The Laughing Lady (1929 film)

The Laughing Lady is a 1929 American sound film melodrama directed by Victor Schertzinger, starring Ruth Chatterton and produced and released by Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation.^[2] It is based on a 1922 British play, The Laughing Lady, by Alfred Sutro. The play was brought to New York in 1923 and put on Broadway starring Ethel Barrymore. The film "deal[s] with rape , divorce and hypocrisy in New York's high society".^[3]

The Laughing Lady
Directed by	Victor Schertzinger
Written by	Bartlett Cormack Arthur Richman
Based on	play, The Laughing Lady, by Alfred Sutro[1]
Produced by	Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation
Starring	Ruth Chatterton Clive Brook
Cinematography	George J. Folsey
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	December 28, 1929 (1929-12-28)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

A 1924 Paramount silent film retitled A Society Scandal starred Gloria Swanson, now lost, was the first adaptation of the play.

In 1930 a sound version, A Kacago Asszony, was produced by Paramount at its studio in Joinville, France, in Hungarian with a Hungarian director and cast.^[4][5] It was released in the US by Paramount in 1931.

Jeanne Eagels was to star in the film but died before production began.

Cast

The film

• Ruth Chatterton – Marjorie Lee
• Clive Brook – Daniel Farr
• Dan Healy – Al Brown
• Nat Pendleton – James Dugan
• Raymond Walburn – Hector Lee
• Dorothy Hall – Flo
• Nedda Harrigan – Cynthia Bell (*as Hedda Harrigan)
• Lillian B. Tonge – Parker
• Marguerite St. John – Mrs. Playgate
• Hubert Druce – Hamilton Playgate
• Alice Hegeman – Mrs. Collop
• Joe King – City Editor
• Helen Hawley – Rose

See also

• List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)