Double Wedding (1937)

85 or 87 mins | Screwball comedy | 15 October 1937

Director:

Richard Thorpe

Writer:

Jo Swerling

Cinematographer:

William Daniels

Editor:

Frank Sullivan

Production Designer:

Cedric Gibbons

Production Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
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HISTORY

The working title of the film was Three's Company. According to a news item in FD, Robert Young was at one time cast in the film. He probably was cast in the role that went to John Beal. A HR news item in mid-Jul 1937 noted that Robert Benchley was to have a featured role in the picture, but he was not in the released film. Other FD news items noted that portions of the film were shot on location in Santa Barbara at the "winter" estate of C. A. Noble, a "Milwaukee banker and manufacturing tycoon." Additional location work was done in Carmel-By-the Sea by director Richard Thorpe, accompanied by photographer Joseph Ruttenberg and Ruttenberg's assistants, Herman Fisher and Sig Kaufman. According to HR news item on 28 Jun 1937, production was partially shut down on Double Wedding following the 7 Jun 1937 death of M-G-M star Jean Harlow, to whom William Powell was engaged. In the news item, it was announced that Harold Rosson (who was married to Harlow from 1933 to 1934) was replacing William Daniels as the cameraman, however, Rosson's name is also listed on early HR production charts. Only Daniels' name is credited onscreen and in reviews, and the extent of Rosson's work in the completed film has not been determined. Following the completion of this film, Powell made The Baroness and the Butler, on loan to Twentieth Century-Fox, and did not return to M-G-M until late 1939 when he made Another Thin Man with Myrna Loy. News items from ...

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The working title of the film was Three's Company. According to a news item in FD, Robert Young was at one time cast in the film. He probably was cast in the role that went to John Beal. A HR news item in mid-Jul 1937 noted that Robert Benchley was to have a featured role in the picture, but he was not in the released film. Other FD news items noted that portions of the film were shot on location in Santa Barbara at the "winter" estate of C. A. Noble, a "Milwaukee banker and manufacturing tycoon." Additional location work was done in Carmel-By-the Sea by director Richard Thorpe, accompanied by photographer Joseph Ruttenberg and Ruttenberg's assistants, Herman Fisher and Sig Kaufman. According to HR news item on 28 Jun 1937, production was partially shut down on Double Wedding following the 7 Jun 1937 death of M-G-M star Jean Harlow, to whom William Powell was engaged. In the news item, it was announced that Harold Rosson (who was married to Harlow from 1933 to 1934) was replacing William Daniels as the cameraman, however, Rosson's name is also listed on early HR production charts. Only Daniels' name is credited onscreen and in reviews, and the extent of Rosson's work in the completed film has not been determined. Following the completion of this film, Powell made The Baroness and the Butler, on loan to Twentieth Century-Fox, and did not return to M-G-M until late 1939 when he made Another Thin Man with Myrna Loy. News items from late 1937 through 1938 indicate that grief over Harlow's death and his own surguries, (which modern sources have said were necessary to stop the spread of rectal cancer) forced Powell to refrain from working extensively for almost two years.

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SOURCE CITATIONS
SOURCE
DATE
PAGE
Daily Variety
20 Sep 1937
p. 3
Film Daily
1 May 1937
p. 3
Film Daily
28 Jun 1937
p. 6
Film Daily
23 Sep 1937
p. 9
Hollywood Reporter
1 Jun 1937
p. 42
Hollywood Reporter
28 Jun 1937
p. 1
Hollywood Reporter
14 Jul 1937
p. 2
Hollywood Reporter
29 Jul 1937
p. 29
Hollywood Reporter
20 Sep 1937
p. 3
Motion Picture Daily
21 Sep 1937
p. 10
Motion Picture Herald
24 Jul 1937
p. 39
Motion Picture Herald
25 Sep 1937
p. 49, 52
New York Times
22 Oct 1937
p. 27
Variety
22 Sep 1937
p. 18
CAST
PRODUCTION CREDITS
NAME
PARENT COMPANY
DISTRIBUTION COMPANY
NAME
CREDITED AS
CREDIT
DIRECTORS
Asst dir
PRODUCER
WRITERS
Contr to dial
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photog
Carmel-By-the Sea photog
Asst to Joseph Ruttenberg
Asst to Joseph Ruttenberg
ART DIRECTORS
Art dir
Joseph Wright
Art dir assoc
Art dir assoc
FILM EDITOR
Film ed
COSTUMES
Ward
MUSIC
Mus score
SOUND
Rec dir
SOURCES
LITERARY
Based on the unpublished play Great Love by Ferenc Molnár.
LITERARY SOURCE AUTHOR
DETAILS
Alternate Title:
Three's Company
Release Date:
15 October 1937
Production Date:
late May--12 Aug 1937
Copyright Info
Claimant
Date
Copyright Number
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
11 October 1937
LP7626
Physical Properties:
Sound
Western Electric Sound System
Black and White
Duration(in mins):
85 or 87
Length(in reels):
9
Country:
United States
PCA No:
3611
Passed by NBR:
Yes
SYNOPSIS

Irene Agnew and her meek fiancé, Waldo Beaver, are learning acting techniques from Bohemian Charlie Lodge, a painter and supposed director with whom they would like to go to Hollywood. Irene's domineering sister Margit doesn't know that she and Waldo have been staying out all night in Charlie's trailer, and is shocked when she finds out. Margit, who spends all of her time attending to business, likes to have everything go according to her own plans and Irene and Waldo's rebellionusness upsets her. She decides to confront Charlie, but becomes frustrated by his unconventional attitudes. Because Irene has lied to her sister and said that she now loves Charlie instead of Waldo, who lacks "yumph," Margit tries to bribe Charlie, whom she is convinced is a phony, to get him out of their lives. She asks her butler Keough, a former policeman and avid amateur detective, to learn everything about him, but in the meantime, agrees to let Charlie paint her, hoping that she can talk him into dropping Irene. In order to do a proper job, Charlie suggest that he and Margit take his trailer to a remote location and spend time alone while he paints her. On their trip, Margit becomes attracted to Charlie's unconventional ways, but fights the feeling and soon drives back to the city. At home, while Margit tells Irene and Waldo that they should be married as soon as possible, Keough tells Margit that Charlie's ex-wife Claire is in town, and Mrs. Kensington-Bly, Margit's financial backer, reveals that Charlie was once her guide in Paris. Charlie visits Mrs. Kensington-Bly and shocks her by inviting her to his ...

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Irene Agnew and her meek fiancé, Waldo Beaver, are learning acting techniques from Bohemian Charlie Lodge, a painter and supposed director with whom they would like to go to Hollywood. Irene's domineering sister Margit doesn't know that she and Waldo have been staying out all night in Charlie's trailer, and is shocked when she finds out. Margit, who spends all of her time attending to business, likes to have everything go according to her own plans and Irene and Waldo's rebellionusness upsets her. She decides to confront Charlie, but becomes frustrated by his unconventional attitudes. Because Irene has lied to her sister and said that she now loves Charlie instead of Waldo, who lacks "yumph," Margit tries to bribe Charlie, whom she is convinced is a phony, to get him out of their lives. She asks her butler Keough, a former policeman and avid amateur detective, to learn everything about him, but in the meantime, agrees to let Charlie paint her, hoping that she can talk him into dropping Irene. In order to do a proper job, Charlie suggest that he and Margit take his trailer to a remote location and spend time alone while he paints her. On their trip, Margit becomes attracted to Charlie's unconventional ways, but fights the feeling and soon drives back to the city. At home, while Margit tells Irene and Waldo that they should be married as soon as possible, Keough tells Margit that Charlie's ex-wife Claire is in town, and Mrs. Kensington-Bly, Margit's financial backer, reveals that Charlie was once her guide in Paris. Charlie visits Mrs. Kensington-Bly and shocks her by inviting her to his wedding in the trailer at three that afternoon to Margit. He then tells Waldo that he is marrying Irene at three. Waldo, who tells Irene that he understands why she prefers a man like Charlie over a man like him, passionately kisses Irene goodbye, then asks Keough for some of Margit's "medicinal" alcohol because he is a very sick man. Meanwhile, Margit visits Claire and learns that she divorced Charlie because her money got in the way of their happiness. She advises Margit not to try and change Charlie and surprises her by saying that Charlie invited her to his wedding that afternoon. As three o'clock approaches, Margit goes to see Charlie, followed by Irene and several of Charlie's pals from the bar across the parking lot. Margit agrees to give Irene her blessing to marry Charlie and soon the Reverend Dr. Blynn arrives to conduct the ceremony. With a band outside waiting to play wedding music, hundreds of spectators are soon attracted and the trailer begins to overflow with visitors. During the ceremony, Irene and Waldo both say "no," when Dr. Blynn asks them if they take each other as husband and wife and Margit and Waldo begin to argue. Soon Waldo, full of yumph as well as liquor, arrives and carries the happy Irene away, leaving Margit finally able to admit to the delighted Charlie that she loves him even though he has turned her world upside down. Overcrowding soon begins to take its toll on the spectators, and a number of fights break out both inside and outside the trailer. Margit and Charlie eventually fall side by side, and just as they are about to get up, the commotion shakes the trailer and causes an Oscar statuette to fall on Margit and Charlie, knocking them unconscious in each other's arms.

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Legend
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement Award

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