Theodora Goes Wild

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Movie
German title Theodora goes wild
Original title Theodora Goes Wild
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1936
length 94 minutes
Rod
Director Richard Boleslawski
script Sidney Buchman
production Everett Riskin for Columbia Pictures
music Morris Stoloff
camera Joseph Walker
cut Otto Meyer
occupation

Theodora Goes Wild is a 1936 American screwball comedy starring Irene Dunne and directed by Richard Boleslawski . Irene Dunne received an Oscar nomination for best actress for her performance .

action

The story begins with the publication of excerpts from the piquant novel "The Sinner" by the author Caroline Adams in the "Lynnfield Bugl", the local newspaper in the small town of the same name in Connecticut. In the story, the double standards and hypocrisy in a small town in New England are relentlessly exposed and not spared with scandalous revelations and love affairs. The editor-in-chief Jed Waterbury has come under massive criticism from local women's organizations led by feisty sisters Mary and Elsie Lynn. The two maidens live with their niece Theodora, who is a full-time teacher at the Sunday school and organist of the local church. At the same time, Theodora has a secret: she is actually Caroline Adams and therefore the author of the scandal book. While the local Puritans get very upset about the book, "The Sinner" becomes a national bestseller, topping the lists of best-selling books.

Meanwhile, Theodora travels to New York to meet her publisher Arthur Stevenson. Stevenson is excited to finally meet the author of this literary scandal in person. After the initial surprise of meeting a young woman from a good background, instead of a vamp chatting from the sewing box, Stevenson tries to persuade Theodora to reveal her true identity to the public. However, she steadfastly refuses, as otherwise her good reputation in Lynnfield would be gone forever.

Later that evening, Theodora accompanies Arthur to an elegant meal, gets drunk senselessly and ends up in a compromising situation with Michael Grant, who falls in love with her. Theodora returns headlong to Lynnfield, shocked by her own behavior. Michael follows her and takes a job under a false name as a gardener with the Lynns. Their romance becomes more complicated when Michael admits that he is married but will not be able to file for divorce for a few years out of consideration for his family. Determined to turn things around, Theodora forces her publisher to reveal the true identity of Caroline Adams. Everyone in Lynnfield is appalled by the coup. The story takes other twists and turns, with Michael's wife filing for divorce and Theodora posing as an unmarried mother with a baby in her arms. However, the child really belongs to her secretly married friend, which nobody knows. Michael, who also thinks it is his child, decides to marry Theodora, who eventually clears up the whole story.

background

Irene Dunne was a highly paid film star in the mid-1930s thanks to numerous appearances in tearful melodramas such as No Other Woman or The Secret of Madame Blanche and opulent musicals. In 1936, Universal paid her a fee of $ 100,000 for her participation in Show Boat . After her contract with RKO had expired, the actress decided to only conclude non-exclusive contracts without a permanent studio commitment. This method, known as free-lancing , has also been successfully pursued by other stars such as Cary Grant , Barbara Stanwyck and Carole Lombard . Dunne therefore signed with Columbia Pictures in June 1935 , whose autocratic studio boss Harry Cohn showed the actress an atypical personal respect for him. That didn't stop him from choosing a comedy for Dunne as his first engagement. The star was not at all pleased with the idea. In a later interview, Dunne recalled:

“I had never done a comedy before. I'd been in serious movies like Back Street , and then I was supposed to play this crazy little town kid. I didn't like the part at all. "

The actress went on a six-week stay in Europe, but the hope of finding another script offer after her return was dashed. Given the choice of either being suspended or accepting the script for Theodora Goes Wild , Dunne eventually accepted. The choice of director also contributed to their concerns. Richard Boleslawski had so far emerged with serious dramas such as Rasputin and the Empress from 1932, The Painted Veil with Greta Garbo from 1934 and the adaptation of Les Misérables . Cohn finally granted the actress the right to have Boleslawski replaced after a week if she was dissatisfied with his direction. In the end, the star and the director got along, although Melvyn Douglas later stated that Boleslawski had been seriously ill throughout the filming. A good year later, the director died at the age of only 48 while working on The Last of Mrs. Cheyney with Joan Crawford .

For Irene Dunne, the success of Theodora Goes Wild , for which she was paid a fee of $ 40,000 plus profit sharing, was a turning point in her career. Not only did she get her second Oscar nomination for best actress, but she also established herself as a gifted comedian. Among the sometimes fancy costumes that Dunne wears during the storyline, a monkey skin coat set a trend that remained in vogue until the early 1940s.

The starting point of the film shows a remarkable parallel to the events surrounding the genesis of the key novel The People of Peyton Place , which shocked America a good twenty years later with its portrayal of small-town prejudice and whose author Grace Metalious also lived as an inexperienced resident of a New England community before she published her novel.

criticism

Most of the critics praised Dunne's move to another role.

Variety stated :

"[Irene Dunne] takes the hurdle to the comedic trade, which many dramatic actresses have overcome in recent years, with elegant panache."

Awards

The film went to the 1937 Academy Awards with two nominations , but won none of the awards:

literature

  • James Robert Parish (Ed.): The RKO Girls. Arlington House Publishers, New Rochelle NY 1974
  • Jerry Vermilye: More Films of the Thirties. Carol Publishing, New York NY et al. 1989, ISBN 0-8065-1148-6 .
  • Clive Hirschhorn: The Columbia Story. Hamlyn, London 2001, ISBN 0-600-59836-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ I'd never done a comedy before. I'd done serious parts like " Back Street ", and there was this little flipperty small town dummy, and I just didn't like her at all.
  2. ↑ [Irene Dunne] takes the hurdle into comedy that so many dramatic actresses have made in the last year or two with versatile grace.