The Idle Rich

1929 Comedy 80 minutes Directed by William C. deMille

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About The Idle Rich

William van Luyn, a rich businessman, marries his secretary Joan Thayer. Her sister Helen is pleased. Her cousin Henry lectures him on middle-class virtue, and her father refuses a grander apartment, so the couple stay in the family flat and Will sleeps on the couch. He finds Henry a job in South America, which Henry refuses, and gives Helen jewelry, which starts a fight with her fiancé Tom. Will then says he is giving his fortune to charity. With Joan's father out of work, the family tries to stop him, and he admits the gift was a bluff.

Cast & crew

More about The Idle Rich

William C. deMille directed. Clara Beranger wrote the scenario, from Edith Ellis's play White Collars, which had played the Egan Theater in Los Angeles in 1924 and then the Cort Theatre in New York. Robert E. Hopkins contributed uncredited writing. Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg produced it. MGM released it in the United States on June 15, 1929. Leonard Smith photographed it.

Themes

  • A millionaire in a middle-class flat
  • Gifts the family will not take
  • A fake giveaway of the fortune
  • marriage
  • secretary
  • middle class
  • charity bluff
  • MGM
  • early talkie

Background

Released in June 1929, it is an early MGM talkie, made the year the studio was converting its program to sound.

Making

MGM filmed Edith Ellis's comedy of a rich man moving in with his wife's family and refusing to be thanked for his money.

Look

Leonard Smith photographed the film.

Preservation

The film survives. Warner Archive Collection released a DVD in 2012. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • Conrad Nagel plays William van Luyn. Leila Hyams plays Joan. Bessie Love plays Helen, Joan's sister, not the wife.
  • Robert Ober plays Henry. James Neill and Edythe Chapman play Mr. and Mrs. Thayer. Paul Kruger plays Tom Gibney.
  • The source play is White Collars, not an original story.
  • Warner Archive Collection issued it on DVD in 2012.

Scenes

  • Will sleeps on the couch in the Thayer apartment.
  • He announces that the fortune is going to charity, then admits he was teaching them a lesson.

Influenced by

  • Edith Ellis's play White Collars

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (The Idle Rich.webm)
  • Warner Archive Collection DVD (2012)

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