''The Trial of Mary Dugan'' is a 1929 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 ...
film produced and distributed by
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 (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
and starring
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'N ...
. The film is based on the 1927 Broadway stage play ''
The Trial of Mary Dugan
''The Trial of Mary Dugan'' is a play written by Bayard Veiller.
The 1927 melodrama concerns a sensational courtroom trial of a showgirl accused of killing her millionaire lover. Her defense attorney is her brother, Jimmy Dugan. It was first pres ...
'' by
Bayard Veiller
Bayard Veiller (January 2, 1869 – January 16, 1943) was an American playwright, screenwriter, producer and film director. He wrote for 32 films between 1915 and 1941.
Biography
He was born on January 2, 1869, in Brooklyn, New York to Phi ...
, who also directed the film. On stage the play had starred
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 ...
(in Shearer's role), who would come to Hollywood a few years later at the beginning of
talkies
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
. This was Veiller's first and only sound film directorial effort as he had directed several silent films before 1922. The play was also published as a novel authored by William Almon Wolff, published in 1928.
''Wolff, W. Almon., Veiller, B. (1928). The trial of Mary Dugan: from the play by Bayard Veiller. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co.''
/ref> The 1941 film of the same name is an MGM remake.
Plot
Mary Dugan, a Broadway showgirl, is charged with murder in the knifing death of her wealthy lover, and goes on trial for her life. When her defense counsel appears to bungle his job, Mary's brother Jimmy, a newly licensed attorney, jumps into the case to defend his sister. Jimmy's courtroom style is unconventional, but he seems to be holding his own against the prosecuting attorney... until a surprise testimony changes the course of the trial.
Cast
*Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'N ...
as Mary Dugan
*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 ...
as Edward West
*H. B. Warner
Henry Byron Warner (born Henry Byron Lickfold, 26 October 1876 – 21 December 1958) was an English film and theatre actor. He was popular during the silent era and played Jesus Christ in '' The King of Kings''. In later years, he successfu ...
as District Attorney Galway
*Raymond Hackett
Raymond Hackett (July 15, 1902 – July 7, 1958) was a stage and screen actor. He had been a child actor on the Broadway stage and was the brother of Albert Hackett. He was born in New York City the son of Maurice Hackett and Florence Hackett (n ...
as Jimmy Dugan
*Lilyan Tashman
Lilyan Tashman (October 23, 1896 – March 21, 1934) was an American actress. Tashman was best known for her supporting roles as tongue-in-cheek villainesses or playing the vindictive "other woman". She made 66 films over the course of her ...
as Dagmar Lorne
*Olive Tell
Olive Tell (September 27, 1894 – June 8, 1951) was a stage and screen actress from New York City.
Biography
Tell was educated in several cities in Europe. She and her younger actress sister Alma graduated from the American Academy of Dramati ...
as Mrs. Gertrude Rice
*Adrienne D'Ambricourt as Marie Ducrot
*DeWitt Jennings
DeWitt Clarke Jennings (June 21, 1871 – March 1, 1937) was an American film and stage actor. He appeared in 17 Broadway theatre, Broadway plays between 1906 and 1920, and in more than 150 films between 1915 and 1937.
Biography
He was born ...
as Inspector Hunt
*Wilfrid North
Wilfrid North (16 January 1863 – 3 June 1935), also spelled Wilfred North, was an Anglo-American film director, actor, and writer of the silent film era. He directed 102 films, including short films; acted in 43 films; and wrote the story for ...
as Judge Nash
*Landers Stevens
John Landers Stevens (1877–1940) was an American stage and film actor. A character actor he appeared in prominent screen roles in the early 1920s before switching to smaller supporting parts, often authority figures, in the following decade. H ...
as Dr. Welcome
*Mary Doran as Pauline Agguerro
*Westcott Clarke as Captain Price
* Charles R. Moore as James Madison
*Claud Allister
Claud Allister (born William Claud Michael Palmer, 3 October 1888 – 26 July 1970) was an English actor with an extensive film career in both Britain and Hollywood, where he appeared in more than 70 films between 1929 and 1955.
Life and ...
as Henry James Plaisted
*Myra Hampton as May Harris
Cast notes:
* Thomas A. Curran
Thomas A. Curran (May 29, 1879 – January 24, 1941), was an Australian-born American actor on the stage and in motion pictures. Between 1915 and 1941 he appeared in 60 films, the last of which was '' Citizen Kane'', in which he played the ...
, an early American silent film actor, had an uncredited bit part
In acting, a bit part is a role in which there is direct interaction with the principal actors and no more than five lines of dialogue, often referred to as a five-or-less or under-five in the United States, or under sixes in British television, ...
.
References
External links
''The Trial of Mary Dugan'' at IMDb.com
''The Trial of Mary Dugan'' ; allrovi.com/ synopsis
scaled version of lobby poster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trial of Mary Dugan, The
1929 films
American films based on plays
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
American black-and-white films
1929 drama films
1920s English-language films
1920s American films