Women of All Nations
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Raoul Walsh
Victor Mclaglen
Edmund Lowe
Greta Nissen
El Brendel
Fifi D'orsay
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the trenches of the Verdun front during World War I, Captain Jim Flagg and Sergeant Harry Quirt, rivals in love and other endeavors, shake hands before an attack on the enemy, although Quirt stipulates, "if we pull through, this don't go." The attack succeeds, and after the war, Flagg and Quirt, to whom scrapping is second nature, rejoin the Marines. After escapades in the Philippines and China, they wind up on a battleship in the Panama Canal, where mutual name-calling leads Flagg to throw a tomato at Quirt. It hits the commanding officer, and Flagg is thrown in the brig. After their discharge, in Brooklyn, their hometown, Flagg runs a Marine recruiting office with his subordinate Olsen, whose recurring sneezes annoy Flagg, who thinks someone is giving him "the razzberry." Flagg's one recruit is Izzy Kaplan, whose father gets Flagg to promise that he'll look after Izzy. Across the hall, women flock to a beauty parlor run by a Professor Dubois, who, when the joint is raided, Flagg discovers is really Quirt. By threatening to turn Quirt over to the police, Flagg forces him to re-enlist, and thus wins an extra week's furlough for himself. They are next sent on a goodwill cruise to Scandinavia. In Gothenburg, Sweden, at a cafe on Christmas Eve, Flagg flirts with a blonde dancer named Elsa and discovers that the Santa Claus whom she kisses is really Quirt. Elsa's huge sweetheart Olaf then throws Quirt and Olsen through a closed door and Flagg through a wall. Next, in Nicaragua after an earthquake, the Marines help in the relief effort. As Izzy, mortally wounded, lies dying, Flagg promises to make sure that his father gets his insurance money. Flagg then helps dislodge a Marine caught underneath fallen rubble only to discover the man to be Quirt. Their next order takes them to a Mediterranean port, where Flagg finds Elsa, now the favorite in the harem of Prince Hassan, whom she met in Paris. After Quirt tricks Flagg into giving him a boost over the palace wall, Elsa whispers to Quirt what the prince will do to him if he is found there. Nevertheless, she convinces him to stay, and when Flagg arrives, she hides Quirt in a closet and tells him to come out when she meows. Flagg starts to leave when Elsa repeats to him what the prince will do if he is found there, but she implores him to stay. When the prince arrives, Elsa hides Flagg in her bathroom. A real cat then meows, which provokes Quirt to meow back. Flagg, thinking the sound is coming from Elsa, joins in the meows, and Olsen, hiding behind Elsa's door, completes the cat chorus. Hassan finds the three and has his guards, who brandish sharpened knives, chase them. Elsa helps Olsen escape by dressing him in her clothes, while Flagg and Quirt subdue two guards and take their uniforms. They carry the royal chair out of the palace, thinking Elsa is inside, and as they argue about who will take care of her, Olsen's sneeze from inside ends their dispute. As Flagg, Quirt and Olsen parade through town with other Marines, women wave to them.
Director
Raoul Walsh
Cast
Victor Mclaglen
Edmund Lowe
Greta Nissen
El Brendel
Fifi D'orsay
Marjorie White
Jesse De Vorska
Marion Lessing
T. Roy Barnes
Ruth Warren
Bela Lugosi
Joyce Compton
Charles Judels
Albert Dresden
Captain Bradley
Arthur Mclaglen
Tom Myers
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Stone (Humphrey Bogart) does not appear in all prints.
Notes
After the opening credits, a title card reads, "I first heard of Flagg and Quirt from my friend Captain Laurence Stallings of the 5th U.S. Marines. At that time they were in action on the Verdun Front, France." The card is signed by the director Raoul Walsh. Fox made two previous films featuring the characters Flagg and Quirt, the 1926 What Price Glory and the 1929 The Cock-Eyed World, both directed by Walsh and starring McLaglen and Lowe (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.6213 and F2.0940) and one later film, the 1933 Hot Pepper (see below), directed by John Blystone and again starring McLaglen and Lowe. Walsh, in his autobiography, commented, "Women of All Nations was a turkey because it could not be anything else. A third McLaglen-Lowe film was just too much for the public."
Information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library indicate that James Gleason, Basil Woon, William K. Wells and Walter C. Kelly wrote material for the film, but that only Barry Conners' material was used in the final film. Humphrey Bogart and Nat Pendleton are listed as cast members in early screen credit sheets in the legal records, and still photographs from the film's production show Bogart with McLaglen and Lowe in the battleship sequence. Neither Bogart nor Pendleton were apparent in the print viewed, and an examination of the film's continuity taken from the screen did not reveal scenes with their characters. In addition, in the final screen credit sheet in the legal records, for the print that was shipped from Hollywood to New York on May 13, 1931, neither Bogart's nor Pendleton's name appears, thus indicating that their scenes were cut from the final film. Information in the legal records indicates that J. Henry Kruse led the singers and directed the Swedish orchestra in the Swedish sequence of the film. Although reviews and modern sources call both Flagg and Quirt sergeants, Flagg is called a captain in the film's dialogue.
Variety commented that the "meow chorus" was reminiscent of a scene in Paramount's Dishonored, also starring McLaglen, which was released earlier in 1931. Variety also noted that "the wholesale cutting is obvious and results in many pointless sequences."
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1931
Released in United States 1931
