Lady with Red Hair (1940)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Curtis Bernhardt

Writers:

Mrs. Leslie Carter (memoirs)
Brewster Morse (story) ...

Release Date:

30 November 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

A messy divorce leaves Mrs. Leslie Carter shunned by Chicago society for being an adulteress and forbidden from having custody of her son...

Plot Keywords:

Adulteress | Actress | Ambition | Divorce | Trial

Cast

Miriam Hopkins	...	Mrs. Leslie Carter
Claude Rains	...	David Belasco
Richard Ainley	...	Lou Payne
Laura Hope Crews	...	Mrs. Dudley
Helen Westley	...	Mrs. 'Ma' Frazier
John Litel	...	Charles Bryant
Mona Barrie	...	Mrs. Hilda Brooks
Victor Jory	...	Mr. Clifton
Cecil Kellaway	...	Mr. Chapman
Fritz Leiber	...	Mr. Foster
Johnny Russell	...	Dudley Carter (as Johnnie Russell)
Selmer Jackson	...	Henry DeMille

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #6636)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Louis Payne, the husband of Mrs. Leslie Carter in real life, coached Richard Ainley, who was playing him in the movie.

Goofs:

Factual errors: None of the Broadway plays mentioned in the movie were performed by Mrs. Leslie Carter. Her Broadway debut was in a play called "The Ugly Duckling" in 1890, not "The Way of Beauty." Her second play was "Zaza," not "The Lady From France." It is not known why the names of her plays were changed.

Soundtrack:

Hungarian Dance #5 in A Major

Playing fast and loose with Mrs. Carter's memoirs

Miriam Hopkins is "The Lady with Red Hair" in this 1940 biopic of Mrs. Leslie Carter which also stars Claude Rains as David Belasco, Richard Ainley as Lou Payne, and a fine cast of supporting players, including Laura Hope Crews and Victor Jory.

Miriam Hopkins and Claude Rains give wonderful performances. Hopkins was a beautiful actress who really makes us feel for Mrs. Carter. Rains is great as the flamboyant, egotistical producer/writer/actor/impresario David Belasco, one of the great names in theater.

Though Mrs. Carter's second husband, Lou Payne, served as adviser on this film, it's a poor representation of the real events of Mrs. Carter's life. True, there was a much publicized and bitter divorce, and she was undoubtedly viewed as a scandalous character for that and for becoming an actress. However, she had custody of her son Dudley, so there was no custody battle. Once she broke with Belasco, she did not go back to him and, in fact, started working in vaudeville and actually made some films toward the end of her life. She did indeed marry Lou, and he became her leading man in many productions.

The driving force for Mrs. Carter in the beginning of this film is regaining custody of her son, but she finally realizes that in her time away from him, he is thoroughly bonded with his father. In the film also (and I'm not sure if it was true in real life) she traveled with her mother and lived in a theatrical boarding house, which gives the film some added interesting atmosphere.

Not a bad movie, probably not a depiction of the greatness of either Carter or Belasco. One of Mrs. Carter's most famous moments was in The Heart of Maryland, The Heart of Maryland, where she wore a wig with six-foot tresses. Off-stage, fans were used to blow her hair as she hung 35 feet above the stage clutching the center of the bell to keep it from ringing. Quite a visual.