Olympia (1930)

Member Rating:

Although His Glorious Night, MGM's 1929 talkie adaptation of Ferenc Molnar's Olympia, proved to be a box-office disaster (a failure chalked up by the studio to the vocal inadequacies of leading man John Gilbert, though this wasn't entirely the case), the studio was still committed to refilming the property in French, Spanish and German-language versions. The French version, Si L'Empereur Savait Ca, starred Andre Luguet, while the Spanish adaptation, Olympia, top-billed José Crespo. Olympia was also the name of the German-language version, which like the French adaptation was directed by Jacques Feyder. This time, Theodor Shall is cast as handsome Lieutenant Kovacs, the sweetheart of the lovely Princess Olympia (Nora Gregor). When the princess' snooty mother breaks up the romance, the embittered Kovacs threatens to tell the world that he has "ruined" the girl (not true!), making her unfit for marriage. To ensure his silence, the Lieutenant is promised a night alone with Olympia, just before the wedding. It is at this point that Kovacs proves he's a gentleman after all by marrying the Princess, which is what he intended to do all along. Olympia was remade in 1960 as A Breath of Scandal. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi