The Divine Lady is a 1929 Vitaphone sound film with a synchronized musical score and sound effects. The film, however, featured no spoken dialogue. The film tells the story of the love affair between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton. It stars Corinne Griffith, Victor Varconi, H.B. Warner, Ian Keith, Marie Dressler, Dorothy Cumming, William Conklin, and Montagu Love. It featured a theme song entitled "Lady Divine" with lyrics by Richard Kountz and music by Nathaniel (Nat) Shilkret. The song became a popular hit in 1929 and was recorded by numerous artists such as Nat Shilkret, Frank Munn, Ben Selvin (as The Cavaliers), Smith Ballew, Adrian Schubert, Sam Lanin and Bob Haring.
The movie was adapted by Harry Carr, Forrest Halsey, Agnes Christine Johnston, and Edwin Justus Mayer from the novel The Divine Lady: a Romance of Nelson and Emma Hamilton by E. Barrington. It was directed by Frank Lloyd.
It won the Academy Award for Directing and was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Corinne Griffith) and Best Cinematography.
Famous quotes containing the word divine:
“There was never a man born so wise or good, but one or more companions came into the world with him, who delight in his faculty, and report it. I cannot see without awe, that no man thinks alone and no man acts alone, but the divine assessors who came up with him into life,—now under one disguise, now under another,—like a police in citizen’s clothes, walk with him, step for step, through all kingdoms of time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)