The Divine Lady is a 1929 Vitaphone

Vitaphone

Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...

 sound film

Sound film

A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

 with a synchronized musical score and sound effects. The film, however, featured no spoken dialogue. The film tells the story of the love affair between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton. It stars Corinne Griffith

Corinne Griffith

Corinne Mae Griffith was an American actress. Dubbed "The Orchid Lady of the Screen", she was one of the most popular film actresses of the 1920s and widely considered the most beautiful actress of the silent screen...

, Victor Varconi

Victor Varconi

Victor Varconi was a highly successful silent film star in Hungary. Born Mihály Várkonyi in Kisvárda, Austria-Hungary, he was the first Hungarian actor to make a film in the United States....

, H.B. Warner, Ian Keith

Ian Keith

-Life and career:Born Keith Ross in Boston, Massachusetts, Ian Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s. His stage training made him a natural choice for the new "talking pictures"; he played John...

, Marie Dressler

Marie Dressler

Marie Dressler was a Canadian-American actress and Depression-era film star. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930-31 in Min and Bill.-Early life and stage career:...

, Dorothy Cumming

Dorothy Cumming

Dorothy G. Cumming was an actress of the silent film era. She appeared in 39 American, English, and Australian films between 1915 and 1929, notably appearing as the Virgin Mary in Cecil B. DeMille's 1927 film The King of Kings and the jealous wife in Lillian Gish's 1928 The Wind. She also appeared...

, William Conklin

William Conklin

William Conklin , was an American actor. He appeared in 85 silent era motion pictures between 1913 and 1929.He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...

, and Montagu Love

Montagu Love

Montagu Love , also known as Montague Love, was an English screen, stage and vaudeville actor.Born Harry Montague Love in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, and educated in Great Britain, Love began his career as an artist and military correspondent. His first important job was as a London newspaper...

. It featured a theme song entitled "Lady Divine" with lyrics by Richard Kountz and music by Nathaniel (Nat) Shilkret

Nathaniel Shilkret

Nathaniel Shilkret was an American composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, business executive, and music director born in New York City, New York to an Austrian immigrant family.-Early career:...

. The song became a popular hit in 1929 and was recorded by numerous artists such as Nat Shilkret, Frank Munn, Ben Selvin

Ben Selvin

Benjamin B. Selvin , son of Russian-immigrant Jewish parents, was a musician, bandleader, record producer and innovator in recorded music. He was known as The Dean of Recorded Music....

 (as The Cavaliers), Smith Ballew

Smith Ballew

Smith Ballew was an American actor, sophisticated singer, orchestra leader, and finally, a Western singing star....

, Adrian Schubert, Sam Lanin

Sam Lanin

Sam Lanin was an American jazz bandleader.Lanin's brothers, Howard and Lester, were also bandleaders, and all of them had sustained, successful careers in music. Lanin was one of ten children born to Russian-Jewish immigrants who emigrated to Philadelphia in the decade of the 1900s...

 and Bob Haring

Bob Haring

Bob Haring was an American popular music bandleader of the 1920s and early 1930s.Haring held a contract with Brunswick Records. His best recordings were issued on the Brunswick label, one of the three major recordings labels in the 1920s. His first commercial recording for Brunswick was made on...

.

The movie was adapted by Harry Carr

Harry Carr

Harry C. Carr , whose byline for most of his career was Harry Carr, was a reporter, editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times. In 1934 he was given an honorable mention by a Pulitzer Prize committee on awards...

, Forrest Halsey

Forrest Halsey

Forrest Halsey was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 66 films between 1913 and 1942.He was born in Roseville, Newark, New Jersey, and died in Los Angeles County, California.-Selected filmography:...

, Agnes Christine Johnston

Agnes Christine Johnston

Agnes Christine Johnston was an American screenwriter. She wrote for 84 films between 1915 and 1948.She was born in Swissvale, Pennsylvania and died in San Diego, California.-Selected filmography:...

, and Edwin Justus Mayer

Edwin Justus Mayer

Edwin Justus Mayer was an American screenwriter. He wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for 47 films between 1927 and 1958....

 from the novel The Divine Lady: a Romance of Nelson and Emma Hamilton by E. Barrington. It was directed by Frank Lloyd

Frank Lloyd

Frank Lloyd was a film director, scriptwriter and producer...

.

It won the Academy Award for Directing

Academy Award for Directing

The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...

 and was nominated 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...

 (Corinne Griffith) and Best Cinematography

Academy Award for Best Cinematography

The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

.

External links

• the film available for dvd purchase from Warner Brothers Archives series , WBShop