| Idiot's Delight | |
|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:IdiotsDelight1939.jpg) Movie poster | |
| Directed by | Clarence Brown |
| Written by | Robert E. Sherwood |
| Based on | Idiot's Delight 1936 play by Robert E. Sherwood |
| Produced by | Clarence Brown Hunt Stromberg |
| Starring | Norma Shearer Clark Gable Edward Arnold Charles Coburn Joseph Schildkraut Burgess Meredith |
| Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
| Edited by | Robert Kern |
| Music by | Herbert Stothart |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English Esperanto |
| Budget | $1.5 million[1][2] |
| Box office | $1.7 million (worldwide)[1] |
Idiot's Delight is a 1939 MGM comedy drama with a screenplay adapted by Robert E. Sherwood from his 1936 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play of the same name. The production reunited director Clarence Brown, Clark Gable and Norma Shearer eight years after they worked together on A Free Soul. The play takes place in a hotel in the Italian Alps during 24 hours at the beginning of a world war. The film begins with the backstory of the two leads and transfers the later action to a fictitious Alpine country rather than Italy, which was the setting for the play. In fact, Europe was on the brink of World War II. (The studio's attempts to make the film palatable for the totalitarian states—including the hazy geographical location and the scrupulous use of Esperanto in speech and signage—were a waste of time. They banned it anyway.[3]) Although not a musical, it is notable as the only film in which Gable sings and dances, performing Irving Berlin's "Puttin' On the Ritz" with a sextette of chorus girls.
- ^ a b Glancy, H. Mark "When Hollywood Loved Britain: The Hollywood 'British' Film 1939-1945" (Manchester University Press, 1999)
- ^ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ^ Coe, Richard L. (1939-02-17). "Sherwood Film Continues at the Palace". The Washington Post.