The Gorgeous Hussy ** (1936, Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Franchot Tone, Melvyn Douglas, James Stewart) – Classic Movie Review 6339

Director Clarence Brown’s shaky 1936 historical drama is notable for the romantic teaming of two of MGM’s finest, Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor, as hussy innkeeper’s daughter Peggy O’Neal Eaton and the US navy lieutenant she marries, Bow Timberlake.

Their pairing is definitely supposed to be the attraction here, but they are both uncomfortable with their roles and easily upstaged by canny old Lionel Barrymore and Beulah Bondi as President Andrew Jackson and his first lady, Rachel, not to mention the all-star cast that also includes Franchot Tone, Melvyn Douglas, James Stewart, Alison Skipworth, Louis Calhern, Melville Cooper, Sidney Toler and Gene Lockhart.

Despite the lavish MGM production and the colourful costumes and settings, as well as the romantic star pairing and superb cast, politics and history proved a turn-off for the mainly female Thirties bright young things in the audience who were the stars’ fans.

The very contemporary and modern actress Crawford is miscast in a rare period role. Looking awkward in the period gowns, she is certainly gorgeous though obviously struggling here as a fictionalised version of the 1830s Washington belle, Peggy O’Neal Eaton. As for Taylor, it was easy for him to look uncomfortable in a role.

Ainsworth Morgan and Stephen Morehouse Avery’s screenplay is based on the book by Samuel Hopkins Adams.

Also in the cast of MGM worthies are Edith Atwater, Phoebe Foster, Clara Blandick, Frank Conroy, Nydia Westman, Louise Beavers, Charles Trowbridge, Willard Robertson, Greta Meyer, Fred Toone and William Orlamond.

It is shot in black and white by George J Folsey, produced by Clarence Brown and Joseph L Mankiewicz, scored by Herbert Stothart and designed by Cedric Gibbons, with Set Decoration by Henry Grace and Costume Design by Adrian.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6339

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