Not So Dumb | 1930 | Comedy

Title: Not So Dumb | 1930 | Comedy Director: King Vidor. Studio: Cosmopolitan Productions; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Starring: Marion Davies, Elliott Nugent, Raymond Hackett, Franklin Pangborn, Julia Faye, William Holden, Donald Ogden Stewart, Sally Starr. Based on: The play Dulcy by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. Release Date: January 17, 1930. Runtime: 75 minutes. Format: Black and white; Movietone sound; also released in a silent version; 9 reels. Country: United States. Language: English. Genres: Comedy. --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Arrival and setup 00:15:00 Guests gather for the weekend 00:35:00 Matchmaking and misunderstandings 00:55:00 The financier and the fake 01:10:00 Deal resolved and denouement --- Summary: Dulcinea “Dulcy” Parker is a well-meaning hostess whose eagerness to help her fiancé’s business prospects leads to a weekend of social blunders. As she entertains potential investors and assorted houseguests, her malapropisms and miscues complicate courtships and a delicate business deal. Despite the chaos, Dulcy’s unwitting interventions expose a bogus financier and push a skeptical businessman toward a partnership. The comedy hinges on farce, wordplay, and the contrast between Dulcy’s perceived naiveté and her accidental success. --- Background: The film adapts the 1921 Broadway hit Dulcy and was produced under the Cosmopolitan–MGM banner for star Marion Davies. Principal photography ran from mid-September to late November 1929, with early-sound production challenges noted during location work near Pasadena. Released January 17, 1930, it is an early pre-Code talking comedy directed by King Vidor. --- Trivia: An alternate silent version was prepared alongside the sound release, a common practice during the transitional early-sound years. During a driving sequence, the production used an eight-cylinder car to avoid audio interference that a six-cylinder engine caused with microphones—an example of on-the-fly sound-era problem solving. The “William Holden” credited here is a character actor of the period, not the later star of Sunset Blvd. . MGM previously filmed the play as Dulcy and returned to it again with another Dulcy in 1940. --- Public Domain / Rights: Original Release: January 17, 1930. Original Studio / Distributor: Cosmopolitan Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp. Copyright Status: Public Domain as of January 1, 2026. --- Hashtags: NotSoDumb MarionDavies KingVidor ClassicFilm PreCode MGM PublicDomain 1930s OldHollywood Source page: https: //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Not_So_Dumb_(1930).webm Direct media URL: https: //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Not_So_Dumb_%281930%29.webm