The Guardsman (1931) features one of the only teamings of theatrical greats Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne on film. The couple also appeared together in the star-studded war effort picture Stage Door Canteen (1943). But The Guardsman would be their only starring turn together on screen. The film was based on a play by Ferenc Molnar -- which Lunt and Fontanne first performed on Broadway in 1924. For the film adaptation, both husband and wife received an Oscar® nomination.

Alfred Lunt was born in Milwaukee on August 19, 1893. He began his acting career with a Boston stock company in 1912. By 1917, Lunt had made his Broadway debut. Lynn Fontanne was born in Essex, England on December 6, 1887. She began acting professionally in 1905, in London and as a member of a touring company. It was with this group that Fontanne first came to America. She first met Lunt while performing in the play Made of Money in 1919. They followed that engagement with another play called A Young Man's Fancy and, after that, the duo went their separate ways professionally and appeared in roles that would make them stars - Lunt in Booth Tarkington's Clarence and Fontanne in George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly's Dulcy.

The couple married in 1922 and for a time maintained separate careers. They were, by the mid-1920s, the most respected and highly paid stage actors in the country. So the decision in 1924 to join the Theatre Guild was somewhat surprising. The company was dedicated to performing more avant-garde works - and required Lunt and Fontanne to take pay cuts (from $900 a week to $300). With the Theatre Guild, Lunt and Fontanne performed in plays such as Shaw's Arms and the Man and Pygmalion, as well as works by Robert Sherwood and Ibsen.

After 1928, Lunt and Fontanne never appeared separately on stage and together, they ruled Broadway. Among their hits were several Noel Coward productions, like Private Lives and Design for Living. The couple were innovators in bringing naturalism to the American stage ¿ a style we take for granted now with a more realistic tone, overlapping dialogue, actors turning their backs to the audience, etc.

With such renowned success on the Broadway stage, it was inevitable that Hollywood would come calling. And in 1931 The Guardsman was adapted for the screen. The story is a simple farce - with Lunt and Fontanne cast as a husband and wife acting team. The husband suspects the wife of infidelity and disguises himself as a Russian guardsman to test her. The plot would become the basis for the 1943 film operetta The Chocolate Soldier with Nelson Eddy. One interesting note in The Guardsman, the play the characters perform at the beginning is Maxwell Anderson's Elizabeth the Queen, a play Lunt and Fontanne had performed on Broadway the year before.

The Guardsman was a success with film critics and moviegoers, but Lunt and Fontanne returned to the stage, unimpressed by the moviemaking process. They turned down future Hollywood offers, with Fontanne reportedly telling one studio, "we can be bought, but we cannot be bored." Lunt and Fontanne retired from acting in 1960. The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway was named for them.

Alfred Lunt died in 1977 and Lynn Fontanne followed in 1983. The marker on their grave reads: "Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne were universally regarded as the greatest acting team in the history of English speaking theatre. They were married for 55 years and were inseparable both on and off the stage."

Producer: Albert Lewin, Irving Thalberg
Director: Sidney Franklin
Screenplay: Maxwell Anderson (play), Ferenc Molnar (play), Ernest Vajda
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Film Editing: Conrad A. Nervig
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons
Cast: Alfred Lunt (The Actor), Lynn Fontanne (The Actress), Roland Young (Bernhardt the critic), Zasu Pitts (Liesl), Maude Eburne (Mama), Herman Bing (a Creditor).
BW-82m.

by Stephanie Thames