Directed by:
Clarence BrownCinematography:
George J. FolseyComposer:
Herbert StothartCast:
Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Franchot Tone, Melvyn Douglas, James Stewart, Alison Skipworth, Beulah Bondi, Louis Calhern, Melville Cooper (more)Plots(1)
There's no questioning that Joan Crawford was gorgeous and there was no one hussier. Surrounded by several leading men (Stewart, Tone, Barrymore, Douglas, and Taylor), Crawford plays the daughter of an innkeeper in 1830s Washington, DC, and looks terrific in her first costume role, strutting and preening as well as Irene Dunne could have. Barrymore is President Jackson, who is attempting to stave off some secessionists while members of Washington society turn up their noses at him because his wife, Bondi, was a backwoods girl before he met her. She'd moved in with Barrymore before her divorce from her first husband was granted and thus had been living in what might be deemed sin for quite a while. Barrymore and Bondi stay at the inn, where he befriends Crawford, a forward-thinking woman who advocates female suffrage. Since the inn is so close to Washington, Crawford is friendly with most of the politicians, as is her father, Lockhart. All of the notables of the time surround her and attempt to win her hand. She's in love with Melvyn Douglas but he keeps her at arm's length. Hurt by the rejection, she marries Taylor, a young Navy lieutenant, on the rebound. But he is killed soon after in war-related action and she begins a romantic alliance with Tone, who later becomes a cabinet member. Crawford and Tone are happy with each other and her star rises in polite society but the snobby women oppose her. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Joan Crawford
USA
Best movies:
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Sudden Fear (1952)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Robert Taylor
USA
Best movies:
Waterloo Bridge (1940)
Westward the Women (1951)
Trumbo (2015) - a.f.
Lionel Barrymore
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
West of Zanzibar (1928)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Franchot Tone
USA
Best movies:
Advise and Consent (1962)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Three Comrades (1938)
Melvyn Douglas
USA
Best movies:
Being There (1979)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Ninotchka (1939)
James Stewart
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Rear Window (1954)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Alison Skipworth
UK
Best movies:
The Song of Songs (1933)
The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
Becky Sharp (1935)
Beulah Bondi
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Louis Calhern
USA
Best movies:
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Arch of Triumph (1948)
Julius Caesar (1953)
Melville Cooper
UK
Best movies:
Rebecca (1940)
The Dawn Patrol (1938)
Random Harvest (1942)
Sidney Toler
USA
Best movies:
Double Wedding (1937)
If I Were King (1938)
Our Relations (1936)
Gene Lockhart
Canada
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Madame Curie (1943)
Clara Blandick
Hong Kong
Best movies:
It Started with Eve (1941)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
North West Mounted Police (1940)
Frank Conroy
UK
Best movies:
Love Is News (1937)
The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Willard Robertson
USA
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
The Last of the Mohicans (1936)
To Each His Own (1946)
Charles Trowbridge
Mexico
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Captains Courageous (1937)
After the Thin Man (1936)
Louise Beavers
USA
Best movies:
Freaks (1932)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
Frank Reicher
German Empire
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Ward Bond
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Fury (1936)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Bess Flowers
USA
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rear Window (1954)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)