My Weakness (film)

My Weakness is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film directed by David Butler and starring Lilian Harvey, Lew Ayres and Charles Butterworth.^[1] It was the second of four films made by the British-German actress Harvey in Hollywood, who had emerged as major star during Weimar Germany.

My Weakness
Directed by	David Butler
Written by	Buddy G. DeSylva Bert Hanlon David Butler Ben Ryan
Produced by	Buddy G. DeSylva
Starring	Lilian Harvey Lew Ayres Charles Butterworth Harry Langdon
Cinematography	Arthur C. Miller
Edited by	Irene Morra
Music by	Arthur Lange Cyril J. Mockridge
Production company	Fox Film Corporation
Distributed by	Fox Film Corporation
Release date	September 22, 1933 (1933-09-22)
Running time	73 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

It both was and wasn't the first mainstream Hollywood film to use the word "gay" as a descriptor of homosexuality. In one scene, Charles Butterworth and Sid Silvers commiserate over their miserable, hopeless shared love for Lilian Harvey, until Butterworth is struck by a solution: "Let's be gay!" However, the Studio Relations Committee censors decreed that the line had to be muffled.^[2]

Plot

A wealthy young man bets that he can turn a cleaning woman into a sophisticated lady and trick three men into wanting to marry her.

Cast

• Lilian Harvey as Looloo Blake
• Lew Ayres as Ronnie Gregory
• Charles Butterworth as Gerald Gregory
• Harry Langdon as Dan Cupid
• Sid Silvers as Maxie
• Irene Bentley as Jane Holman
• Henry Travers as Ellery Gregory
• Adrian Rosley as Baptiste
• Mary Howard as Diana Griffith
• Irene Ware as Eve Millstead
• Barbara Weeks as Lois Crowley
• Susan Fleming as Jacqueline Wood
• Marcelle Edwards as Marion
• Marjorie King as Lillian
• Jean Allen as Consuello
• Gladys Blake as Mitzi
• Dixie Francis as Dixie