Idiot's Delight (1939)A group of disparate travelers are caught are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII. Director:Clarence Brown |
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Idiot's Delight (1939)A group of disparate travelers are caught are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII. Director:Clarence Brown |
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Norma Shearer | ... |
Irene Fellara
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| Clark Gable | ... |
Harry Van
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| Edward Arnold | ... |
Achille Weber
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| Charles Coburn | ... |
Dr. Hugo Waldersee
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| Joseph Schildkraut | ... |
Capt. Kirvline
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| Burgess Meredith | ... |
Quillary
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Laura Hope Crews | ... |
Madame Zuleika
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Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher | ... |
'Don' Navadel
(as Skeets Gallagher)
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Peter Willes | ... |
Mr. Jimmy Cherry
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Pat Paterson | ... |
Mrs. Cherry
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William Edmunds | ... |
Dumptsy
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Fritz Feld | ... |
Pittatek
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Virginia Grey | ... |
Shirley Laughlin
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Virginia Dale | ... |
Francine Merle
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Paula Stone | ... |
Beulah Tremayne
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When song-and-dance man Harry Van returns from World War I, he finds work hard to come by. His greatest success comes as straight man in a phony vaudeville mind-reading act with the tipsy Madame Zulieka. While on tour in Omaha he meets acrobat Irene Fellara, and they have a brief romance. Twenty years later while Harry is on tour in Europe with a troupe of leggy blonde dancers, his train is stopped at the Swiss border and he finds himself stranded in the Alps in anticipation of World War II hostilities. Harry and his chorines take refuge in an Alpine hotel with a group of disparate travelers who are also marooned there. Among them are an American pacifist, British newlyweds, a cancer researcher, a German munitions manufacturer, and a beautiful blonde expatriate Russian aristocrat who looks suspiciously like the Irene of two decades earlier. Written by duke1029@aol.com
I saw this last year at an old movie festival. Wonderful 35mm print with the pops and hisses and of course it broke in the middle. Still, managed to see it all.
Gable and Shearer are perfect and it's so quirky, so odd, that it works. Great chemistry between them and great secondary cast.
Gable can sing and dance a little but the dialog is what you are looking for.
The outbreak of WW2 and you're in the alps or wherever stranded with these stars.
A restored DVD copy would be great. Watch for it.