''Scarlet Pages'' is a 1930

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 ...

American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

film with songs starring

Elsie Ferguson Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress. Early life Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Hiram and Amelia Ferguson. Her father was a successful attorney. Raise ...

and directed by Ray Enright. It was produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of

Warner Bros. 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 ...

The film stars

, John Halliday,

Grant Withers Granville Gustavus Withers (January 17, 1905 – March 27, 1959) was an American film actor who acted under the screen name Grant Withers. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into sound films, establishing himself with a lis ...

and

Marian Nixon Marian Nixon (born Marja Nissinen; October 20, 1904 – February 13, 1983) was an American film actress. Sometimes credited as Marion Nixon, she appeared in more than 70 films. Career Born in Superior, Wisconsin, to parents of Finnish descent, ...

. ''Scarlet Pages'' is based on a 1929 Broadway play of the same name that Ferguson also starred in. It is similar in theme to the better remembered ''

Five Star Final ''Five Star Final'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film about the excesses of tabloid journalism directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Edward G. Robinson, Aline MacMahon (in her screen debut) and Boris Karloff. The screenplay was by Rober ...

'', also by Warners released a year later. The film simultaneously marked the first time Ferguson appeared in a

sound film 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 ...

and the last film she ever made.

Plot

In the prologue to the film (taking place in 1911) we learn that, being unable to care for her baby, Mary Bancroft (

), had to give her up for adoption. Years later (in 1930), we find Bancroft as a successful female lawyer in New York. She refuses to marry District Attorney John Remington ( John Halliday), because she doesn't want to tell him about her unfortunate past. Bancroft and Remington go to a nightclub one night where Nora Mason (

) works as a singer and dancer. Nora Mason is actually Bancroft's biological daughter but neither of them knows it. Although Nora is tired of the work she is doing and wants to settle down and marry Robert Lawrence (

), her adoptive "father" Dr. Henry Mason (played by

Wilbur Mack Wilbur Mack (born George Frear Runyon, July 29, 1873 – March 13, 1964) was an American film actor and early vaudeville performer from the 1920s through the 1960s. His film acting career began during the silent film era. Biography Mack w ...

) has other plans for her. Dr. Mason wants to sell Nora to Gregory Jackson ( William B. Davidson), who promises to star Nora in a lucrative show, as long as she gives herself to Jackson. When Nora hears of this sordid deal from the lips of Dr. Mason, she kills him with a gun her adoptive "mother"( Charlotte Walker) has recently bought. Lawrence, with a friend who is an acquaintance of Bancroft's, goes to the office of Bancroft to ask her to defend Nora. At first reluctant, Bancroft finally decides to take the case. Nora at first refuses to tell the reasons for killing her adoptive father Dr. Mason until it comes out in court that she has been adopted. Nora then informs the jury the entire details of what had occurred prior to the murder; it is obliquely stated that she had been molested by Dr. Mason. When Bancroft finds out her client is actually her own daughter she passes out in court. Nora is acquitted and eventually forgives her real mother for abandoning her as a child.

Cast

Songs

* "I'm Walking on Air" ''Sung by Marian Nixon and Chorus'' (written by Archie Gottler and George W. Meyer)

Preservation

The film survives intact and has been preserved from

Associated Artists Productions Associated Artists Productions, Inc. (a.a.p.) later known as United Artists Associated was an American distributor of theatrical feature films and subjects for television. Associated Artists Productions was the copyright owner of the ''Popey ...

(AAP/UA). It has been released on DVD by the

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

. A copy is held by 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 ...

.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'', (<-book title) p.159 c.1978 by The American Film Institute

References

External links

* * *
Screen cap and title card
Wayback Machine) {{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlet Pages 1930 films 1930 crime drama films American action films American crime drama films American legal drama films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films American films based on plays Films directed by Ray Enright First National Pictures films Warner Bros. films Films scored by Louis Silvers 1930s action films 1930s American films