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A Lady's Morals

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A Lady's Morals
Directed bySidney Franklin
Written byDorothy Farnum
Hanns Kräly
John Meehan
Arthur Richman
Claudine West
Produced byIrving Thalberg
StarringGrace Moore
Reginald Denny
Wallace Beery
Gilbert Emery
CinematographyGeorge Barnes
Edited byMargaret Booth
Music byVincenzo Bellini
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • November 8, 1930 (1930-11-08)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

A Lady's Morals is a 1930 American pre-Code film directed by Sidney Franklin. Its plot is a highly fictionalized account of opera singer Jenny Lind. The film features Grace Moore as Lind, Reginald Denny as a lover and Wallace Beery as P. T. Barnum. It contains operatic arias by Moore.

Wallace Beery would play Barnum again four years later in The Mighty Barnum (1934), with Virginia Bruce as Jenny Lind.

Plot

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Cast

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Soundtrack

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  • "It Is Destiny": Lyrics by Clifford Grey, music by Oscar Straus, played by Reginald Denny on piano and sung by Grace Moore
  • "Rataplan" (from La fille du régiment): Music by Gaetano Donizetti, sung by Moore
  • "Student's Song": Music by Oscar Straus, lyrics by Clifford Grey, sung by students escorting Jenny home
  • "Oh Why": Lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Herbert Stothart and Harry M. Woods, played by Moore singing and on piano
  • "Casta Diva" (from Norma): Music by Vincenzo Bellini, played at an opera house and sung by Moore
  • "Swedish Pastorale": Written by Howard Johnson and Herbert Stothart, sung by a group in Sweden
  • "Lovely Hour": Words and music by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, sung first by Moore off-screen and reprised at P. T. Barnum's show in New York
  • "I Hear Your Voice": Music by Oscar Straus, lyrics by Clifford Grey

Reception

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In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Mordaunt Hall called the film's title "meaningless and unsuitable" and wrote: "This story, one of half-truths and fiction, ... is a conventional narrative and although Mr. Franklin delivers some imaginatively conceived sequences, there are others that are emphatically old fashioned in design. ... It is too mindful of the old things in motion pictures."[1]

Remake

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The film was remade as the 1932 American French-language film titled Jenny Lind.

References

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  1. ^ Hall, Mordaunt (November 8, 1930). "The Screen: 'The Swedish Nightingale'". The New York Times. p. 21.
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