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Devil May Care

DEVIL MAY CARE

CREDITS

1929, 90 minutes, B&W with Technicolor Sequence.
Director, Sidney Franklin; Adaptation, Richard Schayer; Scenario, Hans Kraly; Dialogue; Zelda Sears; Cinematography, Merritt B. Gerstad; Dance Direction, Albertina Rasch.

CAST

Armand, Ramon Novarro; Leonie, Dorothy Jordan; Louise, Marion Harris; DeGrignon, John Miljan; Napoleon, William Humphrey; Groom, George Davis; Gaston, Clifford Bruce; The Albertina Rasch Ballet.

SONGS

The Shepherd's Serenade, Bon Jour; Louie; March of the Old Guard; Why Waste Your Charms, The Gang Song; Madame Pompadour, Charming, If He Cared by Herbert Stothart and Clifford Grey.

PLOT SYNOPSIS

". . .[Ramon Novarro] was cast as Armand, a devotee of Napoleon who, following the Emperor's banishment to Elba, escapes death from Royalist soldiers, meets a beauty called Leonie (Dorothy Jordan), learns that she has no time for Bonapartists, narrowly avoids arrest, disguises himself as a footman and - for the second time - encounters the tempting Leonie. This time, he falls in love with her. And this time she requites it."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

NOTES

"Novarro, doing all the things audiences had come to expect of him. . .also established himself as a light tenor of immense charm. . .The first of the many operettas MGM would film throughout the thirties. . ."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

"Novarro's talkie debut was a slickly produced tale of the Napoleonic era based on a 19th century comedy, with an attractive Herbert Stothart score. Novarro carried it to respectful reviews and ample financial success. . ."
- Richard Barrios, A Song In The Dark

The screenplay was based on an 1851 French play called Bataille des Dames.

This was Dorothy Jordan's film debut; Broadway and recording star Marion Harris also made her one-and-only film appearance here.

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