Predating the Laurence Olivier/Marilyn Monroe vehicle The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) by 20 years, The King and the Chorus Girl (1937) is another story about a jaded member of the European monarchy who falls for a shapely blonde chorine. The scenario, set in Paris, was created by Groucho Marx and his old friend Norman Krasna. The monarch is played by Belgian actor Fernand Gravey, making his American film debut after a long career in French films. The chorus cutie is Warner Bros. standby Joan Blondell, playing a showgirl at the Folies Bergere. Songs include "For You," sung by Kenny Baker, and "On the Rue de la Paix," performed by the Folies Bergere chorus.

The King and the Chorus Girl proved quite timely, since three months before its release King Edward VIII of Great Britain abdicated his throne to marry a commoner, American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson. In Britain, to downplay the sensitive "royal" angle, the film was re-titled Romance Is Sacred.

Jane Wyman, another hard-working Warner Bros. star who got her start playing chorus girls, has one of her first featured parts as Blondell's pal. At one point in her career Wyman was hailed as a likely successor to Blondell as the studio's leading brassy blonde with a heart of gold. Beginning with The Lost Weekend (1945), however, Wyman struck out in a very different direction as a brunette dramatic actress. Over the years she and Blondell gradually exchanged positions in the film world, with Wyman emerging as a star and Blondell moving into supporting roles, albeit juicy ones. In their long careers Wyman and Blondell appeared together in four other movies: Stage Struck (1936), Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), The Kid From Kokomo (1939) and The Blue Veil (1951), for which both were Oscar-nominated Wyman as Best Actress and Blondell as Supporting Actress.

Producer/Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Screenplay: Norman Krasna, Groucho Marx, from their story "Grand Passion"; Julius J. Epstein (dialogue, uncredited), Arthur Sheekman (dialogue and treatment, uncredited)
Art Direction: Robert M. Haas
Cinematography: Tony Gaudio
Costume Design: Orry-Kelly
Editing: Thomas Richards
Original Music: Werner R. Heymann, Ted Koehler
Cast: Fernand Gravey (Alfred Bruger VII), Joan Blondell (Dorothy Ellis), Edward Everett Horton (Count Humbert Evel Bruger), Alan Mowbray (Donald Taylor), Mary Nash (Duchess Anna of Eberfield), Jane Wyman (Babette Latour), Luis Alberni (Gaston).
BW-95m.

by Roger Fristoe