Strictly Dishonorable (1931)

Mississippi belle Isabelle and her hard-headed, quick-tempered Jersey fiancé Henry arrive at an Italian speakeasy in New York. They meet an amiable retired judge there, but Henry's back is up immediately anyway. Henry leaves as his car is parked illegally. Isabelle likes the opera, and it happens that her favourite singer, Di Ruvo, is a bar patron that evening. "Gus", as he prefers to be known, is very charming. Henry returns to find the pair dancing. A row ensues; Henry leaves. Isabelle accepts Gus's offer to retire to his apartment even though he warns her his intentions are "Strictly Dishonorable". But Henry has told Officer Mulligan that Isabelle has been "kidnapped by villains"…

Director: John M. Stahl
Cast: Paul Lukas, Sidney Fox, Lewis Stone, George Meeker, William Ricciardi, Sidney Toler, Samuel Bonello, Aldo Franchetti, Joseph W. Girard, Carlo Schipa, Joe Torillo

The plot synopsis is based on a studio screen continuity and on a script in the John Stahl collection at the USC library. According to New York Times , Preston Sturges unofficially endorsed the film version of his highly successful play in a letter to Carl Laemmle. A October 1932 Los Angeles Examiner news item states that Universal paid $125,000 for the rights to the play. That amount, which was also paid by RKO for the rights to their 1931 production Cimarron , was the highest ever paid, at that time, by a motion picture company for the rights to a literary property, according to Los Angeles Examiner. According to the Variety review, top ticket prices were $1.50 at the Criterion Theatre in NY, where the film enjoyed a four-week minimum run. In 1951, M-G-M released Strictly Dishonorable, another version of Sturges' play, produced and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama and starring Ezio Pinza and Janet Leigh.

Preston Sturges' hit Broadway play Strictly Dishonorable was adapted for the movies in 1931 with virtually all its sexual innuendo intact. In New York City, a young American girl (Sidney Fox) tires of her abusive live-in boy friend. She falls for a roguish Italian singer (Paul Lukas) with a bad reputation, whose interest in her is purely carnal. Burned by her past relationships, the girl determinedly "holds out;" she will capitulate only on her terms, which include a matrimonial commitment. Impressed by the girl's iron will, the singer agrees to marriage, telling himself he is saving her reputation. Cheerfully uninhibited in the best Pre-Code manner, Strictly Dishonorable was laundered and musicalized for its 1951 remake, which starred Ezio Pinza and Janet Leigh.

After a long period of neglect Preston Sturges is now firmly enshrined in the ranks of the great filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age, celebrated by fans as a first rate director and a screenwriter of genius. His claim to fame as a great playwright remains obscure, however: from 1929 to 1932 Sturges had five plays produced on Broadway, and while two were moderately successful two more were outright flops. Only one of these works was an unqualified success, but that play—his second, a comedy called "Strictly Dishonorable" - happened to be one of the biggest smash hits of the era. Sturges never did anything halfway! Since this hit coincided with the birth of the talkies it was only natural that the major studios would vie for the playwright's services as a screenwriter, and produce an adaptation. Unversal won the competition and duly produced the movie.

The film career of the pretty actress here Sidney Fox was quite brief, and sorrier still to discover that her life ended tragically. The only movies she appeared in that get any attention nowadays are the ones that also feature actors who went on to bigger things: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Bela Lugosi, etc.
~ BestClassicMoviesEver Blog

Download