The King and the Chorus Girl

1937 • NR • Series • Catalog pick

Comedy legend Groucho Marx paired up with his friend, the great screenwriter Norman Krasna (Bachelor Mother, Mr. And Mrs. Smith), to pen this fairy-tale romance that is full to the brim with both cynical quips and unabashed romance. Even though he's young and rich, exiled King Alfred Bruger VII (Fernand Gravey, aka Fernand Gravet) is capital B bored with his life. His two remaining subjects, Count Humbert (Edward Everett Horton) and Duchess Anna of Elberfield (Mary Nash), try to draw him out of his doldrums and brandy bottles by dragging him to the Folies Bergere. While he's there, chorus girl Dorothy Ellis (Joan Blondell) catches his eye (literally, with a mirror!). Smitten, he insists Dorothy join him for dinner but insults her by falling asleep before their date. Dorothy's reaction to the king's insult sets off a cat-and-mouse romance that crosses class and continents.