Ladies of Leisure
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Ralph Graves, Marie Prevost
Director: Frank Capra
Writer: Jo Swerling, David Belasco
Producer: Harry Cohn, Frank Capra
Ladies of Leisure is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Ralph Graves, and Lowell Sherman. The screenplay by Jo Swerling is based on the 1924 play Ladies of the Evening by Milton Herbert Gropper, which ran for 159 performances on Broadway. The film is about an artist from a wealthy family who hires a "party girl" as his model.
Trivia
- Ladies of Leisure, which began with the working title of "Ladies of the Evening", was Frank Capra's fifth sound film, and the first project over which Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn gave him complete creative control.
- Cohn assigned the director to adapt Ladies of the Evening, a melodrama David Belasco had produced on Broadway in late 1924, and after Capra completed a first draft screenplay he invited Jo Swerling – a playwright from New York who had been brought to Hollywood by Cohn – to work on the script.
- Swerling initially declined because he thought it was a "putrid piece of gorgonzola", "inane, vacuous, pompous, unreal, unbelievable – and incredibly dull", but decided to work on it nonetheless.
Filming Locations
- Ladies of Leisure was filmed from December 1929 to January 1930, at Columbia's studios and on location at Malibu Lake.
Previous Showings
6 Runs • 3 Festivals
3,369 tickets sold
Original Billings: 1 run (April 20, 1930)
Original Run: April 20, 1930 (Sunday - Tuesday)
All runs on record (6):
- April 20, 1930 (Sunday - Tuesday)Barbara Stanwyck, Lowell Sherman
- February 19 - 21, 1990 · 544 ticketsw/ The Miracle Woman
- May 9, 1997 · 353 ticketsw/ The Strong Man
- November 3 - 6, 2007 · 946 ticketsFall 2007 The Films of Frank Capra, plus other favoritesw/ Lady for a Day
- February 7 - 9, 2014 · 1,158 ticketsFrank Capra Festivalw/ You Can't Take It with You
- January 16 - 17, 2025 · 368 ticketsThe Films of Frank Capraw/ The Miracle Woman