Rich Man's Folly

1931 film

November 14, 1931 (1931-11-14)

Running time

80 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Rich Man's Folly is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by John Cromwell and written by Edward E. Paramore Jr. and Grover Jones. The film stars George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Robert Ames, Juliette Compton, David Durand, Dorothy Peterson, and Harry Allen. The film was released on November 14, 1931, by Paramount Pictures.^[1]^[2] This modern adaptation of the 1848 novel Dombey and Son is regarded as Hollywood's first major screen adaptation of a Charles Dickens work.^[3]

Plot

Cast

George Bancroft as Brock Trumbull
Frances Dee as Ann Trumbull
Robert Ames as Joe Warren
Juliette Compton as Paula Norcross
David Durand as Brock Junior
Dorothy Peterson as Katherine Trumbull
Harry Allen as McWylie
Gilbert Emery as Kincaid
Guy Oliver as Dayton
Anne Shirley as Anne, as a child
George MacFarlane as Marston

Criticism

Director John Cromwell commented on the film and actor George Bancroft in an interview with historian Kinglesy Canham (circa 1975):

”...Rich Man’s Folly was a very good opportunity [to make something more than a routine picture]; it was a modern dress version of Dickens’ Dombey and Son, and it should have been absolutely splendid for Bancroft except that it required in the actor a consciousness of the material—of which he had none! To him it was always just another part to play in the same old manner. He had no realization of the opportunities that were there, so they were simply missed.”^[4]

Preservation status

Although the film does still exist, Rich Man's Folly has not been seen publicly in decades. It has never been released onto VHS or DVD, and no re-showings or television broadcasts are known to have taken place. A surviving copy currently exists in the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Paramount created a promotional film in 1931 called The House That Shadows Built, with excerpts of Rich Man's Folly featured.

Footnotes

^ Sandra Brennan (2015). "Rich-Man-s-Folly - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes - NYTimes.com". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on February 21, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
^ "Rich Man's Folly". afi.com. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
^ Cartmell, Deborah (July 30, 2015). Adaptations in the Sound Era: 1927-37. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 62. ISBN 9781623560423.
^ Canham, 1976 p. 62-63