Glorious Betsy (1928)

Director:

Alan Crosland

Writers:

Anthony Coldeway (writer)
Jack Jarmuth (titles)

Release Date:

26 April 1928 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

NOW! YOU CAN SEE AND HEAR!! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot Keywords:

Part Talkie | Historical | Partially Lost Film | Based On Play

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Dolores Costello	...	Betsy Patterson
Conrad Nagel	...	Jérôme Bonaparte
John Miljan	...	Preston
Marc McDermott	...	Colonel Patterson
Pasquale Amato	...	Napoleon
Michael Vavitch	...	Captain St. Pierre
Andrés de Segurola	...	Captain Du Fresne
Paul Panzer	...	The Ship's Captain
Clarissa Selwynne	...	Aunt Mary
Betty Blythe	...	Princess Fredericka

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent (alternate version) | Mono (Vitaphone) (talking sequences) (music and effects)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

A copy of this film survives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., but the sound disks are lost.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Boring period piece with good Costello performance

There is no reason to see this quite boring adaptation of the play of the same name if you are not a Dolores Costello fan. She is quite fine as the Southern belle, Betsy Patterson, who in real life was courted by Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the European conqueror on a good will American tour in 1804. They married and sailed to France, where Napoleon annulled the marriage and sent her back, wedding his brother to a Westphalian princess to secure his hold on Europe. The film has Jerome posing as Betsy's French tutor and then revealing his true identity to her at a ball welcoming him to America. The shipboard arrival in France follows with the Napoleonic encounter and Betsy's return, duping Jerome into thinking she worked out a deal with Napoleon. The added piece of non-history involves her having Jerome's child and his eventual desertion of France to return to her side.

All of this is dreadfully dull and slow moving with Conrad Nagel giving a poor performance, full of bug-eyed enthusiasm and exaggerated silent film posing. Costello is reserved in comparison and does a lovely job. There is nothing special about the film technically and sets and costumes are merely adequate. Inexplicably it earned an Academy Award nomination for Screenplay adaptation - most undeserved in my opinion.

Prints are housed in all the major American archives. The one I saw at the Library of Congress in DC did not have preserved the two sound reels (released as a part- talkie) but it was obvious where they occurred - halfway through at the ball where Jerome makes known his true identity and the conclusion when he returns to Betsy.