The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: In Gay Madrid

  • Edwin Justus Mayer

    Edwin Justus Mayer (1896-1960) was a journalist and occasional playwright who, quite enterprisingly, wrote an autobiography when he was 25 and had achieved very little. From 1927 to 1945 he worked on a number of Hollywood films; in his own words, “I never gave up the stage, the stage gave me up. The pictures gave me a living and the theatre wouldn’t. I see no shame in using your professional weapons to make a living.” His crowning achievement was his final screenplay, for Lubitsch’s To Be Or Not to Be (1945).

    Mayer had earlier been one of the three writers credited with the script for In Gay Madrid.

  • Salisbury Field

    Edward Salisbury Fields (1878-1936) was, amongst other things, a popular playwright, several of whose comedies were adapted into films.

    In the early 1930s Fields undertook writing projects for various Hollywood studios. Amongst these was a contribution to the screenplay for MGM’s In Gay Madrid.

  • Robert Ober

    Robert Howard Ober (1881-1950) was an actor with considerable stage experience when he started taking screen roles in the early 1920s. His most notable appearance was as John Gilbert’s brother in King Vidor’s The Big Parade (1925).

    Although he never directed a film, Ober does appear to have been assigned some directorial tasks by MGM, one of which was to shoot retakes for In Gay Madrid after Robert Z Leonard had moved on to his next film.

  • In Gay Madrid

    Robert Z LeonardDirector
    Robert OberDirector (uncredited)
    Bess MeredythDialogue and continuity
    Salisbury FieldDialogue and continuity
    Edwin Justus MayerDialogue and continuity
    Fred E AhlertComposer
    Roy TurkLyricist
    Herbert StothartComposer
    Xavier CugatComposer
    Clifford GreyLyricist
    Robert Z LeonardProducer
    Oliver T MarshCinematographer
    William S GrayEditor
    Cedric GibbonsArt Director
    Douglas ShearerSound Recording Director
    Ralph ShugartSound Recording Engineer (uncredited)
    AdrianCostume Designer

  • In Gay Madrid

    Cast

    Ramon NovarroRicardo
    Dorothy JordanCarmina
    Lottice HowellGoyita
    Claude KingMarques de Castelar
    Eugenie BessererDoña Generosa (as Eugenia Besserer)
    William V. MongRivas
    Beryl MercerDoña Concha
    Nanci PriceJacinta
    Herbert ClarkOctavio
    David ScottErnesto
    George ChandlerEnrique
    Bruce ColemanCorpulento
    Nicholas CarusoCarlos
    Tom CostelloMan at Duel (uncredited)
    John MiljanArmada – the Torero (uncredited)
    Oscar RudolphStudent Trading Coat for Banquet (uncredited)
    Philip SleemanCantina Patron (uncredited)

  • Philip Sleeman

    Although born in Camberwell, Philip Sleeman (1891-1953) spent much of his film career playing Arabs and other eastern characters with names like Sheik Abdullah Pasha.

    Sleeman made two appearances in Metro musicals, on both occasions having a good time. He was a patron in a cantina in In Gay Madrid and partying on the zeppelin in Madam Satan.

  • Beryl Mercer

    British-born Beryl Mercer (1882-1939) was a successful stage actor who had small roles in more than fifty pictures. Her place in film history depends on two maternal roles: as the mother of Lew Ayres’s character in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and as the mother of James Cagnet in Public Enemy (1931).

    In Gay Madrid was Mercer’s only appearance in an MGM musical.

  • Claude King

    British actor Claude Ewart King appeared on stage and in silent films in the UK, making his screen debut in 1912. After serving in the First World War, he emigrated to America, successfully continuing to work in both fields.

    King’s most significant American credit was probably as Roger Balfour, whose murder and resurrection were the focus of Tod Browning’s lost film London After Midnight (1927).

    King played Ramon Novarro’s disapproving father in In Gay Madrid, and followed this with uncredited appearances in Maytime and Broadway Serenade. His final MGM musical was the 1940 version of New Moon, where he played Monsieur Dubois. 

  • In Gay Madrid

    Numbers

    Let Me Give You Love (?)*Fred E Ahlert, Roy Turk (?)Lottice Howell
    SantiagoHerbert Stothart, Xavier Cugat, Clifford GreyRamon Novarro and chorus
    Smile While We MayFred E Ahlert, Roy TurkRamon Novarro and chorus
    Into My HeartFred E Ahlert, Roy TurkRamon Novarro
    Dark NightHerbert Stothart, Xavier Cugat, Clifford GreyRamon Novarro

    * Edwin M Bradley names the film’s opening song as ‘Let Me Give You Love,’ though nothing in the lyrics suggest this as the title. Bradley would seem to have taken the name from contemporary press reports.

  • In Gay Madrid (1930)

    The Synopsis
    The Cast
    The Crew
    The Numbers
    Some Thoughts
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