Theodora Goes Wild
Encyclopedia
Theodora Goes Wild is a 1936 American romantic comedy film that tells the story of a small town which is incensed by a risqué novel, little knowing that it was written under a pseudonym
by a member of the town's leading family. It stars Irene Dunne
and Melvyn Douglas
and was directed by Richard Boleslawski. The film was written by Mary McCarthy
and Sidney Buchman
. It was nominated for Academy Awards
for Best Actress in a Leading Role
for Irene Dunne and Best Film Editing
.
Prior to this film, Dunne had been cast in dramatic films. Theodora Goes Wild was her first comedy, and while it was reported in a biography of Cary Grant
that she was unsure of herself in comedies, this extremely popular film proved to be the beginning of a new phase in her film career, as a screen comedian.
) is a Sunday school
teacher and former church organist raised by two spinster aunts, Mary (Elisabeth Risdon
) and Elsie Lynn (Margaret McWade). She also happens to be, under the pen name
Caroline Adams, the secret author of a bestselling book that has the straitlaced Lynnfield Literary Circle in an uproar. When it is serialized
in the local newspaper, the Circle, led by outraged busybody Rebecca Perry (Spring Byington
), forces Jed Waterbury (Thomas Mitchell
) to stop printing the salacious installments.
Theodora travels to New York City
on the pretext of visiting her uncle John (Robert Greig
), but actually to see her publisher, Arthur Stevenson (Thurston Hall
). Though Stevenson reassures an anxious Theodora that only he and his secretary know her identity, his wife Ethel (Nana Bryant
) pressures him into an introduction, which the book's illustrator, Michael Grant (Melvyn Douglas
), overhears.
Intrigued, Michael invites himself to dinner with the Stevensons and Theodora. Theodora becomes annoyed when Michael smugly assumes that she is a teetotaler, so she orders a whiskey. As the night goes on, she becomes drunk. So does Ethel, forcing Arthur to take his wife home and leaving Theodora alone with Michael. When he makes a pass at her, she panics and flees, much to his amusement.
He tracks her down to her hometown and blackmails her into hiring him as a gardener, scandalizing her aunts and providing Rebecca Perry plenty to gossip about. Michael declares that he is going to break Theodora out of her confining routine, ignoring her protests that she likes her life just the way it is. Despite herself, she enjoys herself very much when Michael makes her go berrypicking and fishing with him. Finally, she gets up the nerve to tell the disapproving women of the Literary Circle that she loves him. When she tells Michael what she has done, he is less than thrilled. The next day, Theodora finds that he has gone away.
She tracks him down to his Park Avenue apartment. He admits he loves her, but then his father (Henry Kolker
), the Lieutenant Governor, shows up, followed by Michael's wife, Agnes (Leona Maricle). The estranged couple are only remaining married to avoid causing a political scandal for Michael's father.
Theodora determines to free Michael just as he had done for her. He wants her to hold off until his father's term ends, but she is unwilling to wait that long. To that end, she courts publicity. She finally crashes the Governor's ball and arranges for reporters to photograph her embracing Michael. Agnes seeks a divorce to avoid looking like a fool.
Theodora returns to Lynnfield and is warmly welcomed as a celebrity, even by her now-supportive aunts. She causes further talk when she brings a newborn baby with her. When Michael, now divorced, sees the child, he tries to flee, but then Theodora reveals that the baby belongs to Rebecca Perry's own secretly-married daughter.
adapted the story for his Mercury Theatre
players for a January 14, 1940 episode of the Campbell Playhouse, with Loretta Young
starring as Theodora.
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
by a member of the town's leading family. It stars Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
and Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
and was directed by Richard Boleslawski. The film was written by Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy (screenwriter)
Mary Eunice McCarthy was an American screenwriter.She wrote or co-wrote the screenplays, or developed the stories for Slightly Married , Woman Unafraid , Life Returns , Theodora Goes Wild , Irish Luck , Chasing Trouble , Sister Kenny , Curley , and The Petty Girl .Mary Eunice McCarthy is not to...
and Sidney Buchman
Sidney Buchman
Sidney Robert Buchman was a screenwriter and producer who worked on 38 films from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. He is also sometimes credited as Sydney Buchman.-Career:...
. It was nominated for Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for Irene Dunne and Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
.
Prior to this film, Dunne had been cast in dramatic films. Theodora Goes Wild was her first comedy, and while it was reported in a biography of Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
that she was unsure of herself in comedies, this extremely popular film proved to be the beginning of a new phase in her film career, as a screen comedian.
Plot
Theodora Lynn (Irene DunneIrene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
) is a Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
teacher and former church organist raised by two spinster aunts, Mary (Elisabeth Risdon
Elisabeth Risdon
Elisabeth Risdon was an English film actress. She appeared in over 140 films between 1913 and 1952. An attractive beauty in her youth she usually played in society parts...
) and Elsie Lynn (Margaret McWade). She also happens to be, under the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Caroline Adams, the secret author of a bestselling book that has the straitlaced Lynnfield Literary Circle in an uproar. When it is serialized
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
in the local newspaper, the Circle, led by outraged busybody Rebecca Perry (Spring Byington
Spring Byington
Spring Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a key MGM contract player appearing in films from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:Byington was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs,...
), forces Jed Waterbury (Thomas Mitchell
Thomas Mitchell (actor)
Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
) to stop printing the salacious installments.
Theodora travels to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on the pretext of visiting her uncle John (Robert Greig
Robert Greig (actor)
Robert Greig was an Australian-American actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1930 and 1949, usually as the dutiful butler.-Career:...
), but actually to see her publisher, Arthur Stevenson (Thurston Hall
Thurston Hall
Thurston Hall was an American film actor. He appeared in 250 films between 1915 and 1957 and is probably best remembered for his portrayal, during the later stages of his career, of often pompous or blustering authority figures.Hall's best-known television role was as Mr. Schuyler, the boss of...
). Though Stevenson reassures an anxious Theodora that only he and his secretary know her identity, his wife Ethel (Nana Bryant
Nana Bryant
Nana Bryant was an American film actress. She appeared in over 100 films between 1935 and 1955.She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died in Hollywood, California. Her grave is located at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery....
) pressures him into an introduction, which the book's illustrator, Michael Grant (Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
), overhears.
Intrigued, Michael invites himself to dinner with the Stevensons and Theodora. Theodora becomes annoyed when Michael smugly assumes that she is a teetotaler, so she orders a whiskey. As the night goes on, she becomes drunk. So does Ethel, forcing Arthur to take his wife home and leaving Theodora alone with Michael. When he makes a pass at her, she panics and flees, much to his amusement.
He tracks her down to her hometown and blackmails her into hiring him as a gardener, scandalizing her aunts and providing Rebecca Perry plenty to gossip about. Michael declares that he is going to break Theodora out of her confining routine, ignoring her protests that she likes her life just the way it is. Despite herself, she enjoys herself very much when Michael makes her go berrypicking and fishing with him. Finally, she gets up the nerve to tell the disapproving women of the Literary Circle that she loves him. When she tells Michael what she has done, he is less than thrilled. The next day, Theodora finds that he has gone away.
She tracks him down to his Park Avenue apartment. He admits he loves her, but then his father (Henry Kolker
Henry Kolker
Henry Kolker was an American stage and film actor and director...
), the Lieutenant Governor, shows up, followed by Michael's wife, Agnes (Leona Maricle). The estranged couple are only remaining married to avoid causing a political scandal for Michael's father.
Theodora determines to free Michael just as he had done for her. He wants her to hold off until his father's term ends, but she is unwilling to wait that long. To that end, she courts publicity. She finally crashes the Governor's ball and arranges for reporters to photograph her embracing Michael. Agnes seeks a divorce to avoid looking like a fool.
Theodora returns to Lynnfield and is warmly welcomed as a celebrity, even by her now-supportive aunts. She causes further talk when she brings a newborn baby with her. When Michael, now divorced, sees the child, he tries to flee, but then Theodora reveals that the baby belongs to Rebecca Perry's own secretly-married daughter.
Cast
- Irene DunneIrene DunneIrene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
as Theodora Lynn / "Caroline Adams" - Melvyn DouglasMelvyn DouglasMelvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
as Michael Grant - Thomas MitchellThomas Mitchell (actor)Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
as Jed Waterbury - Thurston HallThurston HallThurston Hall was an American film actor. He appeared in 250 films between 1915 and 1957 and is probably best remembered for his portrayal, during the later stages of his career, of often pompous or blustering authority figures.Hall's best-known television role was as Mr. Schuyler, the boss of...
as Arthur Stevenson - Rosalind Keith as Adelaide Perry
- Elisabeth RisdonElisabeth RisdonElisabeth Risdon was an English film actress. She appeared in over 140 films between 1913 and 1952. An attractive beauty in her youth she usually played in society parts...
as Mary Lynn
- Margaret McWade as Elsie Lynn
- Spring ByingtonSpring ByingtonSpring Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a key MGM contract player appearing in films from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:Byington was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs,...
as Rebecca Perry - Nana BryantNana BryantNana Bryant was an American film actress. She appeared in over 100 films between 1935 and 1955.She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died in Hollywood, California. Her grave is located at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery....
as Ethel Stevenson - Henry KolkerHenry KolkerHenry Kolker was an American stage and film actor and director...
as Henry Grant - Leona Maricle as Agnes Grant
- Robert GreigRobert Greig (actor)Robert Greig was an Australian-American actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1930 and 1949, usually as the dutiful butler.-Career:...
as John Lynn
Adaptations
Orson WellesOrson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
adapted the story for his Mercury Theatre
Mercury Theatre
The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman. After a string of live theatrical productions, in 1938 the Mercury Theatre progressed into their best-known period as The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that included one of the...
players for a January 14, 1940 episode of the Campbell Playhouse, with Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
starring as Theodora.