The Gorgeous Hussy (1936)

Director:

Clarence Brown

Writers:

Ainsworth Morgan (screenplay) and
Stephen Morehouse Avery (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 August 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

President Andrew Jackson's friendship with an innkeeper's daughter spells trouble for them both. |

Plot Keywords:

Innkeeper | Andrew Jackson | Murder | Dancing | Washington D.C.

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Joan Crawford	...	Peggy Eaton
Robert Taylor	...	'Bow' Timberlake
Lionel Barrymore	...	Andrew Jackson
Franchot Tone	...	John Eaton
Melvyn Douglas	...	John Randolph
James Stewart	...	'Rowdy' Dow
Alison Skipworth	...	Mrs. Beall
Beulah Bondi	...	Rachel Jackson
Louis Calhern	...	Sunderland
Melville Cooper	...	Cuthbert
Sidney Toler	...	Daniel Webster
Gene Lockhart	...	Major William O'Neal
Clara Blandick	...	Louisa Abbott
Frank Conroy	...	John C. Calhoun
Nydia Westman	...	Maybelle

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #2439)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Many people who are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names): Louise Beavers (Aunt Sukey), Bert Roach (Major Domo), Oscar Apfel (Tompkins), Richard Powell (Doorman), Syd Saylor and Hooper Atchley (Agitators), Morgan Wallace (Slave Buyer), William Stack (W.R. Earle), Ward Bond (Officer) and Samuel S. Hinds (Commander). A modern source also lists Harry Holman (Auctioneer) and Harry Strang (Navigator) as cast members, but they were not seen either.

Movie Connections:

Featured in James Stewart: A Wonderful Life (1987) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Listen to the Mockingbird

too genteel for its subject matter

THE GORGEOUS HUSSY, based on a 1934 historical novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams, is another one of those genteel forays into the past from squeaky clean MGM. The only compelling ingredients in this overlong saga about the controversial hussy Peggy Eaton who wielded much influence over President Andrew Jackson are a few of the performances and the novelty of actual political debates occurring in the context of a love affair; Hollywood seldom mixed those two elements. The first half hour is bone dead, with familiar performers strutting around in period costumes and delivering the necessary exposition. Joan Crawford is not particularly persuasive as a young tavern keeper's daughter. She looks somewhat haggard and hard, but still beautiful. Things liven up with the appearance of Andrew Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) and his unpopular and maligned wife Rachel (Beulah Bondi). Barrymore may have been a ham who gave basically the same performance in film after film, but at least he puts some juice into the proceedings, making the most he can of the extremely diluted representation of Jackson supplied by the script. Bondi is touching in her depiction of the ill-fated Rachel, the love of Jackson's life. Until then we have had to endure endless moments with a dashing but wooden Melvyn Douglas and a competent but unexciting contribution from neophyte Robert Taylor. Jimmy Stewart and later Franchot Tone are on hand too but only in a few scenes and to little effect. And we have the always nasty and conniving Alison Skipworth as a disapproving society matron to hold our attention. And the marvelous Zeffie Tilbury as Skipworth's deaf mother who disagrees strongly with her snobbish daughter's malicious gossip. Between these bits there are occasionally interesting sketches of the political contentions of the time, mostly about how much power should be granted to the individual states, foreshadowing the Civil War. But we never get a sense of what an extraordinary woman the title character was. Nothing in Joan Crawford's performance or in the material given her indicates that this is anything other than an unusually attractive and well behaved lady with romantic yearnings – but someone for whose honor and reputation a President would dissolve his cabinet and change the course of US history? No way. You cannot make a polite film about these characters in this historical period, but this is what MGM tried to do.