Whom the Gods Destroy
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Walter Lang
Walter Connolly
Robert Young
Doris Kenyon
Scotty Beckett
Rollo Lloyd
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Eminent playwright John Forrester departs for London to work on his new play, The Sun Rises , while Margaret, his wife, stays behind with their young son Jackie. John's passenger liner hits a floating wreck and sinks. As the lifeboats are lowered, women and children board first, and John gives his life preserver to a woman named Henrietta Crosland. The shock of the disaster causes John to lose consciousness and later he is found dressed in women's clothes when the lifeboats are rescued by Newfoundland fisherman. Because John thinks he is a coward, he says he is fellow passenger Peter Korotoff before lapsing into a long illness. Meanwhile Henrietta tells the newspapers how John saved her, and he is assumed to have died a heroic death. Another pasenger, Alec Klein, learns John's real identity and, when John has recovered, sends him back to New York. Alec urges John to reveal himself, but John imagines that the fishermen would expose his cowardice if he admitted his identity, and so he adopts the alias of Eric Jann, and watches his son from a distance. John works for years as a dishwasher and waiter. Meanwhile, Jack attends Eastmore University, where he produces a successful play. Jack believes he has inherited his father's talent and quits school to take his play to Broadway, where it flops. John, who avidly follows Jack's career in the newspapers, loses his job when he attends the play's opening night. Afterward, John introduces himself to Jack as an old friend of his father, and convinces him to collaborate on a new play. When the play is a success, Jack tries to introduce John to his friends, but fearing recognition, John flees the theater. Jack brings Margaret to John's apartment. When Margaret recognizes John, they decide to reunite somewhere far away, and to never reveal the truth to Jack.
Director
Walter Lang
Cast
Walter Connolly
Robert Young
Doris Kenyon
Scotty Beckett
Rollo Lloyd
Hobart Bosworth
Gilbert Emery
Akim Tamiroff
Henry Kolker
The Yale Puppeteers
Macon Jones
Maidel Turner
George Humbert
Hugh Huntley
Walter Brennan
Reginald Mason
Charles B. Middleton
Raymond Brown
Mary Carr
William Robyns
Betty Francisco
Jack Mulhall
Arthur Stuart Hull
Tom Ricketts
Richard Heming
Billie Seward
Philip Maxwell
Rhody Hathaway
Ara Haswell
Olaf Hytten
William Welsh
Harrison Greene
Ruth Clifford
Joe Mack
Dick Rush
Wm. E. "babe" Lawrence
Billy Scott
Joan Dix
Edward Peil Sr.
Larry Fisher
Mert La Varr
Maurice Brierre
John Paul Jones
Jack Mack
Jack Maston
Adda Gleason
Allan Sears
Elinor Fair
Fay Holderness
Rose Plummer
Miriam Shelby
Lois Albright
Allen Caven
Ethel Sykes
Ila Lee
Peggy Leon
Rhea Mitchell
Lillian West
Arthur S. "pop" Byron
Virginia True Boardman
Al Stewart
Charles Hickman
Clarence Geldert
H. R. Hoff
Eddie Gordon
Nick Cogley
Ralph Hornbrook
Jack Rockwell
Harry Strang
May Foster
Ricca Allen
Nadine Beresford
Stella Adams
Nick Copeland
Al Klein
Ronald Roberts
Nick Thompson
Carlo Schipa
Maston Williams
Al Mcdonald
Dutch Hendrian
Adolph Milar
Isabel Vecki
Marion Sheldon
Leah Arvonoff
Steve Clark
Clive Morgan
Alice Dodge
Niles Welch
Edmund Burns
Billy Arnold
Jack Byron
Betty May
Eddie Hearn
John Webb Dillion
Ernest Young
Natalie Warfield
Charles King
Richard Kipling
Carlton E. Griffin
Ellinor Vanderveer
Crew
F. M. Browne
Sidney Buchman
Harry Cohn
Fred Dawson
Lambert Day
Jerry Franklin
John Hoffman
Benjamin Kline
Viola Lawrence
Walter Meins
Fred Niblo Jr.
Howard Robertson
Jack Russell
David Selman
Bert Wilson
Felix Young
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to publicity, the "Yale Puppeteers" were Harry Burnett and Forman Brown, two University of Michigan students who had become one of the top three puppeteer groups in the world. According to publicity notes, the shipwreck scene required 500 extras. Whom the Gods Destroy was a Motion Picture Herald box-office champion for August 1934.
