| The Great Garrick | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | James Whale |
| Produced by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Written by | Ernest Vajda (play) Rowland Leigh (uncredited) |
| Starring | Brian Aherne Olivia de Havilland Edward Everett Horton Melville Cooper |
| Music by | Adolph Deutsch |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Editing by | Warren Low |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | 30 October 1937 |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Great Garrick is a 1937 American historical comedy film directed by James Whale and starring Brian Aherne, Olivia de Havilland and Edward Everett Horton. It also features Lionel Atwill, Luis Alberni, and Melville Cooper while future star Lana Turner has a bit part. The film was based on the play Ladies and Gentlemen by Ernest Vajda. Aherne plays the famous eighteenth century British actor David Garrick.
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The film was made by James Whale for Warner Brothers shortly after the troubled production of The Road Back which had met with controversy and opposition from the German government, and strained his relationship with his bosses at Universal Pictures where he had worked for the past six years. The Garrick film was intended to be a more light-hearted effort. However, both it and his next film Port of Seven Seas were failures at the box office.[1] Whale eventually returned to Universal where he saw out his contract largely by making B Movies.
In 1750, David Garrick, the famous English actor, announces onstage that he has been invited to Paris to work with the prestigious Comédie-Française. A person in the audience jeers that they want him to teach them how to act. When word reaches Paris, the story has become so garbled that the remark is attributed to Garrick himself. The outraged French actors, led by their president, Picard (Melville Cooper), decide to humiliate Garrick. They take over an inn where he will be staying, and the playwright Beaumarchais (Lionel Atwill) devises a plot intended to frighten Garrick into returning to England. Garrick however is forewarned by Jean Cabot (Etienne Girardot), an admirer who works as a Comédie-Française prompter. He plays along, ignoring the misgivings of his servant Tubby (Edward Everett Horton).
A complication arises when Germaine Dupont, Countess de la Corbe (Olivia De Havilland), arrives at the inn soon after. Garrick believes she is one of the actresses (and not a very good one), when she is actually fleeing a marriage arranged by her father. She falls in love with Garrick, and he plays along.
Meanwhile, the French try to discomfort the Englishman with a sword fight, a shootout between a husband and his wife's lover, a mad waiter (Luis Alberni), and at the end, a violent blacksmith. After overhearing the "blacksmith" remind himself to hit his anvil, not Garrick's head, with his hammer, Garrick disguises himself as the blacksmith and, pretending to be drunk, tells the aghast French actors that he has struck and killed their intended victim. Then he reveals his identity. Relieved, Picard apologizes and begs him to join them in Paris. Garrick graciously accepts. Before they leave, however, he criticizes Germaine for her bad acting, infuriating her.
At his premiere in Paris, playing Don Juan, Garrick learns that Germaine is not a member of the company. Realizing that she was telling the truth and that he actually loves her, he is too distraught to perform. Fortunately, Jean Cabot informs him that he ran into Germaine and explained the whole thing to her. She forgives him and is in the audience.
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