For the 1921 British short film, see The Great Day

The Great Day

The Great Day is a 1921 short drama film directed by Hugh Ford. Alfred Hitchcock is credited as a title designer. The film is now lost.-Cast:* Arthur Bourchier - Sir John Borstwick* Mary Palfrey - Lady Borstwick* Marjorie Hume - Clara Borstwick...

.

Great Day is an unreleased 1930

1930 in film

-Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism...

 musical film

Musical film

The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 which was to star Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, Anita Page

Anita Page

Anita Evelyn Pomares , better known as Anita Page, was a Salvadoran-American film actress who reached stardom in the last years of the silent film era. She became a highly popular young star, reportedly at one point receiving the most fan mail of anyone on the MGM lot...

, and Johnny Mack Brown

Johnny Mack Brown

Johnny Mack Brown was an All-American college football player and film actor originally billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career.-Early life:...

, and is an unusual example of a production that was started and shut down before its completion.

Overview

Great Day began as a Vincent Youmans

Vincent Youmans

Vincent Youmans was an American popular composer and Broadway producer.- Life :Vincent Millie Youmans was born in New York City on September 27, 1898 and grew-up on Central Park West on the site where the Mayflower Hotel once stood. His father, a prosperous hat manufacturer, moved the family to...

 musical purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

 to be tailored to Crawford's talents. The 1929 show had not been a success on Broadway, lasting only twenty-nine performances. But its songs—with lyrics by Billy Rose

Billy Rose

William "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...

 and Edward Eliscu

Edward Eliscu

Edward Eliscu was a lyricist, playwright, producer and actor. He attended the City College of New York where he attained a Bachelor of Science degree. He then began acting in Broadway plays...

 — had been memorable. They included the title tune, another called "Without a Song

Without a Song

"Without a Song" is a popular song with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu, published in 1929. It was included in the musical play, Great Day....

", and lastly, one of the all-time standards, "More Than You Know

More Than You Know (1929 song)

"More Than You Know" is a popular song, with music written by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu. The song was published in 1929....

". It was the popularity of the music that encouraged MGM to buy the rights for the film version.

Production started in the fall of 1930, but after around eight weeks of shooting, the film was scrapped at considerable cost to the studio — $280,000 — largely due to Crawford's extreme unhappiness with her "Southern belle" performance ("Southern drawl I can do, but I just can't talk baby talk," Crawford told Louis B. Mayer

Louis B. Mayer

Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...

 after viewing the rushes, which she thought were "God-awful".)

The studio and Crawford mutually decided to go into major rewrites to save the film with the plan to go back to shooting with the newly revised script by the following year, in 1931. It never happened, and Great Day was never released.

Another effort was made to make the film in 1934, this time starring Jeanette MacDonald

Jeanette MacDonald

Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...

, but this also fell through.

For years, Great Day was referred to only briefly, if at all, in Crawford's filmographies. One fact surrounding the film was that all MGM production records for the film had disappeared, yet, records for many other uncompleted movies had survived.