Idiot's Delight (film)
| Idiot's Delight | |
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Movie poster
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| Directed by | Clarence Brown |
| Produced by |
Clarence Brown Hunt Stromberg |
| Written by | Robert E. Sherwood |
| Starring |
Norma Shearer Clark Gable Edward Arnold Charles Coburn Joseph Schildkraut Burgess Meredith |
| Music by | Herbert Stothart |
| Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
| Edited by | Robert Kern |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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107 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
English Esperanto |
| Budget | $1,519,000 |
| Box office | $1,167,000 (Domestic earnings) $545,000 (Foreign earnings) |
Idiot's Delight is a 1939 MGM comedy-drama with a screenplay adapted by Robert E. Sherwood from his 1936 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play of the same name. The movie showcases Clark Gable, in the same year that he played Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, and Norma Shearer in the declining phase of her career. Although not a musical, it is notable as the only film where Gable sings and dances, performing "Puttin' on the Ritz" by Irving Berlin.
Harry Van (Clark Gable), an American World War I veteran, tries to reenter show biz and ends up in a faltering mentalist show with an inept, aging alcoholic, Madame Zuleika (Laura Hope Crews, who also appeared in Gone with the Wind as Aunt Pittypat). While giving performances in Omaha, he is courted by Irene (Norma Shearer), a trapeze artist, who claims to come from Russia and hopes both to replace Harry's drunken partner in the show and be his lover. They have a romantic night, but he is suspicious of Irene's overstated flights of fancy. Harry, keeping Zuleika, and Irene's troupe board trains going in the opposite directions the next day.
Twenty years later, after a number of jobs, Harry is the impresario and co-performer with Les Blondes, a dance group of six women on a trip through Europe. While taking a train from Romania to Switzerland, they get stranded at an Alpine hotel in an unnamed, belligerent country when borders get suddenly closed as war becomes imminent. The passengers watch through the hotel lounge's large windows as dozens of bombers take off from an air field at the bottom of the picturesque valley and fly away in formation.
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