Little Friend (1934)

Director:

Berthold Viertel

Writers:

Christopher Isherwood (writer)
Margaret Kennedy (writer)

Release Date:

18 November 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A girl becomes an unwilling witness in her parents' scandalous divorce case. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Matheson Lang	...	John Hughes
Lydia Sherwood	...	Helen Hughes
Nova Pilbeam	...	Felicity Hughes
Arthur Margetson	...	Hilliard
Jean Cadell	...	Miss Drew
Jimmy Hanley	...	Leonard Parry
Gibb McLaughlin	...	Thompson
Diana Cotton	...	Maud
Cecil Parker	...	Mason
Clare Greet	...	Mrs. Parry
Jack Raine	...	Jeffries
Finlay Currie	...	Grove
Robert Nainby	...	Uncle Ned
Atholl Fleming	...	Shepherd
Basil Goth	...	Doctor

Runtime:

Germany:85 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company:

Gaumont British Picture Corporation

Trivia:

Christopher Isherwood's adventures while working on this film as one of the screenplay writers became the basis of his novel "Prater Violet" (1945).

Interesting stage in Christopher Isherwood's career

In his memoir CHRISTOPHER AND HIS KIND, Christopher Isherwood devotes an entire chapter to working with Viertel. Novelist Margaret Kennedy wrote an earlier screenplay, but Viertel didn't like it, or her, calling her 'a crocodile who wept once in her life a real tear.' Isherwood, who never saw the Kennedy script, though they are co-credited as writers, was suggested as a collaborator by Jean Ross, the real-life "Sally Bowles" of his Berlin stories (She demanded half his first week's salary in return.) Viertel wanted someone who spoke German, and was new to movies; "He needed an amateur, an innocent, a disciple, a victim," writes Isherwood. A professional would have made Viertel embarrassed at working on this piece of trivia, but he told Isherwood, 'I feel absolutely no shame before you; we are like two married men who meet in a whorehouse.' During production, Viertel used the fact that both could speak German to impress the crew, taking Isherwood into the corner and discussing finer points of the film in that language while the technicians looked on in awe. For all Viertel's contempt for LITTLE FRIEND, it was successful both financially and critically,described by the NEW YORK TIMES as "very close to being a masterpiece of its kind."