One of the Algonquin wits who went with Hemingway on his jauntsto Pamplona, Donald Ogden Stewart wrote about the high life ofthe spoiled rich from the inside (as reflected not only in his cynical,classic short story The Secret of Success, but also in his work for McCarey, Lubitsch, and, especially, Cukor). Reportedly he became a radical (and later a blacklisted European exile) only after linking up with Ella Winter, the widow of Lincoln Steffans, in the mid-30s. But the seeds of his discontent are already apparent in his original script for d’Arrast’s first talkie (1930), produced by Herman Mankiewicz – a despairing comedy that flopped commercially even while it had a certain critical success. D’Arrast (1897- 1968) – a French-Basque aristocrat who was born in Buenos Aires and died in Monte Carlo – also differed from Chaplin and Lubitsch by being born into privilege. Glenn Anders, who would later play Grisby in The Lady from Shanghai, costars with Nancy Carroll, Fredric March, Frank Morgan, and Diane Ellis (in a part originally planned for Carole Lombard).

Jonathan Rosenbaum