A Lady's Morals
About A Lady's Morals
Composer Paul Brandt follows the singer Jenny Lind from city to city. During a performance of Norma she loses her voice. In the confusion Paul is hit on the head and slowly goes blind. He still gets her to a maestro who restores the voice. Grace Moore plays Lind, Reginald Denny plays Brandt, and Wallace Beery plays P. T. Barnum.
Cast & crew
More about A Lady's Morals
Sidney Franklin directed. Irving Thalberg produced. George Barnes photographed it, Margaret Booth edited it, and Cedric Gibbons was the art director. The AFI Catalog times it at 86 minutes, 7,856 feet, ten reels, and dates the release 8 November 1930. Copyright is 27 October 1930, LP1680, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp. A working title was The Soul Kiss. MGM also made a French-language version, Jenny Lind, again with Moore. This was Moore's first film.
Themes
Making
The plot is a fiction built on Lind's name. The AFI synopsis turns on her lost voice in Norma and on Brandt's blindness, not on a documented romance.
Look
George Barnes shot the MGM picture, including Moore's opera scenes.
Music
Moore sings operatic arias, including Norma. The original song "It Is Destiny" is by Clifford Grey and Oscar Straus. Vincenzo Bellini is the composer attached to the Norma material.
Preservation
A print circulates on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Writers credited on Wikipedia are Dorothy Farnum, Hanns Kräly, John Meehan, Arthur Richman, and Claudine West.
- Jobyna Howland plays Josephine. Gus Shy plays Olaf. Gilbert Emery plays Broughm.
- It Is Destiny," lyrics by Clifford Grey and music by Oscar Straus, is played by Denny and sung by Moore.
- Beery played Barnum again in The Mighty Barnum (1934), with Virginia Bruce as Lind.
- Wikipedia's running time is 87 minutes. The AFI figure is 86.
- A file is on Wikimedia Commons.
Scenes
- Lind's voice fails during Norma, and Brandt is struck on the head.
- Already going blind, he brings her to the maestro who gets the voice back.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (A Lady's Morals (1930).webm)
