''What Men Want'' is a 1930 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 ...

directed by

Ernst Laemmle Ernst Laemmle (1900–1950) was a German screenwriter and film director. He was the nephew of Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle and like many of his relatives he was brought over to America to work for the studio. Ernst directed a number of ...

and starring

Pauline Starke Pauline Starke (January 10, 1901Some sources say she was born in 1900. – February 3, 1977) was an American silent-film actress. Early years Pauline Starke was born on January 10, 1901, in Joplin, Missouri, the daughter of George W. Starke ...

Ben Lyon Ben Lyon (February 6, 1901 – March 22, 1979) was an American film actor and a studio executive at 20th Century-Fox who later acted in British radio, films and TV. Early life and career Lyon was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Alvine ...

Hallam Cooley Hallam Cooley (February 8, 1895 – March 20, 1971) was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1913 and 1936. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Tiburon, California. Cooley attended Nor ...

Barbara Kent Barbara Kent ( Barbara Cloutman) December 16, 1907 – October 13, 2011) was a Canadian film actress, prominent from the silent film era to the early talkies of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1925, Barbara Kent won the Miss Hollywood Beauty Pageant. ...

, Robert Ellis and Carmelita Geraghty. (All three credited actresses were

WAMPAS Baby Stars The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honored 13 (15 in 1932) young actresses each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. ...

.) Written by John B. Clymer and

Dorothy Yost Dorothy Yost (April 25, 1899 – June 10, 1967), later married as Dorothy Yost Cummings, was a prominent screenwriter whose career lasted from the silent era well into the sound era. Over her lifetime, she worked on more than 90 films, inc ...

, the film was released on July 13, 1930, 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 ...

Plot

Lee Joyce tells her lover, Howard LeMoyne, that she is actually in love with another man, Kendall James. As soon as her breakup happens, Lee's younger sister Betty turns up and Kendall becomes infatuated with her instead. In anger, Lee shatters her sister's romance by revealing her previous affair with Kendall, after which Lee tries to return to Howard.

Cast

as Lee Joyce *

as Kendall James *

as Bunch *

as Betty 'Babs' Joyce * Robert Ellis as Howard LeMoyne * Carmelita Geraghty as Mabel

References

External links

* 1930 films American drama films 1930 drama films Universal Pictures films American black-and-white films Films directed by Ernst Laemmle 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-drama-film-stub