Cinema: The Gorgeous Hussy

The Gorgeous Hussy (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) is Peggy O’Neale, Washington, D. C. innkeeper’s daughter, whose second marriage, to President Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of War John Eaton, caused an uproar in Washington society unrivaled until the appearance of Mrs. Dolly Gann in 1929. Peggy O’Neale’s first marriage was to a Navy purser named John B. Timberlake, who committed suicide. The uproar started when the wives of other Cabinet members and Mrs. John C. Calhoun, wife of the Vice President, refused to receive her because gossip said she had been Secretary baton’s mistress. The President defended Peggy, reorganized his Cabinet largely on her account. After John Eaton died in 1856, Peggy married an Italian dancing master. She soon divorced him, returned to the U. S., lived quietly in Washington until her death in 1879.

The Gorgeous Hussy starts out as if its sole purpose were to reveal to a cinema public already well posted on the subject the details of Actor Robert Taylor’s profile seen from the right. When Actor Taylor, functioning as Lieutenant Timberlake, has been removed from the proceedings by heroic death in action, the picture gathers pace. The idealistic love of Peggy (Joan Crawford) for Senator John Randolph (Melvyn Douglas); her marriage to Eaton (Franchot Tone); and her single-minded devotion to President Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) form a pattern which balances in entertainment whatever it may lack in educational value. Surrounded by youthful matinee idols who seem a shade too chipper in the roles of mature statesmen, Lionel Barrymore grunts, glares and snuffles to fine effect. Equally sure-fire is Beulah Bondi as Mrs. Rachel Jackson, who, about to expire of the miseries, charges Peggy with seeing that the President remembers not to say “ain’t.”

One reason why Hollywood so rarely utilizes the obvious and profitable field of U. S. history may be the squeaks of indignation that result whenever it does so. Last week in Nashville, Tenn., Miss Fannie Walton, great-grandniece of Rachel Jackson, and the Nashville Ladies Hermitage Association made strenuous protests because The Gorgeous Hussy showed Mrs. Jackson as a pipe-smoking crone. Said Miss Walton, “I think it’s a sacrilege.”