Idiot's Delight (1939) DVD5 - Clark Gable, Norma Shearer [DDR]

2014.01.04


Idiot's Delight (1939) DVD5 - Clark Gable, Norma Shearer [DDR]

Idiot's Delight is a 1939 MGM comedy-drama with a screenplay adapted by Robert E. Sherwood from his 1936 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play of the same name.
The movie showcases Clark Gable, in the same year that he played Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, and Norma Shearer in the declining phase of her career.
Although not a musical, it is notable as the only film where Gable sings and dances, performing "Puttin' on the Ritz" by Irving Berlin.

CAST:-
Norma Shearer as Irene Fellara
Clark Gable as Harry Van
Edward Arnold as Achille Weber
Charles Coburn as Dr. Hugo Waldersee
Joseph Schildkraut as Capt. Kirvline
Burgess Meredith as Quillary
Laura Hope Crews as Madame Zuleika
Richard "Skeets" Gallagher as 'Don' Navadel
Peter Willes as Mr. Jimmy Cherry
Pat Paterson as Mrs. Cherry
William Edmunds as Dumptsy
Fritz Feld as Pittatek
Virginia Grey as Shirley Laughlin
Virginia Dale as Francine Merle
Paula Stone as Beulah Tremayne

Directed by Clarence Brown
Produced by Clarence Brown, Hunt Stromberg
Written by Robert E. Sherwood
Music by Herbert Stothart
Running time 107 min.

MOVIE REVIEW:- Idiots Delight (1939)
Harry Van (Clark Gable), an American World War I veteran, tries to reenter show biz and ends up in a faltering mentalist show with an inept, aging alcoholic, Madame Zuleika (Laura Hope Crews, who also appeared in Gone with the Wind as Aunt Pittypat). While giving performances in Omaha, he is courted by Irene (Norma Shearer), a trapeze artist, who claims to come from Russia and hopes both to replace Harry's drunken partner in the show and be his lover. They have a romantic night, but he is suspicious of Irene's overstated flights of fancy. Harry, keeping Zuleika, and Irene's troupe board trains going in the opposite directions the next day.

Twenty years later, after a number of jobs, Harry is the impresario and co-performer with Les Blondes, a dance group of six women on a trip through Europe. While taking a train from Romania to Switzerland, they get stranded at an Alpine hotel in an unnamed, belligerent country when borders get suddenly closed as war becomes imminent. The passengers watch through the hotel lounge's large windows as dozens of bombers take off from an air field at the bottom of the picturesque valley and fly away in formation.

Among the passengers lingering in the lounge, Harry meets Irene, a glamorous platinum blonde with an exaggerated Russian accent, who is traveling as the mistress of a rich armaments entrepreneur, Achille Weber (Edward Arnold). Although she claims never to have been to Omaha, Harry's casual innuendos show he is convinced that she is the acrobat he knew there and believes that she recognizes him too. An agitated pacifist (Burgess Meredith) rants to his fellow travelers about Weber's guns, which he says are behind the war that just started, and describes for them how the planes they saw disappear over the spectacular snowy mountains will be killing thousands of people in other countries. The pacifist is hauled away and shot by the border police commanded by the impeccably-mannered and friendly Captain Kirvline (Joseph Schildkraut), who associates with the travelers while they wait at the hotel.

In their hotel suite, an upset Irene explodes and tells Weber "the truth [she has] always wanted to tell." She blames him for the likely deaths of untold numbers of people in the war, whose victims – in her vivid accusations – might include the newlywed English couple, the Cherrys (Peter Willes, Pat Paterson), they met at the hotel, all killed with the weapons that Weber sells.

The Swiss border opens again the next day, and the people at the hotel are able to continue on their journeys. They learn they had better be off as soon as possible, because foreign countries are likely to retaliate today for yesterday's air raid and bomb the air field near the hotel, which could get hit by mistake. As everyone rushes to leave, Irene finds out that Weber has decided to dump her when he refuses to vouch for her flimsy League of Nations passport to Capt. Kirvline, who tells Irene she must stay at the hotel.

Having escorted his Les Blondes to the Swiss border, Harry returns to stay with Irene. She admits she is the woman he met in Omaha twenty years ago and still loves him. Harry talks about her future of performing with him and the blondes. They hear approaching planes and are told to run to the shelter, but Irene declares she does not want to die in a cellar. As Harry tries to take her there anyway, a bomb partly destroys the hotel and blocks their escape from the lounge.

TWO ENDINGS - DOMESTIC and INTERNATIONAL
DOMESTIC:-
The ending shown to the domestic (U.S., Canadian) audience replaced the hymn from the play with Harry and Irene talking about their plans for the future in hopes to divert their minds from the bombs exploding outside the lobby windows. Harry rehearses with her the secret code Irene watched him use with his "mind-reader" partner in Omaha. As the bombing stops and the Alpine valley turns serene once more, Irene excitedly describes their future act together while Harry begins to play the damaged piano. The film's ending: does not go as far as the original in sounding the knell of destruction, [it takes a] lighter and more romantic course in dealing with the menaces of bombings.

INTERNATIONAL:-
In the ending intended for international audiences, Harry plays and the two of them sing a hymn from Harry's youth in hopes to divert their minds from the bombs exploding outside the lobby windows, and they embrace after the Alpine valley turns serene once more. The studio's marketing goal with the more solemn bombing sequence failed:
After the trouble to which the producers went to make this palatable for the totalitarian states, it seems all the more futile that despite the hazy geographical location and the scrupulous use of Esperanto, it has been banned in those nations, anyway.



TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages:English, French
RunTime 79 mins
Subtitles: English, Espanol, Francais
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 79 mins