All Topics  
The Guardsman

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

The Guardsman
 
 
  Topics The Guardsman Topic Home

The Guardsman is a 1931
1931 in film

Events...
 movie
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 based on the play Testor by Ferenc Molnįr
Ferenc Molnįr

Ferenc Moln?r was a Hungary dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar. He emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazi Germany persecution of Hungarian Jews during World War II....
. It stars Alfred Lunt
Alfred Lunt

Alfred Lunt was an American Tony Award-winning stage director and actor....
, Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne

Lynn Fontanne was a United Kingdom-born actress who was a major stage star in the United States for over 40 years, and who with her husband Alfred Lunt was part of the most acclaimed acting team in the history of the American theater....
, Roland Young
Roland Young

Roland Young was an England actor....
 and ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts was an United States film actress who starred in many silent film drama film, although later, her career digressed to comedy film sound films....
. It opens with a stage re-enactment of the final scene of Maxwell Anderson
Maxwell Anderson

James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist. He was a founding member of The Playwrights Company....
's Elizabeth the Queen, with Fontanne as Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was List of English monarchs and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the House of Tudor....
 and Lunt as the Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex , a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, is the best-known of the many holders of the title "Earl of Essex." He was a military hero and royal favourite, but following a poor campaign against Irish rebels during the Nine Years War in 1599, he defied the Queen and was executed for treason....
, but otherwise has nothing to do with that play.

The movie was adapted by Ernest Vajda
Ernest Vajda

Ernest Vajda was a Hungarian actor, playwright and novelist, but is more famous today for his screenplays. He co-wrote the screenplay for the film Smilin' Through , based on the hit play by Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin....
 (screenplay) and Claudine West (continuity) and was directed by Sidney Franklin
Sidney Franklin (director)

Sidney Franklin , was an Academy Award-winning USA film director and Film producer.His credits as director include:*Smilin' Through *A Lady's Morals ...
.

Lunt and Fontanne were husband and wife and a celebrated stage acting team.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'The Guardsman'
Start a new discussion about 'The Guardsman'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Guardsman is a 1931
1931 in film

Events...
 movie
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 based on the play Testor by Ferenc Molnįr
Ferenc Molnįr

Ferenc Moln?r was a Hungary dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar. He emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazi Germany persecution of Hungarian Jews during World War II....
. It stars Alfred Lunt
Alfred Lunt

Alfred Lunt was an American Tony Award-winning stage director and actor....
, Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne

Lynn Fontanne was a United Kingdom-born actress who was a major stage star in the United States for over 40 years, and who with her husband Alfred Lunt was part of the most acclaimed acting team in the history of the American theater....
, Roland Young
Roland Young

Roland Young was an England actor....
 and ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts was an United States film actress who starred in many silent film drama film, although later, her career digressed to comedy film sound films....
. It opens with a stage re-enactment of the final scene of Maxwell Anderson
Maxwell Anderson

James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist. He was a founding member of The Playwrights Company....
's Elizabeth the Queen, with Fontanne as Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was List of English monarchs and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the House of Tudor....
 and Lunt as the Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex , a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, is the best-known of the many holders of the title "Earl of Essex." He was a military hero and royal favourite, but following a poor campaign against Irish rebels during the Nine Years War in 1599, he defied the Queen and was executed for treason....
, but otherwise has nothing to do with that play.

The movie was adapted by Ernest Vajda
Ernest Vajda

Ernest Vajda was a Hungarian actor, playwright and novelist, but is more famous today for his screenplays. He co-wrote the screenplay for the film Smilin' Through , based on the hit play by Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin....
 (screenplay) and Claudine West (continuity) and was directed by Sidney Franklin
Sidney Franklin (director)

Sidney Franklin , was an Academy Award-winning USA film director and Film producer.His credits as director include:*Smilin' Through *A Lady's Morals ...
.

Lunt and Fontanne were husband and wife and a celebrated stage acting team. This movie was based upon the roles they had played on Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
 in 1924 and it was their only starring film role together. They were nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry....
  and Best Actress in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actress

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry....
 respectively.

The story revolves around a husband-and-wife acting team. Simply because he is insecure, the husband suspects his wife could be capable of infidelity. The husband disguises himself as a guardsman with a thick accent, woos his wife under his false identity, and ends up seducing her. The couple stays together, and at the end there is a strong hint - but we are never quite sure - that the wife knew it was her husband, but played along with the deception.

The film was remade twice:

  • In 1941
    1941 in film

    The year 1941 in film involved some significant events....
    , the plot was used for the film version of Oscar Straus
    Oscar Straus

    Oscar Straus may refer to:*Oscar Straus , a Viennese composer of operettas*Oscar Straus , United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor from 1906 to 1909...
    's operetta
    Operetta

    Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre....
     The Chocolate Soldier
    The Chocolate Soldier

    The Chocolate Soldier is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man. The German language libretto was by Rudolf Bernauer and Leopold Jacobson....
    , starring Risė Stevens
    Risė Stevens

    Ris? Stevens is a retired American mezzo-soprano who captured a wide popular audience at the height of her career .She studied at New York's Juilliard School of Music for three years....
     and Nelson Eddy
    Nelson Eddy

    Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and movie star who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs....
    . The stage production had used the plot of George Bernard Shaw
    George Bernard Shaw

    George Bernard Shaw, was an Irish people playwright.Although Shaw's first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, his talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays....
    's Arms and the Man
    Arms and the Man

    'Arms and the Man' is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw. Its title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid:"Arma virumque cano" . The play was first produced on April 21, 1894 at the Avenue Theatre, and published in 1898 as part of Shaw's Plays Pleasant volume, which also included Candida , You Never Can Tell, and Th...
    , but Shaw had been deeply offended and angered at the result. For the film MGM decided to use the plot of Molnar's The Guardsman instead, but they kept the stage score of The Chocolate Soldier. The film was a great success.


  • In 1984
    1984 in film

    Events* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.*TriStar Entertainment, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....
    , a new non-musical version, entitled Lily in Love
    Lily in Love

    Lily in Love is a 1984 in film Hungary-United States co-production in English language based on a Play by Ferenc Moln?r, starring Christopher Plummer, Maggie Smith and Elke Sommer....
    , starring Christopher Plummer
    Christopher Plummer

    Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer, Order of Canada is a Canadian theater, film and television acting. In a career that spans over five decades and includes substantial roles in film, television, and theater, Plummer is perhaps best known for the iconic role of Georg Ludwig von Trapp in The Sound of Music ....
     and Maggie Smith
    Maggie Smith

    Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, Order of the British Empire , better known as Maggie Smith, is a pre-eminent English film, Stage , and television actor who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 56 years....
    , was made, but the play was so altered that the names of the characters were changed and Molnar was not even given screen credit. The film was a total flop.