The Idle Rich | 1929 | Comedy

Title: The Idle Rich | 1929 | Comedy Director: William C. deMille Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Starring: Conrad Nagel, Leila Hyams, Bessie Love Based on: White Collars by Edith Ellis Release Date: June 15, 1929 Runtime: 80 Format: Black-and-white; optical sound ; 9 reels ; mono Country: United States Language: English Genres: Comedy --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Proposal and office courtship 00:14:00 Meeting the Thayer family 00:32:00 Marriage and move into the Thayer apartment 00:50:00 Class tensions and misunderstandings 01:06:00 The fortune test and reconciliation --- Summary: A wealthy businessman, William “Will” Van Luyn, marries his secretary, Joan Thayer. Eager to bridge their class differences, he moves into her middle-class family’s apartment, where his attempts at generosity collide with the Thayers’ pride and suspicion of wealth. Escalating discomforts and resentments strain the marriage until Will announces he will give away his fortune, forcing the family to confront their assumptions about status, success, and mutual respect. The story plays as a class-conscious comedy of manners about money, marriage, and the mores of late-1920s urban life. --- Background: Produced and released by MGM during the early sound, pre-Code era, The Idle Rich adapts Edith Ellis’s Broadway play White Collars. Directed by William C. deMille, the film premiered in New York on June 15, 1929, and features production design overseen by Cedric Gibbons. Recorded with optical sound and released in black-and-white, it exemplifies MGM’s swift transition into all-talking features at the end of the decade. --- Trivia: The film was remade by MGM as Rich Man, Poor Girl starring Robert Young and Ruth Hussey. Copyright was registered by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp. on May 20, 1929 . The film survives and received a later DVD release from the Warner Archive Collection. AFI catalog records list the physical length as approximately 7,351 feet, issued on 9 reels. --- Public Domain / Rights: Original Release: June 15, 1929 Original Studio / Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Copyright Status: Public Domain --- Hashtags: TheIdleRich WilliamCdeMille ConradNagel LeilaHyams BessieLove MGM PreCode 1929 ClassicFilm PublicDomain Source page: https: //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Idle_Rich.webm Direct media URL: https: //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/The_Idle_Rich.webm