Lana Turner in Rich Man, Poor Girl
In only her second appearance as an MGM star, Lana Turner demonstrated an energy and comic flair far in advance of her years (she was only 17) in Rich Man, Poor Girl. But despite some good reviews for her supporting performance in this 1938 romantic comedy, her comic turn was a far cry from the more somber, sensual roles that would mark her years as one of the studio's top stars in the '40s.
The plot -- a wealthy young businessman (Robert Young) who moves in with girlfriend Ruth Hussey's eccentric family to convince her they can make marriage work -- bears more than a passing resemblance to the same year's Oscar®-winning hit You Can't Take It with You. That may be only partly a coincidence. Rich Man, Poor Girl is adapted from Edith Ellis' 1925 play White Collars. MGM already owned the rights, having filmed it in 1929 as The Idle Rich, with Conrad Nagel, Bessie Love and Leila Hyams in the roles played by Young, Hussey and Turner, respectively. But their decision to dust off the property had to have been inspired by the stage success of You Can't Take It with You. It had opened on Broadway in 1936 and was still running at the time both films were released. News of director Frank Capra's planned film version at Columbia may have been another impetus. Working efficiently on the studio's back lot, director Reinhold Schunzel and producer Edward Chodorov filmed the MGM picture in just four weeks and actually had it in theatres nine days before the Capra film.
To find a writer to work on the new screenplay, Chodorov didn't have to go very far. He hired his brother, Jerome, who, with writing partner Joseph Fields, would achieve his greatest fame on Broadway with such hits as My Sister Eileen and Junior Miss. Producer Chodorov, who had come up through the writers ranks as well, had his own playwriting career. His woman-in-peril melodrama, Kind Lady, had been filmed by MGM in 1935 and would be re-made in 1951. At the time he made Rich Man, Poor Girl, he was a favorite on the lot, frequently lunching at studio head Louis B. Mayer's table.
Turner's casting as the leading lady's high-spirited sister, Helen, was hardly a major matter for the powers that be. She had come to the studio as a protégée of producer-director Mervyn LeRoy, who had first featured her prominently as the murder victim in Warner Bros.' They Won't Forget (1937). Her sexually charged performance helped her land her first MGM role, as the town vamp in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938). The Hardy series was already a staple of the MGM production schedule, producing popular low-budget films that gave the studio a chance to try out young actresses opposite popular juvenile star Mickey Rooney.
The Hardy films had also provided a showcase for Hussey, who was playing her first starring role in Rich Man, Poor Girl after signing with the studio a year earlier. She had played a small role in Judge Hardy's Children (1938) and had small roles cut out of two other films there before the studio decided to try her in a lead. She would continue to alternate between minor leads and major supporting roles until her comic turn as a wise-cracking photographer in The Philadelphia Story (1940) brought her an Oscar® nomination and a comfortable berth at MGM as a reliable leading lady.
Rich Man, Poor Girl also marked the studio contract debut of Lew Ayres, who had starred at MGM earlier in his career as one of Greta Garbo's loves in her last silent film, The Kiss (1929). Although his performance as Hussey and Turner's brother showed his deftness with comedy (as had his work earlier in the year as Katharine Hepburn's drunken brother in Holiday), MGM would make primary use of his talents as the earnest young Dr. Kildare in a series of films (Turner would get another early showcase opposite him in Calling Dr. Kildare [1939]). He would remain a popular studio star until his stance as a conscientious objector during World War II led to his blacklisting. By the time reports of his heroic duty under fire as a member of the Medical Corps brought him back to public favor, MGM had dropped his contract.
Producer: Edward Chodorov
Director: Reinhold Schunzel
Screenplay: Joseph Fields, Jerome Chodorov
Based on the play White Collars by Edith Ellis
Cinematography: Ray June
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Gabriel Scognamillo
Music: William Axt
Principal Cast: Robert Young (Bill Harrison), Ruth Hussey (Joan Thayer), Lew Ayres (Henry Thayer), Guy Kibbee (Philip Thayer), Lana Turner (Helen Thayer), Rita Johnson (Sally Harrison), Virginia Grey (Selma Willis), Marie Blake (Mrs. Gussler).
BW-72m. Closed captioning.
by Frank Miller
