The Lady Of Scandal (1930) Translates Stage To Screen
Early talk gravitated to properties where maximum chat was so much the better. That meant plays with confined setting, actors stood round furniture and often indistinguishable from it. The Lady Of Scandal and ilk would in hindsight give talkies a bad name, but were critic darlings then because of stage origin and respectability flowed from that. Mordaunt Hall was N.Y. Times defender of legit prerogative and gave but grudging nod to "shadow stories" done from plays. He made exception for The Lady Of Scandal, formerly "The High Road" of Broadway origin, and written by Frederick Lonsdale, whose The Last Of Mrs. Cheyney lent class to a pic industry always on lookout for that intangible. These were teacup marathons that sold inflated tickets at urban opens, but died hard in the hinters, where we knew from nothing, or cared, about Dukes and Earls.
Prestige was second to money asHollywood-desired commodity. It bought good will of audiences who'd otherwise disdain movies, or call them never so good as theatre. Now that screens spoke, it was legit on the rout. Broadway laid mostly eggs as a public chose bargain that was film tickets, a same now as plays, what with talk, plus bigger names doing it than mightiest of B'way could summon. People liked too the democracy of filmgoing, which had variety within programs, dress less formal, and eats bought, or at least tolerated, if carried in (nut and sweet vendors street-selling in event venues lacked concession choice). The Lady Of Scandal meanwhile gave glimpse of Upper Crust, in
| Reason To Catch A Lady Of Scandal Next Time --- Basil's Tour-De-Force Telephone Scene |
Chatterton stood in for common clay, except she has flawless diction, which others of lower birth presumably lack, but who else of cast to fasten interest on or identify with? Chatterton had been a hit the previous year as a talking Madame X, then with Sarah and Son (popular then, unwatchable now). Chatterton shone in some Warner precodes, had film-started mature (her mid-thirties), then got dowdy and quit
