Sweet Kitty Bellairs is a 1930 musical comedy film photographed entirely in Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

. In contrast to usual historical costume dramas, the picture never takes itself seriously and is a delightful satire of the England of 1793 in the city of Bath. The film pokes fun at such things as the way women dressed when they went bathing in the 18th century (we are shown in one sequence a pool in which women are dressed head to toe with their hats on!) or to how men viewed a woman's bare ankles with what seems today to be an inordinate amount of delight and satisfaction.

The cast, which includes Claudia Dell

Claudia Dell

Claudia Dell was an American showgirl and actress of the stage and Hollywood motion pictures. Her birth name was Claudia Dell Smith. She was born in San Antonio, Texas on January 10, 1910. She attended school in San Antonio and Mexico. Dell was blonde and blue-eyed, with a porcelain face. Her...

 as Kitty Bellairs, Ernest Torrence

Ernest Torrence

Ernest Torrence was a Scottish born film character actor who appeared in many Hollywood films, including Broken Chains with Colleen Moore,Mantrap with Clara Bow, and Fighting Caravans with Gary Cooper and Lili Damita...

 as Sir Jasper, Walter Pidgeon

Walter Pidgeon

Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...

 as the young Lord Varney, Perry Askam, Lionel Belmore, and June Collyer

June Collyer

June Collyer was an American film actress of the 1920s and 1930s.-Early life and career:Born Dorothea Heermance in New York City, Collyer chose to use her mother's maiden name when she decided to pursue acting. A society girl chosen by Allan Dwan, she had her first starring role in 1927 when she...

, enjoy themselves thoroughly, are never called upon for much histrionic effort. The cinema is from David Belasco's play of the same name. Walter Pidgeon and Claudia Dell are the principal singers. They pleasantly sing two delightful romantic love songs.

This story had been previously filmed

Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1916 film)

Sweet Kitty Bellairs is a 1916 silent film drama produced by the Famous Players-Lasky feature film company and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on a novel by Agnes and Egerton Castle which begot a play by David Belasco which was a huge Broadway success for lead actress Henrietta...

 as a silent in 1916, an early starring vehicle for Mae Murray

Mae Murray

Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen"....

.

Cast

• Claudia Dell
  Claudia Dell
  Claudia Dell was an American showgirl and actress of the stage and Hollywood motion pictures. Her birth name was Claudia Dell Smith. She was born in San Antonio, Texas on January 10, 1910. She attended school in San Antonio and Mexico. Dell was blonde and blue-eyed, with a porcelain face. Her...
  
   - Kitty Bellairs
• Walter Pidgeon
  Walter Pidgeon
  Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
  
   - Lord Varney
• Ernest Torrence
  Ernest Torrence
  Ernest Torrence was a Scottish born film character actor who appeared in many Hollywood films, including Broken Chains with Colleen Moore,Mantrap with Clara Bow, and Fighting Caravans with Gary Cooper and Lili Damita...
  
   - Sir Jasper Standish
• Perry Askam - Capt. O'Hara
• June Collyer
  June Collyer
  June Collyer was an American film actress of the 1920s and 1930s.-Early life and career:Born Dorothea Heermance in New York City, Collyer chose to use her mother's maiden name when she decided to pursue acting. A society girl chosen by Allan Dwan, she had her first starring role in 1927 when she...
  
   - Lady Julia Standish
• Lionel Belmore
  Lionel Belmore
  Lionel Belmore . When he was born, Wimbledon was in Surrey. He was an English character actor and director on stage for more than a quarter of a century, appearing with Wilson Barrett, Sir Henry Irving, William Faversham, Lily Langtry and other famous actors. He entered in films from 1911...
  
   - Col. Villiers
• Arthur Edmund Carewe
  Arthur Edmund Carewe
  Arthur Edmund Carewe , was an Armenian-American actor in the silent and early sound film era.-Early life:Born Hovsep Hovsepian in Trabzon , Ottoman Empire, Carewe was from a prosperous family in his native country...
  
   - Capt. Spicer
• Flora Finch
  Flora Finch
  Flora Finch was an English-born film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company.-Early life and career:...
  
   - Gossip
• Douglas Gerrard
  Douglas Gerrard
  Douglas Gerrard was an Irish actor and film director of the silent and early sound era. He appeared in 116 films between 1913 and 1949. He also directed 23 films between 1916 and 1920....
  
   - Tom Stafford
• Christiane Yves - Lydia

unbilled

• Al Hart - Innkeeper(as Albert Hart0
• Bertram Jones - Verney's Valet
• Tina Marshall - Megrim
• Geoffrey McDonell - Lord Northmore
• Edgar Norton - Lord Markham

Pre-Code Sequences

The film contains several interesting Pre-Code

Pre-Code

Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...

 humor. In one scene, an obviously gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 hairdresser is talking to Kitty Bellairs about her love affairs. Kitty asks him which man she should choose and the hairdresser says she should choose the highwayman because he prefers "a manly man." In another scene, Kitty teaches her friend how to get her husband to pay attention to her. Her instructions include wearing Parisian negligee and finding another lover.

Plot

Kitty Bellairs, a famous flirt of her day, comes to Bath for the season. Early on in the film she declares that "in spite of her thirty or forty affairs, I've lost not a bit of my virtue." Her path is strewn with a number of conquests, including an enamored highwayman, a lord and some others who hang on her every word. A highwayman stops her coach as she is on her way to Bath and is immediately raptured by Kitty Bellairs. He trades the loot from the passengers for a kiss from Kitty who feels she should "yield" in order to protect Lord Varney's life who has gallantly come to defend her honor.

In spite of this, Lord Varney draws his sword and ends up losing the fight when he loses his sword, upon which the highwayman declares, "Blood is not a pretty sight for tender eyes, Retrieve your sword while I go about my business." He proceeds to kiss Kitty who declares she considers herself not to have been kissed at all, upon which the highwayman kisses her several times and slips a ring on her finger leaving her enraptured. Lord Varney, however, is in love with Kitty himself but is extremely bashful and shy. The film then progresses to the city of Bath, where the inhabitants sing an amusing song about their daily lives, and the proceeds to a dance which Kitty is attending. She meets Captain O'Hara (played by Perry Askam) who declares his love for her. When Lord Varney approaches and asks for his dance from Kitty, Captain O'Hara declares that "it 'was' his dance" and whisks her away. Lord Varney is approached by his friend who laughs at his shyness.

Nevertheless, Lord Varney declares his love for her and decides to write a love poem to Kitty. The film then proceeds to the next day and we see Kitty being tended to by her maid while chatting with her hairdresser about her three lovers. She describes them and asks his opinion on whom she should choose. The film then proceeds to the house of Lady Julia Standish (played by June Collyer) on whom Kitty is paying a call. Lady Julia's husband is neglecting her and Kitty gives her advice on how to many her husband interested once again. Her husband, Sir Jasper Standish (played by Ernest Torrence) arrives from a trip to find her dressed elegantly as if expecting a caller. Meanwhile, Kitty places a love note addressed to her in a conspicuous place with a lock of red hair and leaves the house. Through a welter of songs into which the principals break at short intervals she at length decides on a lord instead of a highwayman.

Lord Varney, hearing that Kitty was visiting Lady Standish, comes to call on Kitty at Lord Standish's house. Lord Standish immediately assumes that he is fooling around with his wife and insults his so that he must fight a duel "according to the code" in order to uphold his honor. The report of the scandal soon flies through the town and we are taken to a bath where everyone is talking about the supposed affair. Kitty happens to be there and as soon as she hears the story she begins to fear for the life of Lord Varney, whom she now realizes is the one she really loves. Through a welter of songs into which the principals break at short intervals, as well as outrageous Pre-Code

Pre-Code

Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...

comedy, satire and drama, Kitty and Lord Varney are at length united.

Songs

• "You, I Love But You" (Sung by Claudia Dell)
• "I've Been Waiting For You" (Sung by Walter Pidgeon)
• "Drunk Song" (Sung by Ernest Torrence, Lionel Belmore, Edgar Norton)
• "Duelling Song" (Sung by Ernest Torrence, Perry Askam, Lionel Belmore, Edgar Norton, Douglas Gerrard)
• "Peggy's Leg" (Sung by Ernest Torrence, Perry Askam, Lionel Belmore, Edgar Norton, Douglas Gerrard, Arthur Edmund Carewe)
• "Highwayman Song" (Sung by Perry Askam and Claudia Dell)
• "Pump Room Song" (Sung by Claudia Dell)
• "Song of the Town of Bath" (Sung by Extras)
• "Tally Ho" (Sung by Claudia Dell, Walter Pidgeon, Lionel Belmore)

Preservation

The film survives in a black and white copy made for television in the 1950s. No copies of the film are known to exist in the original Technicolor. The color work on the film was highly praised by the film reviewers of the day.