flirtation'' is a 1934 American

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 ...

comedy drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Ralph Murphy Ralph Murphy (May 1, 1895 – February 10, 1967) was an American film and television director. Born in Rockville, Connecticut, Murphy was active in films from 1931 through 1962, with some work in television. From 1941 to 1944 he was married to ...

and starring

Elissa Landi Elissa Landi (born Elisabeth Marie Christine Kühnelt; December 6, 1904 – October 21, 1948) was an Austrian-American actress born in Venice, who was popular as a performer in Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s. She was noted for her a ...

Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's ''A Woman of Paris'', where he played the lead role; Stanley K ...

David Manners David Joseph Manners (born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom; April 30, 1900 – December 23, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor who plays John Harker in Tod Browning's 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', which stars Bela Lugosi in the title role.Pace ...

and

Lynne Overman Lynne may refer to: * Lynne (surname) * Lynne (given name) * Lynne, Florida, an unincorporated community * Lynne, Wisconsin, a town in Oneida County, Wisconsin, United States {{Disambig ...

. The film was released on June 15, 1934 by Paramount Pictures. It was based on an unpublished story ''I Love an Actress'' by

Gregory Ratoff Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; russian: Григорий Васильевич Ратнер, tr. ; April 20, c. 1893 – December 14, 1960) was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was bes ...

and adapted by

Humphrey Pearson Humphrey Pearson (November 30, 1893 – February 24, 1937) was an American screenwriter and playwright of the 1930s. During his brief career, he penned a Broadway play and 22 screenplays. His promising career was cut short when he was found shot ...

Synopsis

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Stephan Karpath is an

egotistical Egotism is defined as the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself and generally features an inflated opinion of one's personal features and importance distinguished by a person's amplified vision of one's self and self-importan ...

but celebrated stage actor, whose lover Zita Marishka is an aspiring

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. When she is cast alongside him in a play he jealously has her fired. In a huff she departs for

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, but he accompanies her and they are married on the ship going over. However, in American nobody has heard of Stephan and he finds it difficult to find work. His wife hits on the idea of passing herself off as a famous, but unmarried,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

actress and is cast in the lead of a

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

play. She manages to get Stephan work playing opposite her, but to his chagrin she is pursued romantically by several men including the producer and the playwright Larry Kenyon. When it dawns on Stephan that she really loves Larry, in whose work she has become a great actress, he pretends to return to Budapest but really goes to

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

Cast

as Zita Marishka *

as Stephan Karpath *

as Larry Kenyon *

as Joe Lang *

Raymond Walburn Raymond Walburn (September 9, 1887 – July 26, 1969) was an American character actor of stage and screen who appeared in dozens of Hollywood movie comedies and an occasional dramatic role during the 1930s and 1940s. Life and career Born i ...

as Henry Morgan *Adrian Rosley as Mikos *

Paul Porcasi Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

as Herr Direktor *George Baxter as Arpad * Judith Vosselli as Queen in Play * Akim Tamiroff as Paul Wengler *

Vernon Steele Vernon Steele (born Arturo Romeo Antonietti; 18 September 1882 – 23 July 1955) was a Chilean-born British actor known for his appearances on the Broadway stage and in American films. He often played patrician young men in silent films. Steele ...

as Bigelow

References

Bibliography

* Dooley, Roger. ''From Scarface to Scarlett: American Films in the 1930s''. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984.

External links

* 1934 films American comedy-drama films 1934 comedy films 1934 comedy-drama films 1934 drama films Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Ralph Murphy American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films Films set in Budapest Films set in New York City Films about theatre English-language comedy-drama films {{1930s-drama-film-stub