''The Right to Romance'' is a 1933 American

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 ...

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. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

starring

Ann Harding Ann Harding (born Dorothy Walton Gatley; August 7, 1902 – September 1, 1981) was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress. A regular player on Broadway and in regional theater in the 1920s, in the 1930s Harding was ...

and Robert Young and released by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

Premise

plays a successful plastic surgeon who meets a local playboy, played by Robert Young, and impulsively marries him.

Cast

Preservation status

This is one of the "lost RKO films" owned by

Merian C. Cooper Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893 – April 21, 1973) was an American filmmaker and Academy Award winner, as well as a former aviator who served as an officer in the United States Air Force and Polish Air Force. In film, he is credited a ...

and only re-released in April 2007 when

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

acquired the rights and showed all six films on TCM. Cooper accused RKO of not paying him all the money contractually due for the films he produced in the 1930s. A settlement was reached in 1946, giving Cooper complete ownership of six RKO titles: *''

Rafter Romance ''Rafter Romance'' is an American 1933 pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film, which was based on the 1932 novel of the same name by John Wells, stars Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster ...

'' (1933) with

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

*''

Double Harness ''Double Harness'' (1933) is an American pre-Code film starring Ann Harding and William Powell. It was based on the play of the same name by Edward Poor Montgomery. A young woman maneuvers a lazy playboy into marrying her. This was one of sever ...

'' (1933) with Ann Harding and

William Powell William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...

*''The Right to Romance'' (1933) *''

One Man's Journey ''One Man's Journey'' is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film starring Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Eli Watt. The picture was based on the short story ''Failure'' written by Katharine Haviland-Taylor. It was remade by RKO as ''A Man to Remember'' (19 ...

'' (1933) with

Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''A Free Soul'' (1931) ...

*''

Living on Love ''Living on Love'' (1937) is an American romantic comedy film released by RKO Radio Pictures. Directed by Lew Landers, it stars James Dunn, Whitney Bourne, and Joan Woodbury. The film is a remake of the RKO film ''Rafter Romance'' (1933). It is ...

'' (1937) *''

A Man to Remember ''A Man to Remember'' is a 1938 American drama film directed by Garson Kanin, his first film credit as a director. The picture was based on the short story ''Failure'', written by Katharine Haviland-Taylor, and the screenplay was penned by Dalt ...

'' (1938) According to an interview with a retired RKO executive, shown as a promo on TCM, Cooper withdrew the films, only allowing them to be shown on television in 1955–1956 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 2006,

, which had acquired the rights to the six films after extensive legal negotiations, broadcast them on TCM in April 2007, their first full public exhibition in over 70 years. TCM, in association with the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and the

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

Motion Picture Archive, had searched many film archives throughout the world to find copies of the films in order to create new 35mm prints.Fristoe, Roger
"Rafter Romance" (TCM article)
/ref>Eder, Bruc
"Rafter Romance" (AMG review)
/ref>

References

External links

* * * 1933 films RKO Pictures films Films directed by Alfred Santell American drama films Films with screenplays by Sidney Buchman American black-and-white films 1933 drama films 1930s American films {{1930s-US-film-stub