Blast from the Past: Directed by Boleslawski
Richard Boleslawski directed The Gay Diplomat, a pre-Code romantic thriller, starring Ivan Lebedeff, Genevieve Tobin, Betty Compson.
Grade: C+
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Ivan Lebedeff as Captain Orloff
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Captain Orloff, a Russian military officer, is sent to Bucharest to dispose of a female spy. The three suspected spies are Countess Diana Dorchy, Baroness Alma Corri, and Madame Blinis.
In the course of events, the spy is revealed to be Alma who is ultimately tricked into confessing. Orloff returns with his prisoner to St. Petersburg and is joined on the train by Diana, with whom he had fallen in love.
Since the picture was Lebedeff’s first starring role, he figured in RKO’s marketing campaign, which touted him as another Valentino.
Henry Hobart, the original production supervisor of Gay Diplomat, was so upset by the film’s inadequacies and by Lebedeff’s lack of star quality that he walked off the project. Pandro Berman replaced Hobart as producer, thus earning his first screen credit.
Tobin was borrowed from Universal to play the female lead.
Poorly received by critics, the film was a flop, losing $115,000 at the box office.
Boleslawski is perhaps best known for directing Garbo’s starring veicle The Painted Veil in 1934.
Cast
Betty Compson as Baroness Alma Corri
Ivan Lebedeff as Captain Ivan Orloff
Ilka Chase as Madame Blinis
Purnell Pratt as Colonel George Gorin
Colin Campbell as Gamble
Arthur Edmund Carew as The Suave Man
Edward Martindel as Ambassador
John St. Polis as General
Judith Vosselli as Wife
George Irving as A colonel
Credits:
Directed by Richard Boleslawski
Written by Benn W. Levy; Doris Anderson (adaptation and dialogue); Alfred Jackson (additional dialogue)
Produced by William LeBaron, Pandro S. Berman
Cinematography Leo Tover
Edited by Arthur Roberts
Music by Max Steiner
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date: August 22, 1931
Running time: 67 minutes
Budget $184,000
Box office $131,000
Richard Boleslawski Filmography:
The Gay Diplomat (1930)
The Last of the Lone Wolf (1930)
Rasputin and the Empress (1932)
Storm at Daybreak (1933)
Beauty for Sale (1933)
Fugitive Lovers (1934)
Men in White (1934)
Hollywood Party (1934)
Operator 13 (1934)
The Painted Veil (1934)
Clive of India (1935)
Les Misérables (1935)
Metropolitan (1935)
O’Shaughnessy’s Boy (1935)
Three Godfathers (1936)
The Garden of Allah (1936)
Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937)
