''Thirty Day Princess'' is a 1934
pre-Code comedy film directed by
Marion Gering
Marion Gering (June 9, 1901 in Rostov-on-Don – April 19, 1977 in New York City) was a Russian-born American stage producer and director. He moved to the United States in 1923 as an artist. He became involved in the theatrical community in Chicag ...
and starring
Sylvia Sidney,
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one of ...
and
Edward Arnold. The film was based on a story of the same name by Clarence Budington Kelland (which appeared in ''
Ladies' Home Journal
''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...
'' in 1933), adapted by Sam Hellman and
Edwin Justus Mayer
Edwin Justus Mayer (November 8, 1896 – September 11, 1960) was an American screenwriter. He wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for 47 films between 1927 and 1958.
Edwin Justus Mayer worked on many screenplays but he is remembered now for h ...
, and written by
Preston Sturges and
Frank Partos
Frank Partos (born Ferenc Pártos; July 2, 1901 – December 23, 1956) was a Hungarian-American screenwriter and an early executive committee member of the Screen Actors Guild, which he helped found.
Emigration from Europe
Born in Budapest on ...
.
Plot
On her way to New York to find financial backing for her impoverished country, the
Ruritanian
Ruritania is a fictional country, originally located in central Europe as a setting for novels by Anthony Hope, such as ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1894). Nowadays the term connotes a quaint minor European country, or is used as a placeholder name f ...
Kingdom of Taronia, Princess "Zizzi" Catterina (
Sylvia Sidney) falls ill with the
mumps
MUMPS ("Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System"), or M, is an imperative, high-level programming language with an integrated transaction processing key–value database. It was originally developed at Massachusetts Gener ...
and has to be
quarantined for a month. In desperation, financier Richard Gresham (
Edward Arnold), who is planning to issue $50 million in Taronian bonds, hires unemployed lookalike actress Nancy Lane (also portrayed by Sidney) to impersonate the princess, and offers her a large bonus if she changes the mind of the chief opponent of the financial transaction, newspaper publisher Porter Madison III (
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one of ...
).
Cast
*
Sylvia Sidney as Princess Catterina/Nancy Lane
*
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one of ...
as Porter Madison III
*
Edward Arnold as Richard Gresham
*
Henry Stephenson as King Anatol XII
*
Vince Barnett
Vince Barnett (July 4, 1902 – August 10, 1977) was an American film actor. He appeared on stage originally before appearing in more than 230 films between 1930 and 1975.
Early years
Barnett was born July 4, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylva ...
as Count Nicholeus
*
Edgar Norton
Edgar Norton (born Harry Edgar Mills; August 11, 1868 – February 6, 1953) was an English-born American character actor.
Early years
Norton was born in Islington in London, England, on August 11, 1868, as Harry Edgar Mills, one of eight childr ...
as Baron Passeria
*
Ray Walker as Dan Kirk
*
Lucien Littlefield as Parker
*
Robert McWade as Managing editor
*
George Baxter: Donald Spottswood
*
Marguerite Namara
Marguerite Namara (born Marguerite Evelyn Cecilia Banks; November 19, 1888 – November 5, 1974) was a classically trained American lyric soprano whose varied career included serious opera, Broadway musicals, film and theater roles, and vocal ...
as Lady-in-Waiting
Production
Production on ''Thirty Day Princess'' was to have begun on 28 February 1934, but was delayed because of the illness of
William Collier Sr., who was scheduled to play the role of the "Managing editor". Collier was replaced and production began on 1 March.
[TC]
Notes
/ref>[TC]
Overview
/ref>
Although Preston Sturges received a writing credit for the film's screenplay, he wrote in his autobiography that "not much" of his work was actually used. Sturges also said of B.P. Schulberg
B. P. Schulberg (born Percival Schulberg, January 19, 1892 – February 25, 1957) was an American pioneer film producer and film studio executive.
Biography
Born Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he took the name Benjamin from the ...
that "as a producer, ewas accustomed to accepting praise for pictures as generals accept praise for the valor of their soldiers, and it thus seemed logical to him that the writers should feel the same general sense of shared accomplishment." ''Thirty-Day Princess'' was released on 18 May 1934.[
]
Reception
The film received a mixed reception. Meyer Levin
Meyer Levin (October 7, 1905 – July 9, 1981) was an American novelist. Perhaps best known for his work on the Leopold and Loeb case, Levin worked as a journalist (for the ''Chicago Daily News'' and, from 1933–1939, as an editor for ''Esquire ...
of ''Esquire'' remarking that the director was "no man for comedy", and Cy Caldwell of ''New Outlook'' calling it a "jolly and amusing romantic comedy" in which Grant, Edward Arnold, Vince Barnett
Vince Barnett (July 4, 1902 – August 10, 1977) was an American film actor. He appeared on stage originally before appearing in more than 230 films between 1930 and 1975.
Early years
Barnett was born July 4, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylva ...
and others "render good support". Mordaunt Hall of '' The New York Times'' wrote, "This amiable light affair has a generous share of imaginative turns, and it is further endowed with a highly competent supporting cast."
Grant biographer Geoffrey Wansell notes that Grant was "required to do little more than spend most of his time wearing white tie and tails." He states that some of the more scathing reviews of the film "infuriated" Grant and that he subsequently demanded to choose his own roles. Wansell claims that Paramount retaliated by loaning him to United Artists.
References
Sources
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External links
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{{Marion Gering
1934 films
1934 comedy films
American black-and-white films
Paramount Pictures films
American comedy films
Films directed by Marion Gering
Films produced by B. P. Schulberg
Films with screenplays by Preston Sturges
1930s American films