The Gay Deception
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William Wyler
Francis Lederer
Frances Dee
Benita Hume
Alan Mowbray
Lennox Pawle
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Mirabel Miller, a stenographer living in a small town, wins five thousand dollars in a Casaba melon sweepstakes. Dissatified with her drab life, and having recently adopted the motto "everything or nothing," Mirabel decides to go to New York and spend the money on clothes and fancy hotels against the advice of her banker, vowing to live for a month without regard to what happens afterward. At the exclusive Walsdorf-Plaza in New York, she is mistaken for a rich society girl. Meanwhile, Prince Allesandro of Allesandria, unknown to anyone else, has gotten a job as a bellboy in order to learn about American hotels. As Sandro assists Mirabel with her unpacking, he incites her animosity when he takes unsightly trimming off one of her new hats. Mr. Squires, the chief bellboy, fires Sandro, and he returns to the Allesandria consulate, where Consul-General Semanek is surprised to see him days before his scheduled and much-publicized visit. Sandro goes back to the Walsdorf-Plaza, where he again insults Mirabel's taste. Although Mirabel, who has spent her days in New York going to movies alone, is about to leave town in disappointment, Sandro convinces her to dine with him at an Italian restaurant, where she reveals to his delight that she is not the wealthy girl others mistakenly think she is. Their romantic dinner is interrupted, however, when Sandro is called outside, and Semanek and his cohorts abduct him. When Sandro finds Mirabel again at the hotel, she refuses to speak to him. Cordelia Channing, a society belle staying at the hotel, calls Mirabel to invite her to a charity ball she is giving that evening. Mirabel is impressed with the title of Cordelia's boyfriend, Lord Clewe, and becomes excited in the belief that she will attend the party with the couple; however, later she sadly realizes that she has not been invited to sit with them and must provide her own escort. Sandro arrives and promises Mirabel that she will attend the party with a prince, but when she arrives at the ball to discover that the prince is none other than the bellboy, she becomes angry again. The guests, however, acknowledge Prince Allesandro and offer him and Mirabel seats at the main table. Although Mirabel does not believe that Sandro is a prince, she goes along with what she believes to be a ruse. As the couple dance, certain guests recognize various articles of clothing on Sandro that he stole from them to attire himself for the occasion. Sandro and Mirabel are then chased out of the ballroom, and the police arrive to arrest him as an impostor. Believing that Sandro performed the impersonation for her benefit, Mirabel goes to the jail to try to get him out, and although she does not succeed, Sandro overhears her say that she loves him. Semanek agrees to get Sandro out of jail if he will go with him immediately to the docks to attend his welcoming ceremony to the country. Mirabel comes to the harbor to try to have the prince intercede for Sandro, but when she finally realizes that he truly is the prince, she flees back to the hotel. Sandro makes a grand entrance there, to the surprise of his former employers who earlier fired him, and finds Mirabel in the elevator. They then kiss as Sandro removes more trimming from her silly hat.
Director
William Wyler
Cast
Francis Lederer
Frances Dee
Benita Hume
Alan Mowbray
Lennox Pawle
Adele St. Maur
Akim Tamiroff
Luis Alberni
Lionel Stander
Ferdinand Gottschalk
Richard Carle
Lenita Lane
Barbara Fritchie
Paul Hurst
Robert Greig
Gunner Paulson
Rudolf Myzet
Maidel Turner
John T. Murray
Frank Melton
Fred Wallace
William Stelling
Fred Sylva
Vic Chatten
Walter Lawrence
David O'brien
Charles Sellon
Jane Barnes
Ruth Warren
Rita Owin
Mary Akin
Doro Merande
Anne O'neal
Robert Graves
Francis Sayles
Gus Reed
Jack Mulhall
Spencer Charters
Paul Mcvey
Lew Kelly
Torben Meyer
Hector V. Sarno
Neal Burns
Olaf Hytten
Thomas Pogue
Phil Tead
Billy Wayne
Jack Hatfield
Agostino Borgato
George Humbert
Alan Bridge
Wade Boteler
Russ Clark
Rodney Hildebrand
Jack Mower
Brady Kline
Esther Muir
Iris Adrian
Paul Irving
Maidena Armstrong
Eddie Fetherston
Nell Craig
Sam Ash
Crew
Stephen Avery
S. C. Chapman
Louis De Francesco
Don Hartman
William Lambert
Jesse L. Lasky
Patterson Mcnutt
Max Parker
Samson Raphaelson
Arthur Richman
Ad Schaumer
Robert L. Simpson
Joseph Valentine
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Writing, Screenplay
Quotes
Trivia
A song entitled "Paris in the Evening" with music by Ted Snyder and lyrics by Preston Sturges was to be sung by Francis Lederer, but was dropped.
William Wyler had to alter some of his shots when it became apparent that Frances Dee was pregnant (with Jody McCrea).
Notes
The working title of this film was April Folly. The file for the film in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library contains an unpublished play entitled The Proud Princess, by Edward Sheldon and Dorothy Donnelly, and treatments based on this play, which were written in June 1934. It is not known if any of this material was used in the final film. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Francis Lederer was to sing a song entitled "Paris in the Evening," music by Ted Snyder and lyrics by Preston Sturges, but the song was not included in the print viewed. This was Jesse L. Lasky's last film produced for Fox, although it was released prior to Here's to Romance (see below). The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Writing (Original Story) category.
