The Guardsman

The Guardsman
Directed by	Sidney Franklin Harold S. Bucquet (ass't director)
Produced by	Albert Lewin (*uncredited) Irving Thalberg (*uncredited)
Written by	Ferenc Molnar (play) Maxwell Anderson Ernest Vajda (screenplay) Claudine West (continuity)
Starring	Alfred Lunt Lynn Fontanne
Cinematography	Norbert Brodine
Edited by	Conrad Nervig
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	November 7, 1931
Running time	89 minutes (10 reels)
Country	United States
Language	English

The Guardsman is a 1931 film based on the play Testőr by Ferenc Molnár. It stars Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Roland Young and ZaSu Pitts. It opens with a stage re-enactment of the final scene of Maxwell Anderson's Elizabeth the Queen, with Fontanne as Elizabeth and Lunt as the Earl of Essex, but otherwise has nothing to do with that play.

The movie was adapted by Ernest Vajda (screenplay) and Claudine West (continuity) and was directed by Sidney Franklin.

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 in 1924 and it was their only starring film role together. They were nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Leading Role 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 the wife tells the husband that she knew it was him, but played along with the deception.

...
Wikipedia