Strangers in Love
Cast & Crew
Lothar Mendes
Fredric March
Kay Francis
Stuart Erwin
Juliette Compton
George Barbier
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Diane Merrow becomes secretary to wealthy but parsimonious egyptologist Arthur Drake in order to prove that he swindled her father into his present state of bankruptcy. Arthur's twin brother Robert, who is called "Buddy," returns from military service in China with his crony, Stan Keeney, to finagle money out of his brother, who was sole heir to the Drake estate. When the twins, lifetime rivals, meet and Buddy asks for money, Arthur refuses, then drops dead from a bad heart. After discovering that Arthur's will leaves all of his inheritance to egyptologists, Buddy impersonates him and claims that it was himself who died. Instead of finishing Arthur's book on Egyptian hieroglyphics, Buddy dictates to Diane a love story about Antony and Cleopatra. She immediately notices that "Arthur" is a changed man and Buddy learns that her once prominent family has lost its home. Buddy goes to the Drake summer home at Elmview and there greets his childhood housekeeper, Snowball, who assures him that when his father was dying, he talked of nothing but Buddy. Diane and her father then arrive, and Arthur's tough girl friend, Muriel Preston, threatens to expose his fraudulent activities unless he asks Diane and her father to leave Elmview. Meanwhile, Buddy has no idea what Arthur is guilty of, but knows that Arthur's publisher, J. L. Clark, is blackmailing him. Buddy buys Muriel's silence with a $50,000 check, then sends Keeney to retrieve it. Detective McPhail, hired by Diane to expose Arthur, interrogates Muriel and Clark, then orders Diane to hold Arthur at Elmview. She warns him, instead, and they kiss. Buddy then tells her that he is really Buddy, whom she knew and loved in her childhood, and they embrace. The police then arrive with Muriel and Clark, who implicate Buddy in Arthur's crime, but Mr. Merrow drops the charges. In the scuffle, Buddy and Diane flee in a speedboat, which catches fire and explodes. They bail out in time and are rescued, and McPhail reveals that Arthur forged his father's will. The estate now belongs to Buddy. Diane then finishes the Egyptian love story with, "he marries the girl."
Director
Lothar Mendes
Cast
Fredric March
Kay Francis
Stuart Erwin
Juliette Compton
George Barbier
Sidney Toler
Earle Fox
Lucien Littlefield
Gertrude Howard
Leslie Palmer
Ben Taggart
John M. Sullivan
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A script title for this film found in the Paramount story files at AMPAS Library was The Black Robe, and it was reviewed by Motion Picture Daily as Intimate.
