Glorious Betsy

Glorious Betsy

1928 theatrical poster
Directed by
Produced by Warner Brothers
Screenplay by
Based on Glorious Betsy by
Rida Johnson Young
Starring
Cinematography Hal Mohr
Editing by Thomas Pratt
Distributed by Warner Brothers
Release date(s) April 26, 1928 (1928-04-26)
Running time 7-8 reels; 7,091 feet
Country United States
Language Silent film (English intertitles); English dialogue

Glorious Betsy is a 1928 mostly-silent film with talking sequences, based on a play of the same name by Rida Johnson Young and starring Dolores Costello. It was produced by Warner Brothers and was nominated for (but did not win) an Academy Award for Best Writing, Adaptation in 1929. The film was directed by Alan Crosland with cinematography by Hal Mohr. A mute print of this film, minus its Vitaphone tracks, survives in the Library of Congress, and while their copy of this film is missing some of the sound reels, it is unknown whether other copies of the sound have been preserved elsewhere.[1]

Although the film was written by both Anthony Coldeway and Jack Jarmuth (the latter credited only for title cards), only Coldeway was nominated for the Academy Award. Pasquale Amato, a former star baritone at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, is one of the first actors of American cinema to depict Napoleon.

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Cast

Synopsis

The film is a semi-historical narrative and depicts the real-life courtship, marriage, and forced breakup of Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, and his wife from the American south, Elizabeth Patterson. Napoleon did not approve of the union (despite the fact that her family was one of the wealthiest in America) and the marriage was annulled. Jerome was subsequently forced to marry Catharina of Württemberg. They had one child, depicted in the film, Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte. In order to provide a "happy ending", Jerome in the film leaves France to be with his wife. However, in historical fact he remained in Europe.

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