Glad Rag Doll (film)

70 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguagesSound (Part-Talkie)
English IntertitlesBudget$143,000^[1]Box office$1,010,000^[1]

Glad Rag Doll is a 1929 American sound part-talkie pre-Code drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Dolores Costello, Ralph Graves, and Audrey Ferris. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects, along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. This is one of many lost films of the 1920s, no prints or Vitaphone discs survive, but the trailer survives.^[2][3][4] The film's working title was Alimony Annie, but was changed match the title of the theme song. The theme song is entitled Glad Rag Doll both played and sung throughout the soundtrack.^[5]

Jimmy Fairchild, the younger son of an upper-class Philadelphia family, is besotted with Annabel Lee who is starring in a Broadway revue. His older brother John is outraged and arranges to have her fired from the show. Using compromising letters written by Jimmy she blackmails her way into their house. Despite their initial antagonism she and John fall in love.

• Dolores Costello as Annabel Lee
• Ralph Graves as John Fairchild
• Audrey Ferris as Bertha Fairchild
• Albert Gran as Nathan Fairchild
• Maude Turner Gordon as Aunt Fairchild
• Tom Ricketts as Admiral
• Claude Gillingwater as Sam Underlane
• Arthur Rankin as Jimmy Fairchild
• Dale Fuller as Miss Peabody
• Douglas Gerrard as Butler
• George Beranger as Barry, an actor
• Lee Moran as Press Agent
• Tom Kennedy as Manager
• Louise Beavers as Hannah

The film featured a theme song entitled "Glad Rag Doll" with words by Jack Yellen and music by Milton Ager and Dan Dougherty.

According to Warner Bros records the film earned $735,000 domestically and $275,000 foreign.^[1] This was a major financial success, was very profitable having been produced at a cost of $143,000.^[5]

• List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)

• Rode, Alan K. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film. University Press of Kentucky, 2017.

• Glad Rag Doll at IMDb
• The Glad Rag Doll at AllMovie
• Period advertisement