Thirty-Day Princess

{{short description|1934 film by Marion Gering}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}} {{Infobox film | name = Thirty Day Princess | image = Thirty Day Princess poster 1934.jpg

| caption = theatrical poster | director = Marion Gering | producer = B.P. Schulberg | based_on = {{based on|''Thirty-Day Princess'' 1933 story in ''Ladies' Home Journal''|Clarence Budington Kelland}} | writer = '''Adaptation:''' Sam Hellman Edwin Justus Mayer '''Screenplay:''' Preston Sturges Frank Partos | narrator = | starring = Sylvia Sidney Cary Grant Edward Arnold | music = Howard Jackson Rudolph G. Kopp John Leipold Harry Ruby Karl Hajos | cinematography = Leon Shamroy | editing = Jane Loring | distributor = Paramount Pictures | released = {{Film date|1934|05|18}} | runtime = 74 minutes | country = United States | language = English}}

'''''Thirty Day Princess''''' is a 1934 pre-Code comedy film directed by Marion Gering and starring Sylvia Sidney, Cary Grant and Edward Arnold. The film was based on a story of the same name by Clarence Budington Kelland (which appeared in ''Ladies' Home Journal'' in 1933),<ref>TCM [https://web.archive.org/web/20121011195917/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92935/Thirty-Day-Princess/#film-details Screenplay info]</ref> adapted by Sam Hellman and Edwin Justus Mayer, and written by Preston Sturges and Frank Partos.

==Plot== On her way to New York to find financial backing for her impoverished country, the Ruritanian Kingdom of Taronia, Princess "Zizzi" Catterina (Sylvia Sidney) falls ill with the mumps and has to be quarantined for a month. In desperation, financier Richard Gresham (Edward Arnold), who is planning to issue $50 million in Taronian bonds, hires unemployed lookalike actress Nancy Lane (also portrayed by Sidney) to impersonate the princess, and offers her a large bonus if she changes the mind of the chief opponent of the financial transaction, newspaper publisher Porter Madison III (Cary Grant).

==Cast== * Sylvia Sidney as Princess Catterina/Nancy Lane * Cary Grant as Porter Madison III * Edward Arnold as Richard Gresham * Henry Stephenson as King Anatol XII * Vince Barnett as Count Nicholeus * Edgar Norton as Baron Passeria * Ray Walker as Dan Kirk * Lucien Littlefield as Parker * Robert McWade as Managing editor * George Baxter: Donald Spottswood * Marguerite Namara as Lady-in-Waiting

==Production== Production on ''Thirty Day Princess'' was to have begun on 28 February 1934, but was delayed because of the illness of William Collier Sr., who was scheduled to play the role of the "Managing editor". Collier was replaced and production began on 1 March.<ref name=tcmnotes>TCM [https://web.archive.org/web/20121011195917/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92935/Thirty-Day-Princess/#notes Notes]</ref><ref name=tcmover>TCM [https://web.archive.org/web/20121011195917/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92935/Thirty-Day-Princess/#overview Overview]</ref>

Although Preston Sturges received a writing credit for the film's screenplay, he wrote in his autobiography that "not much" of his work was actually used. Sturges also said of B.P. Schulberg that "as a producer, [he] was accustomed to accepting praise for pictures as generals accept praise for the valor of their soldiers, and it thus seemed logical to him that the writers should feel the same general sense of shared accomplishment." ''Thirty-Day Princess'' was released on 18 May 1934.<ref name=tcmover/>

==Reception== The film received a mixed reception. Meyer Levin of ''Esquire'' remarking that the director was "no man for comedy", and Cy Caldwell of ''New Outlook'' calling it a "jolly and amusing romantic comedy" in which Grant, Edward Arnold, Vince Barnett and others "render good support".{{sfn|Deschner|1973|pp=70-1}} Mordaunt Hall of ''The New York Times'' wrote, "This amiable light affair has a generous share of imaginative turns, and it is further endowed with a highly competent supporting cast."<ref>{{cite news |title=The Screen In Review; Sylvia Sidney and Cary Grant in a Film of a Clarence Budington Kelland Story--Other Pictures. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0DE0DA143CE23ABC4A52DFB366838F629EDE |author=Mordaunt Hall |date=May 12, 1934 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

Grant biographer Geoffrey Wansell notes that Grant was "required to do little more than spend most of his time wearing white tie and tails." He states that some of the more scathing reviews of the film "infuriated" Grant and that he subsequently demanded to choose his own roles. Wansell claims that Paramount retaliated by loaning him to United Artists.{{sfn|Wansell|2013|p=36}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Sources== * {{cite book |last = Deschner |first = Donald |title = The Complete Films of Cary Grant |publisher = Citadel Press |year = 1973 |isbn = 0-8065-0376-9 }} * {{cite book |last = Wansell |first = Geoffrey |title = Cary Grant, Dark Angel |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xjAhAgAAQBAJ |date = December 13, 2013 |orig-year = 1996 |publisher = Skyhorse Publishing |isbn = 978-1-62872-336-6 }}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0025880}} * {{TCMDb title|92935}} * {{AFI film|6682}}

Category:1934 films Category:1934 comedy films Category:American black-and-white films Category:Paramount Pictures films Category:American comedy films Category:Films directed by Marion Gering Category:Films produced by B. P. Schulberg Category:Films with screenplays by Preston Sturges Category:1934 American films Category:Films scored by Howard Jackson (composer) Category:Films scored by Rudolph G. Kopp Category:Films scored by John Leipold Category:Films scored by Karl Hajos