By Frank Miller
The Florodora Girl
Brief Synopsis
A turn-of-the-century chorus girl searches for romance.
Cast & Crew
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Harry Beaumont
Director
Marion Davies
Daisy
Lawrence Gray
Jack
Walter Catlett
De Boer
Louis John Bartels
Hemingway
Ilka Chase
Fanny
Film Details
Genre
Musical
Comedy
Romance
Release Date
1930
Distribution Company
Sony Pictures Releasing
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "The Gay Nineties" by Gene Markey (publication undetermined).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 19m
Sound
Mono (MovieTone)
Color
Black and White, Color (Technicolor)
Synopsis
Daisy, a Florodora girl, who is too man-shy to go after a husband, is taken into hand by her sisters and embarks on an affair with young millionaire Jack Vibart, whose mother has already planned his marriage. She falls in love, although her friends warn her of his dishonorable intentions. Realizing that he loves her, he proposes, but the marriage is opposed by his mother when he loses the family fortune. Daisy marries him, nevertheless, and he finally makes good in the new automobile business and comes to carry her off during the Florodora act.
Director
Harry Beaumont
Director
Cast
Marion Davies
Daisy
Lawrence Gray
Jack
Walter Catlett
De Boer
Louis John Bartels
Hemingway
Ilka Chase
Fanny
Vivian Oakland
Maud
Jed Prouty
Old Man Dell
Claud Allister
Rumblesham
Sam Hardy
Fontaine
Nance O'neil
Mrs. Vibart
Robert Bolder
Commodore
Jane Keithly
Constance
Maude Turner Gordon
Mrs. Caraway
George Chandler
Georgie Smith
Anita Louise
Mary Jane Irving
Vibart children
Crew
Adrian
Gowns
Al Boasberg
Additional Dialogue
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
Clifford Grey
Composer
Robert Hopkins
Additional Dialogue
Gene Markey
Scen
Gene Markey
Dial
Oliver T. Marsh
Director of Photography
Paul Neal
Recording Engineer
Carl L. Pierson
Film Editor
Andy Rice
Composer
Douglas Shearer
Recording Engineer
Ralph Spence
Additional Dialogue
Herbert Stothart
Composer
Film Details
Genre
Musical
Comedy
Romance
Release Date
1930
Distribution Company
Sony Pictures Releasing
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "The Gay Nineties" by Gene Markey (publication undetermined).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 19m
Sound
Mono (MovieTone)
Color
Black and White, Color (Technicolor)
Articles
The Florodora Girl
Marion Davies was a little young to have been in the chorus of Florodora, a show that debuted in 1899 and was so successful it made its six leading chorines celebrities. She had, however, been a Ziegfeld girl, a job that first brought her to William Randolph Hearst's attention. That gave her experience to draw on for her third talkie, in which she plays a gay '90s chorus girl whose sisters in arms (or rather legs) encourage her to take up gold digging with a wealthy philanderer (Lawrence Gray).
The film's historical re-creations are spotty at best. It shows Florodora with a neon sign years before they were used, and the stage on which the chorus girls perform "Tell Me, Pretty Lady" is mammoth compared to the show's original theatre, but Davies and a spirited cast -- including Walter Catlett as a stage door Johnny, Ilka Chase as a fellow chorus girl and Nance O'Neil as Gray's mother -- make it work.
As usual, Hearst spared no expense. A beach scene is filmed in front of the palatial Santa Monica beach house he built for Davies and the final sequence is shot in two-strip Technicolor. The film opened Hollywood's Pantages Theatre and scored solid reviews. Unfortunately, MGM failed to obtain the rights to the music from Florodora, and its composer, Leslie Stuart, sued MGM for copyright infringement, which limited the picture's release, making it a box office failure.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
The Florodora Girl
Marion Davies was a little young to have been in the chorus of Florodora, a show that debuted in 1899 and was so successful it made its six leading chorines celebrities. She had, however, been a Ziegfeld girl, a job that first brought her to William Randolph Hearst's attention. That gave her experience to draw on for her third talkie, in which she plays a gay '90s chorus girl whose sisters in arms (or rather legs) encourage her to take up gold digging with a wealthy philanderer (Lawrence Gray).
The film's historical re-creations are spotty at best. It shows Florodora with a neon sign years before they were used, and the stage on which the chorus girls perform "Tell Me, Pretty Lady" is mammoth compared to the show's original theatre, but Davies and a spirited cast -- including Walter Catlett as a stage door Johnny, Ilka Chase as a fellow chorus girl and Nance O'Neil as Gray's mother -- make it work.
As usual, Hearst spared no expense. A beach scene is filmed in front of the palatial Santa Monica beach house he built for Davies and the final sequence is shot in two-strip Technicolor. The film opened Hollywood's Pantages Theatre and scored solid reviews. Unfortunately, MGM failed to obtain the rights to the music from Florodora, and its composer, Leslie Stuart, sued MGM for copyright infringement, which limited the picture's release, making it a box office failure.
By Frank Miller
The Florodora Girl
By Violet LeVoit
The Florodora Girl
By 1930 America was beginning its long slide into the Great Depression, but in William Randolph Hearst's world all was well. When not overseeing his publishing empire or furthering construction on San Simeon, he was making sure his beloved mistress Marion Davies was fulfilling the Hollywood destiny he desired for her. His fingerprint is all over Floradora Girl (1930), a feather-light romance about a stage beauty (Davies) and her on-again, off-again courtship with wealthy suitor Jack (Lawrence Gray) -- not just in how the very Jazz Age Davies plays a gay '90s blushing blossom, down to how exterior scenes were filmed at his 118-room beach house on Santa Monica Beach. (Delicate pastel scenes shot in the primitive two-strip Technicolor process only add an antique flavor to the story.) Despite how she was savaged in Citizen Kane (1941), Davies was actually a talented and charming screen presence, her work ethic unspoiled by her anointed status. Hearst's insistence in placing her in light, virginal follies like this one may have hindered the natural rise of her star in Hollywood. Nevertheless, Floradora Girl still holds the distinction of being the first film ever screened at Hollywood's legendary Pantages Theater.
By Violet LeVoit
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