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:
“But misery still delights to trace
Its ‘semblance in another’s case.
No voice divine the storm allay’d,
No light propitious shone;
When, snatch’d from all effectual aid,
We perish’d, each alone:
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelm’d in deeper gulphs than he.”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)