''Gold Dust Gertie'' is a 1931 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 ...

musical comedy produced and released by

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

. It was originally completed as a full musical. Due to the backlash against musicals, however, all the songs were cut from the film in all release prints in the United States. The film was originally known as ''Red Hot Sinners'', but was released as ''Gold Dust Gertie'' after the musical numbers had been cut. The film was based on the play ''The Wife of the Party'' by Len D. Hollister. The film stars Winnie Lightner, Ole Olsen,

Chic Johnson Harold Ogden "Chic" Johnson (March 15, 1891 – February 28, 1962) was the barrel-chested half of the American comedy team of Olsen and Johnson, known for his strangely infectious, high-pitched "Woo-Woo" laugh. Background Johnson was born of ...

and

Claude Gillingwater Claude Benton Gillingwater (August 2, 1870 – November 1, 1939) was an American stage and screen actor. He first appeared on the stage then in more than 90 films between 1918 and 1939, including the Academy Award-nominated ''A Tale of Two ...

Synopsis

Winnie Lightner plays the part of a gold digger who married men only to divorce them and collect alimony. She marries Ole Olsen in 1927, divorces him, and then marries his friend Chic Johnson and also divorces him. By 1930, both Olson and Johnson have remarried but they continue paying alimony to Lightner without the knowledge of their current wives. When Olson and Johnson are late with their payment, Lightner shows up at their work. Olson and Johnson work at a firm that designs women's sportwear. Olson and Johnson's boss, played by Claude Gillingwater, is very old fashioned and insists on designing women's bathing suits that are so modest that they end up resembling the models from twenty years ago. Because of this, the business is doing poorly and Olson and Johnson are low on cash at the moment. Lightner, seeing that she currently has no chance of collecting from her ex-husbands at the moment, decides to vamp their boss. Lightner eventually convinces Gillingwater to liberalize his views. Lightner designs a new modern bathing suit which ends up winning an award. Gillingwater falls in love with Lightner and proposes marriage. Lightner accepts but problems soon arise. As they are celebrating their engagement another ex-husband shows up and, taking pity on Gillingwater, he attempts to warn him. Furthermore, the minister who Gillingwater has chosen to officiate at their wedding knows all about Lightner's ex-husbands and her gold digging schemes.

Cast

* Winnie Lightner as Gertrude 'Gertie' Dale * Ole Olsen as George Harlan *

as Elmer Guthrie * Dorothy Christy as Mabel Guthrie *

as John Aberdeen Arnold * Arthur Hoyt as Dr. Rodman Tate, the Minister * George Byron as Captain Osgood *

Vivien Oakland Vivien Oakland (born Vivian Ruth Andersen; May 20, 1895 – August 1, 1958), was an American actress best known for her work in comedies in Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably with the Hal Roach Studios. Oakland appeared in 157 films ...

as Lucille Harlan *

Charley Grapewin Charles Ellsworth Grapewin (December 20, 1869 – February 2, 1956) was an American vaudeville and circus performer, a writer, and a stage and film actor. He worked in over 100 motion pictures during the silent and sound eras, most notably port ...

as Nicholas Hautrey *

Charles Judels Charles Judels (August 17, 1882 - February 14, 1969) was a Dutch-born American actor. Early years Judels was born on August 17, 1882, in Amsterdam as a third generation in a family of actors. His grandfather owned several theatres throughout t ...

as Monsieur Pestalozzi *

Virginia Sale Virginia Sale (May 20, 1899 – August 23, 1992) was an American character actress whose career spanned six decades, during most of which she played older women, even when she was in her twenties. Over the 46 years she was active as an actr ...

as Secretary Modelling Skimpy Bathing Suit

Preservation

Only the cut print released in the United States seems to have survived at the Library of Congress.,''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'' page 69 c.1978 The American Film Institute The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States where a backlash against musicals never occurred. It is unknown whether a copy of this full version still exists.

References

External links

* * {{Lloyd Bacon 1931 films Warner Bros. films 1930s English-language films Films directed by Lloyd Bacon American black-and-white films American musical comedy films 1931 musical comedy films 1930s American films