Marianne (1929)
Genres: Drama, Musical, Romance
Cast: Marion Davies, Lawrence Gray, Cliff Edwards
Marianne is a 1929 pre-Code romantic-musical film set at the end of World War I. Marianne is French farm girl who, although her French fiancé is away, fighting, falls in love with an American soldier. It is a remake of a silent film that was released earlier in 1929. Although the films feature mostly different casts, Marion Davies starred in both versions. This was Davies' first released talking movie. The pictures were released less than eleven years after the Armistice, and the title would have had a profound meaning for European audiences. “Marianne” has been a beloved personification of France and the battle for democracy—and the courage of French women in particular—since the Revolution. She was a key figure in French propaganda, and American men who served in Europe in 1917-1918 would have seen representations of her all around them, in public buildings, on posters and in newspapers, on coins and postage stamps.