God's Gift to Women
Encyclopedia
God's Gift to Women is a Pre-Code
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...

 musical romantic comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 released by Warner Brothers, and starring Frank Fay
Frank Fay (American actor)
Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...

 and Laura LaPlante.

The film was based on the play called The Devil Was Sick by Jane Hinton, and was originally completed as a musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

. Due to the backlash against musicals, however, all the songs were cut from the film in all release prints in the United States. The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States where a backlash against musicals never occurred.

Plot

Frenchman Toto Duryea (Frank Fay
Frank Fay (American actor)
Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...

) romances every beautiful woman in sight, but is in love with none of them. For him, "every woman is like a new dish to be tasted." When he is finally smitten by heiress Diane Churchill (Laura La Plante
Laura La Plante
Laura La Plante was an American actress, best-known for her roles in silent films.-Early acting career:...

), he has to prove to her father (Charles Winninger
Charles Winninger
Charles Winninger was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in drama.-Biography:He began as a vaudeville actor...

) that he really loves her and not just her millions.

Music

The songs were cut from the film before the film's release in the United States. They existed on foreign release prints, but it is not known if any of these have survived. The following numbers are those known to have existed:
  • An elaborate dance number by the Sisters "G" (Eleanor Gutchrlein and Karla Gutchrlein) originally appeared in the film during the nightclub sequence at the beginning of the film.
  • Frank Fay sang the theme song which is currently heard on the credits and is underscored several times in the film.

Trivia

Although the Sisters "G" (Eleanor Gutchrlein and Karla Gutchrlein) appear on the credits, they are only seen for a couple of minutes since their scenes were deleted in prints released in the United States.

Preservation

Only the cut print released in the United States seems to have survived. The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States where a backlash against musicals never occurred. It is unknown whether a copy of this full version still exists.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK