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The
Last of Mrs. Cheyney
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 Basil Rathbone to Norma Shearer: "You are the most attractive woman I have ever met." |
 Basil Rathbone and Norma Shearer in the garden |
The same people who had accepted Mrs. Cheyney into their fold are now horrified to learn they had been deceived. Mrs. Cheyney's accomplice Charles climbs in through the window to join the group. They decide to wait until morning to call the police, so they leave Dilling in charge of watching the thieves.
The next morning, at the breakfast table, the lords and ladies worry about what their society friends will think of them for being fooled. In addition, they learn that Lord Elton wrote a love letter to Mrs. Cheyney, in which he wrote his opinions of the rest of the group. They are convinced that if the letter is made public, their reputations will be ruined, so they decide to buy back the letter. Mrs. Cheyney accepts the check, and then tears it up! (She's full of surprises!) She also tears up the letter and is prepared to go to jail. That never happens, though, because the group would rather keep the incident quiet. Furthermore, they are so impressed with Mrs. Cheyney for tearing up the check and the letter that they welcome her back as their friend, and Lord Elton offers to help set her up in business. With a newfound respect for Mrs. Cheyney, Lord Dilling proposes again; this time she accepts. So that's the "last of Mrs. Cheyney" and the beginning of Lady Dilling. Yes, it's totally unbelievable, but delightful to watch anyway.
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The Last of Mrs. Cheyney To this day, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney is the most brilliant talking picture that has been filmed. The dialogue is a feast to the mind. Norma Shearer poses as a wealthy widow from Australia, and mixes with British nobility in London. She does credit to her part. Her acting is superb, and her voice fits with the acting. Basil Rathbone, too, is an outstanding figure; as Lord Arthur Dilling, he cannot be surpassed. The story is that of a heroine, confederate of crooks, who, by posing as a wealthy widow from Australia, becomes acquainted with society people. She is invited to be a guest in the home of one of them and lays plans to steal the valuable pearl necklace of her host. Lord Dilling (hero), a lady's man, becomes so captivated by her beauty that he even offers marriage to her. But what a shock he receives when he accidentally discover her entering the room of their hostess and stealing the necklace! He follows her to her room and there he makes his presence known to her. He proceeds to reveal his feeling to her, intimating that he had been fooled into believing that she was a good woman. The heroine tries to persuade him to leave the room, assuring him that she had done everything in life but had never allowed a man into her room. The hero will not believe her and she threatens to ring the bell, even though such an act would have meant jail for her perhaps for five years. The hero does not believe that she would carry out her threat and insists on remaining. Thereupon the heroine rings the bell and arouses her hostess and the other guests. Stunned by her bravery, the hero tries to conceal the fact that she had stolen the necklace. but she exposes the matter herself. A letter written to her by an elderly Lord, who had proposed marriage to her, however, saves the situation; in that letter the Lord had disclosed a "skeleton in the closet" of every one of the guests. They offer to buy the letter and to refrain from prosecuting her. The heroine demands £10,000. After receiving the check, she tears it. She shows to them the letter already torn to pieces, thus indicating that she had never had the intention of using it against them. Her act so ingratiate her with her host and with the guests, that all congratulate her and assure her that they will be her friends for life. The heroine and the Lord-hero marry. The lines have been recorded well and are intelligible in the reproduction. It is a picture for cultured picture-goers. The rank and file will hardly appreciate it. —Harrison's Reports, August 17, 1929 |
Basil Rathbone was signed for the picture in February 1929, and filming began in March. Completed in just six weeks, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney was the second "talking picture" made at MGM, but actually the first one with a soundtrack. For earlier talking pictures, the sound was recorded on a disk. The theaters had to make sure the sound disk and the film were in sync—frequently they weren't! The studio was still learning how to use this new technology effectively. Watching this film is similar to watching a play. In the early years of filmmaking, the cameras were immobile, so the camera shots do not vary much. (Cameras became mobile in 1930.) The placement of microphones in lamps and flowerpots added to the "staginess" of the film.
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney was based on the play by Frederick Lonsdale, which had been very popular on Broadway in 1925–1926. Ina Claire starred in the stage play on Broadway. Herbert Bunston played the same role in the film and the stage play.
The film, which opened in the USA on July 6, 1929, is primarily characterized by witty and funny dialogue. Herbert Bunston (Lord Elton) is a hoot! The majority of the characters were played by English actors. Norma Shearer, who played an Australian character, was Canadian; Hedda Hopper (Lady Maria), Moon Carroll (Lady Joan) and Maude Turner Gordon (Mrs. Webley) were American.
Very little music is featured in the film. In one scene, Norma Shearer (as Mrs. Cheyney) played a bit of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. The song "Carefree and Happy," was sung by her cohorts in crime in an early scene; and the song "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (music and lyrics by Thomas Moore) was sung (badly) by Herbert Bunston.
 Dilling respectfully kisses the hem of Mrs. Cheyney's dress. |
 Dilling asks her if she accepted Lord Elton's marriage proposal. |
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney was a significant film in Basil Rathbone's career because it was his first "talkie." Also, the film was a great success and film producers were impressed with Rathbone's performance. He was in demand after that and made seven films in 1930 alone! Playing the noble Lord Dilling, Rathbone makes the character sophisticated and also romantic.
Norma Shearer and her husband, producer Irving Thalberg, were good friends of the Rathbones. In his autobiography Rathbone wrote, "In all the years we have known her, Norma Shearer has never changed one iota. Her charm and warm friendship and her classic beauty are as gracious and warm and classic today as on the first day we met her. If she and I had not both been so happily married I am quite sure I would have fallen very much in love with her!" (In and Out of Character, p. 130)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney was directed by Sidney Franklin, whom Basil described as "one of the most sensitive and intelligent directors I have ever worked with" (In and Out of Character, p. 131). About Rathbone, Franklin said: "Basil Rathbone was a great help to [Norma] in that picture; I remember that she went out of her way to ask him to discuss without hesitancy anything he felt was out of key in her performance or her inflections, vocally, and he took her at her word, and she was happy to get whatever advice he chose to impart. Basil got very impatient with the mikes hidden in flowerpots and the stationary camera in its lined case that stood stock still and prevented him from roaming around the soundstage as he did in the theater. So they sort of consoled each other--that first year of sound was rough on actors--and directors." (quoted in Lawrence J. Quirk, Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer, St. Martin's Press, 1988, p. 107)
Norma Shearer had fond memories of working with Basil: "It was a joy to act with Mr. Rathbone and I remember him most affectionately as a charmer, both on and off the screen. His beautiful voice, noble features, and distinguished bearing made him one of the great gentlemen of his time." (quoted in Michael Druxman, Basil Rathbone: His Life and Films, A.S. Barnes and Co., 1975, p. 119)
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A Successful Lonsdale Talkie by Lady Eleanor Smith Frederick Lonsdale's witty and subtle comedy has lost little during its transition from stage to screen. Many people, myself included, will welcome the filming of intelligent plays for the simple reason that intervals in the average theatre have a dismal habit of lasting about twenty minutes and driving one to distraction. Talking films, whatever other faults they may possess, are at least played straight through without a single pause, a very considerable recommendation. Furthermore, it is now possible to listen to Mr. Lonsdale's most sparkling epigrams while lolling in a comfortable seat smoking, if you desire to smoke, a pleasant cigarette. So let us, for once, stop being superior and snobbish about the talkies. Everyone is more or less familiar with this story of the beautiful crook who obtained a footing into Society, flirted with various peers and then found that she didn't want to steal the pearls for the very feminine reason that "everyone had been so nice to her." Mrs. Cheyney was, of course, a mystery woman. She passed as the widow of a rich Australian, but she preferred not to speak of her past, and she seemed on curiously intimate terms with her suave and fascinating butler. Lord Dilling, a rake of some attraction, was openly captivated by her, and when he discovered that she was planning to steal his aunt's pearl necklace he marched into her bedroom, locked the door, and announced that he would give her away unless she would accept him as a lover, whereupon Mrs. Cheyney very scornfully pulled the bell, and when the entire house party came tumbling into her bedroom she charmingly confessed her guilt. In the morning, she observed that she had in her possession a letter, proposing marriage, from the foolish Lord Elton, in which that not very bright peer had indiscreetly written his true opinion of his fellow guests, who would have given a good deal to murder him there and then. However, when a cheque for £1000 is handed to Mrs. Cheyney in exchange this letter she makes them all look very small by destroying the cheque. And then, of course, she marries the rakish Lord Dilling, while her partner in crime, otherwise the perfect butler, sets off on a tour round the world. This is the bare skeleton of a play which Mr. Lonsdale has embellished with cynical and delightful witticism. The dialogue glitters throughout with gems of humour, and never for an instant does the action of the play flag. I am inclined myself to consider the last act, or as I am dealing with a film, I should perhaps say the final scenes, the most subtly amusing of the lot, but one must not forget that grand moment at the beginning when Mrs. Cheyney, to all intents and purposes a virtuous young widow, suddenly permits her butler, her footman and her chauffeur to fling themselves upon her sofa, drinking her whisky and smoke her cigarettes while she herself strums indifferently upon the piano. The shock of this amazing scene, swiftly followed by the subsequent surprise of discovering that the fair lady and her servants are a gang of crooks, is surely theatrical draft at its most artful. While Norma Shearer makes a handsome, dashing and graceful Mrs. Cheyney, the acting honours undoubtedly go to Basil Rathbone, excellent in the part of Lord Dilling. Mr. Rathbone, with his great good looks and splendid speaking voice is indeed, a valuable acquisition for the films. George Barraud, the butler, and Hedda Hopper, the cantankerous Lady Maria, are both excellent, but I am inclined to think that Herbert Bunston, the idiotic Lord Elton, clowned in a manner all too suggestive of P. G. Wodehouse's amiable but asinine young men whose outlook and observations are so amusing in the abstract. His Elton would have been in a mental home instead of at a house party. Perhaps, however, this is the fault of Sidney Franklin, the otherwise astute and capable director of this charming film. —The Bystander, September 25, 1929 |
For most of the cast of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, this was the only time they would act with Basil Rathbone. Norma Shearer would act with him again in the 1936 film Romeo and Juliet. Herbert Bunston, Cyril Chadwick, and Moon Carroll appeared with Rathbone in The Lady of Scandal (1930).
One of the writers, Hans Kraly, received an Oscar nomination for best writing.
MGM remade The Last of Mrs. Cheyney in 1937 (with Joan Crawford), and again in 1952, but with the title The Law and the Lady (with Greer Garson).
 Lord Dilling confronts Mrs. Cheyney about stealing the pearls. |
 Mrs. Cheyney confesses to having stolen Mrs. Webley's pearls. |
In an interview with the Associated Press, Basil Rathbone was asked to comment on this new medium of talking pictures. Rathbone responded that motion pictures have an advantage over the stage. "In pictures the best performances of the actor are recorded and then an audience, no matter when or where, sees the best the actor had to give. It is virtually the same as a first night in the theater, when everyone usually is up to his best."
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See Page Two for more photos and reviews from the film. See Page Three for pictures of posters, lobby cards and promo photos.
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