The Lunts were not the only distinguished newcomers from the theater in 1931. Irving Thalberg, one of the M-G-M bosses, finally induced Helen Hayes to give the screen a chance. Her first picture, The Sin of Madelon Claudet, whose screen play was written by her husband, Charles MacArthur, established her as one of the screen's finest actresses and won her the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award for the best performance of the year. (Jean Hersholt, Frankie Darrow, Marie Prevost, and Miss Hayes).
Helen Hayes' second film, Arrowsmith, established her even more firmly as a star on screen as well as on stage. Samuel Goldwyn produced this excellent picturization of Sinclair Lewis' novel, and John Ford did a superb job of directing. United Artists released the film in 1931.
In 1931 Chaplin released his first picture since The Circus. Naturally, there was much speculation about whether he would talk, now that sound was here to stay. But the great master of pantomime was in no hurry to alter the technique that had made him world-famous. The long-awaited picture was City Lights, and the actors, including Chaplin, did not speak. There was music on the track, however. The story concerned a derelict who falls in love with a blind flower girl and goes through a series of silly and pathetic adventures to raise the money for the girl's rent and for an operation to restore her sight. Virginia Cherrill played the flower girl.
Some of the most diverting moments in the picture were supplied by Chaplin and Harry Myers, the latter playing a man about town who is Charlie's bosom friend when drunk but refuses to recognize him in his sober moments.
Under Wesley Ruggles' direction, RKO made a spectacular and genuinely impressive picture out of Edna Ferber's novel of the Oklahoma land rush, Cimarron.
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