The Gorgeous Hussy

⁽¹⁹³⁶⁾

Approved

1h 43m

Drama, Historical

August 28th, 1936

The Gorgeous Hussy Trivia

Trivia

Melvyn Douglas said that Joan Crawford made herself cry by listening to recordings of "None but the Lonely Heart".
MGM initially intended for Jean Harlow to star in this film.
Lionel Barrymore again portrayed U.S. President Andrew Jackson in the 1952 western Lone Star (1952), his final film. Beulah Bondi, who portrays Rachel Jackson in this movie, also appears in the later film in another role.
This was the first film Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone made together following their 1935 marriage.
Joan Crawford's first period movie of the sound era, it was also her most expensive film to that point, with a budget of $1,119,000.
Records state that John Randolph died of tuberculosis, not by assassination.
The film performed well at the box office, earning MGM a profit of $116,000 ($2.57M in 2023), according to studio records.
A number of people listed as cast members in studio records or casting call lists either did not appear or could not be identified in the movie. They were (with their character names): Louise Beavers (Aunt Sukey), Bert Roach (Major Domo), Oscar Apfel (Tompkins), Richard Powell (Doorman), Syd Saylor and Hooper Atchley (Agitators), Morgan Wallace (Slave Buyer), William Stack (W.R. Earle), Ward Bond (Officer), and Samuel S. Hinds (Commander). A modern source also names Harry Holman (Auctioneer) and Harry Strang (Navigator) as cast members, but neither appeared.
This was the last film for actresses Phoebe Foster and Rubye De Remer.
The film was first telecast in Philadelphia PA on Sunday 24 November 1957 on WFIL (Channel 6). It was next shown in New York City NY on 14 March 1958 on WCBS (Channel 2), San Francisco CA on 12 April 1958 on KGO (Channel 7), and Los Angeles CA on 23 May 1958 on KTTV (Channel 11).
"The Gorgeous Hussy" was the first of four movies co-starring Melvyn Douglas and Joan Crawford. Their other films together are "The Shining Hour" (1938), "A Woman's Face" (1941), and "They All Kissed the Bride" (1942).
"The Gorgeous Hussy" features four performers who won acting Oscars—Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Lionel Barrymore, and James Stewart—and four who received acting nominations: Franchot Tone, Beulah Bondi, Gene Lockhart, and Louis Calhern.

Spoilers

Although the movie draws on historical events, it gets several major points wrong: Margaret "Peggy" O'Neill and Bow Timberlake married in 1818 and remained married for 12 years, not three months as shown in the film. They had three children, two of whom reached adulthood. Bow Timberlake died of pulmonary disease in 1828 while serving on the U.S.S. Constitution. Unsubstantiated rumors claimed he had committed suicide after learning of an affair between Peggy and Tennessee Senator John Eaton. In reality, Timberlake and Eaton were good friends, and Timberlake had asked Eaton to look after Peggy and his children if anything happened to him. At Andrew Jackson's suggestion, Peggy Timberlake and John Eaton married in January 1829, only a few months after Peggy learned her first husband had died. The "Petticoat Scandal" arose because Peggy broke the social conventions of the time by not spending a year "in mourning" for her husband before remarrying. When Jackson's entire cabinet resigned over the scandal, Eaton resigned too. Jackson later appointed him governor of the Florida territory and then U.S. Ambassador to Spain.

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