Let Us Be Gay (1930)

Cast:

Norma Shearer ... Mrs. Katherine Brown
Marie Dressler ... Mrs. 'Bouccy' Bouccicault
Rod La Rocque ... Bob Brown
Gilbert Emery ... 'Towney' Townley
Hedda Hopper ... Madge Livingston
Raymond Hackett ... Bruce Keane
Sally Eilers ... Diane
Tyrell Davis ... Wallace Granger
Wilfred Noy ... Whitman, the Butler
William H. O'Brien ... Struthers
Sybil Grove ... Perkins

Directed by Robert Z. Leonard.
Produced by Robert Z. Leonard & Irving Thalberg.
Based on the play by Rachel Crothers.
Dialogue by Frances Marion.
Cinematography by Norbert Brodine.
Film Editing by Basil Wrangell.
Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons.
Gowns by Adrian.
Sound Recording by Douglas Shearer.

Released August 9, 1930.
A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Picture.

Box Office Information:

Cost of Production: $257,000.
Domestic Gross: $829,000.
Forgein Gross: $370,000.
Total Gross: $1,199,000.
Profit: $527,000

Background:


If The Divorcee (1930) was the film which brought Norma Shearer into the scandalous side of the Hollywood limelight, Let Us Be Gay showcased her still wallowing in playful eroticism. Released within four months of each other, the two films mirrored Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s promotion of the “new” Norma Shearer of talking films, while playing off of similar themes to give two entirely different messages to the movie-going public.

As where The Divorcee was the big shocker produced to push the sexual envelop to American audiences, Let Us Be Gay took a lighter view on the subjects of love, loyalty, sex, and self-truth. Being more of a comedy rather than modern drama, it almost seemed to promote the idea that adultery can indeed be justified in some cases. Divorcee, on the other hand, went about promoting the idea of feminine sexual freedom---living the life of a man without a wedding ring even being enough to hold a girl back from enjoying life.

Rachel Crothers’ Let Us Be Gay made its Broadway debut on February 19, 1929 and starred Francine Larrimore and Warren William in the leading roles of Kitty and Bob Brown, a married couple on the rocks when Bob grows tired of Kitty’s haggard-housewife appearance and manner. Successfully running until December of that year, the play centered around Kitty’s leaving of Bob when she finds out he has been unfaithful. They meet again at the home of Mrs. Boucicault, with Bob in awe of Kitty’s changed appearance and masked persona. Time goes by, and Bob realizes that Kitty is still the same woman he had loved when they first married, only she has become more sexually pleasing to the eye, making the audience come to the conclusion that sex and love can be two different things.

However, when one is sexually attracted to their true love, it can mean only the best of things.

The part was ideal for Norma, and gave her a chance to show off some of her comedic talents, an aspect of her talent few recognize because she’s remembered for only the heavy dramatic moments of her best-known movies (Marie Antoinette going to the guillotine, for instance). She shows us the audience that she masks being a hard-edged “woman of the world” with her free-spirited manner, though on the inside she is still the small-town housewife who makes her own dresses and tip-toes around the house on Sunday mornings so her husband can catch a few more minutes of precious sleep.

This is where Let Us Be Gay and The Divorcee become two totally different films. Jerry tries to turn herself into something she’s not out of spite, as where Kitty simply pretends to be more than she is, staying true to herself and her values on the inside.

An added bonus to this brilliant little film is Marie Dressler, who was on the verge of a serious turn around in her career. After being a fairly famous actress on stage and silence films, her career had slipped into such a slum where she was saved by friend Frances Marion, who urged Metro Goldwyn Mayer to give her steady work. Appearances opposite Marion Davies in The Patsy (1927), Greta Garbo in Anna Christie (1930), and Norma in Let Us Be Gay had the audiences favor her brusque manner and unusual sense of humor. Remembered today mostly for her waterfront comedies with Wallace Beery, in Let Us Be Gay she shows us a different side to her as an actress. Here she’s not bad to look at, and believable as a wealthy woman surrounded by only the upper-crust of society.

Let Us Be Gay becomes not only a different way for audiences to see Norma Shearer, but Marie Dressler, also. But this gets overlooked by many because it has become most mentionable by film historians for one major reason, Norma Shearer was several months pregnant with son Irving Thalberg Jr., throughout filming, and the sets and costumes had to be altered to disguise her growing appearance.

When people talk of the legendary “Shearer ambition” it’s the stuff like this they are describing.

Critics welcomed the film with pleasing reviews. They recognized the film for its potential, and a reasonably good follow-up to The Divorcee, for which Norma had just been nominated for an Academy Award for.

Earning a bigger profit than her previous venture, today it remains a quiet little treasure in Norma Shearer’s legacy as a film star. It’s worth a reevaluation.



Trivia:

Let Us Be Gay was the film adaptation of Rachel Crothers’ sophisticated stage success. Warren William, popular film actor of the early 1930s, played the Rod La Rocque role in the original stage production. In the late 1940s, Kay Francis, one of Norma’s Hollywood friends, did a few revivals of the play with major success.

After finding out she was pregnant during The Divorcee shoot, Norma and Irving rushed Let Us Be Gay into production to get a Shearer vehicle out as soon as possible before she went on maternity leave. Between the gowns by Adrian , sets by Cedric Gibbons, and photography by Norbert Brodine, the Hollywood magic proved a success when the film became a stellar hit.

Norma later turned down the 1940 film version of Crothers’ Susan and God. Joan Crawford took the role, and it became one of the biggest flops of her career.

Norma’s only movie with Rod La Rocque.

Hedda Hopper made her third of four appearances in a Shearer movie with Let Us Be Gay. They previously worked together in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney and The Snob according to IMDB, and Hopper also had a bit part in The Women (1939).

Raymond Hackett was also in The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929).

William H. O’Brien was later in Her Cardboard Lover (1942). Aside from his work with Norma, he also appeared opposite Marlon Brando [The Men, 1950] and in A Place in the Sun with Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters.

In June 2008, the Canadian Government issued postal stamps for both Norma Shearer and Marie Dressler.