1935 Movie Project: The Goldigger

I was home sick the day we presented these so I missed out on showing off my group's ideas as well as seeing everyone else's. Because of this I'm not 100% sure what we presented as our final, but I think I know well enough to post.

Our story, created by Doug, Jessica and me, stars the Marx Brothers. We cast them because they were an obvious crowd pleaser at the time and our strategy was to win with a blockbuster. In the story, they inherit a lot of money and a broke Hollywood actress played by Jean Harlow decides to marry into the family to get in on the cash. The only problem she has is it's the Marx Brothers she's dealing with. Groucho knows better, Chico begins to fall for it, and Harpo is totally unaware. At the end, they lose all of their money but they're still happy, leaving Jean Harlow distressed, leaving them forever. The moral is meant to match the era and the Great Depression because they didn't need money to be happy.

This plot fell perfectly into the genre of slapstick comedy. This wasn't a choice we made on purpose, other than wanting to give our audience something familiar to want to watch. MGM produced the movie because although the Marx Brothers moved around Hollywood constantly in the 1930's, they landed at MGM for at least most of 1935. This is what influenced us to choose Jean Harlow as our lead actress. A sex symbol of the era, she fit the shady role perfectly. Our director would naturally be the same as for Duck Soup, Leo McCarey. However, our big surprise for the crew is Gregg Toland. This is because the movie was going to need to frame Jean interacting with one brother in the foreground, while the others could still do their thing in the middle ground. Aware that this would be complicated to do, Gregg was the perfect man for the job.

By the nature of the film, Hays code had potential to interfere, so our rule for addressing it was simple. The only person allowed to walk the line of appropriate behavior would be Jean because she's an evil character who the audiences would know not to trust or emulate. This would fall within the rules of the code while still getting away with some inappropriate behavior for the time. We stuck to black and white because color wasn't fully accepted at the time and we wanted to make a blockbuster, not a movie with controversy.

I wanted to change a lot while we were coming up with the movie. Firstly, I think the Marx Brothers having to raise Shirley Temple would be an all time classic. When their long lost sister dies and they're the only one to take care of the american sweetheart it would be the biggest blockbuster in history. The group didn't agree. My other major dispute concerned Jean's fate. As our villain, I wanted her greed to lead to a dramatic death, either from being hit by a car or some other dramatic end. Sadly, my cinematic genius was limited by my group. Overall, I think we came up with a movie that would draw fans and make money, which was our goal from the start.