judithh-1 It's a story about Washington D.C. It's about dirty tricks, sleazy operatives, scurrilous personal attacks and lies. The 2012 presidential campaign? No, "The Gorgeous Hussy." Many people have noted that "The Gorgeous Hussy" is not historically accurate. This is true and at the beginning of the picture they call it "fiction"-drawn from real characters, but definitely fiction. What did you expect? It's MGM in 1936. There is a huge budget, lavish production values, beautiful costumes (male and female), top-notch acting and, of course, romance.The story centers around Peggy O'Neill, Joan Crawford, an innkeeper's daughter called "Pothouse Peg," for her politics and her men. The men are a list of Metro's best—Robert Taylor, Jimmy Stewart, Franchot Tone, Melvyn Douglas and Lionel Barrymore. Robert Taylor dominates the first quarter of the picture with his enormous energy, his playfulness, his rapport with Crawford and his skin-tight costume. Taylor even sings and dances.After Bow Timberlake's (Taylor's) heroic off screen death, things settle down. Andrew Jackson (Barrymore) dominates every scene he's in. Beulah Bondi, as Rachel Jackson, is equally good. She won an Oscar nomination for her role.Joan Crawford is usually criticized for appearing in an historical picture because she was too "modern." Here she handles her costumes beautifully, using her skirts to express a range of emotions. While her acting is fine, she is overwhelmed by the male contingent.Franchot Tone, Crawford's husband at the time, is quietly effective as her second husband John Eaton. Melvyn Douglas brings strength and intelligence to his role as Virginian John Randolph. Jimmy Stewart is wasted as Peg's failed suitor."The Gorgeous Hussy" is fun, sometimes moving and a reminder that political behavior wasn't all that different in the 1820s.

Robert J. Maxwell Senator Andrew Jackson, about to become president, and his wife Rachel arrive in Washington and meet many famous people -- Daniel Webster, John Randolph, John C. Cahoun, and, well, just about anybody who's anybody. One of the less famous people the Jacksons meet -- less famous because mostly fictional -- is Joan Crawford, dressed in hoop skirts and dozens of ringlets. Crawford is being courted by three or four young men at the same time. I lost count, but among them are Jimmy Stewart, playing a comic suitor named "Rowdy", and handsome, dashing Robert Taylor as "Bow" Timberlake, a naval officer in a tight, fancy uniform. Suave, aristocratic John Randolph of Virginia is her secret love but he turns her away. Still, he may come around. Everybody is happy. Little do they know tragedy lies just around the corner.I couldn't stand it. I was hoping for one of Hollywood's semi-educational historical epics with a rip-roaring Andrew Jackson who plunks his muddy boots on his desk and hangs around with low society. Instead I got a soap opera starring Joan Crawford.Oh, there ARE some historical incidents, but then there HAS to be because the movie must be about something other than men worshiping Joan Crawford. I'll give you an example of how historical events are related to romance.We see President Andrew Jackson, Lionel Barrymore, looking less like Andrew Jackson than anyone possibly could. He is pacing slowly in his presidential office, dictating to a scribe. "And so, Gentleman, I must insist that the Union remain united and --" The door bursts open and Crawford rushes in, gushing, demanding to speak to "Uncle Andy." Jackson turns to his scribe and orders sternly, "Now write that up in your best handwriting and we'll finish it later." He turns to Crawford, "Now, what is it, my dear?" "Oh, Uncle Andy -- he wants to MARRY me!" The historical stuff can be found folded into the soap opera like raisins buried in a muffin. Each little incident comes as a delightful surprise.Is the climax, at least, of some political significance? I guess so. The gossip about Joan Crawford comes to a head and Uncle Andy saves her from being shunned by the stuffy old ladies of Washington. Maybe, in a sense, gossip IS politics. Sometimes, today, it certainly seems so.I can't go on with this. I'm told that too many deep sobs induces strokes.

hte-trasme "The Gorgeous Hussy" impressed me at once as a rather trite, artificial history-based (I won't actually call it historical) film about the Eaton Affair scandal of Andrew Jackson's presidency. It's an odd subject somewhat to choose as the basis for a romance-filled drama, and the script doesn't do it a whole lot of justice at times. A lot of the dialogue is just difficult to swallow or sickly-sweet, and American history is treated with a kind of overly orthodox distorting reverence -- turning the scandal into a stage for Andrew Jackson to be held up as an early defender of the Union in a proto-iteration of the Civil War -- that grates.There are good points too however: Lionel Barrymore creates a wonderfully memorable performance as the raucous and rough yet wise President Jackson. He makes the former president human even while the script presents him somewhat two-dimensionally as a kind of grumpy but lovable old uncle most of the time (with a few nice scenes where he gets to be principled and statesmanlike in the face of his congress). Joan Crawford seeps magnetism and sympathy as Margaret, even as we are not really allowed to see the struggles between men that make up much of the movie emotionally dramatized for her. These actors get to play a few nice dramatic scenes amid the posturing, including a very effective one after President Jackson's wife's death.Unfortunately, the piety with which "The Gorgeous Hussy" treats American history extends to other elements of its subject matter. We are supposed to sympathize with Margaret about the viscous rumors that are spread about her, but we never really learn what the rumors are or why they are spread. In other words, in this Hays-code influenced feature, we see how the titular gorgeous hussy is gorgeous, but never really how she is a hussy.There are a few fine performances here, and the film is quite watchable, but it is let down by an overly careful, pious, and reverent production in many respects.

moeoc68 This entertaining story is definitely worth the cost of rental. It is available in most video stores. It follows an Inn keepers daughter (Joan Crawford at her loveliest) through two marriages and a lasting friendship with Andrew Jackson. Although her particular character is fictitious, the rest of the story line is fairly historically accurate, especially the portrayal of the close campaign Jackson ran, due to the opposition of his wife Rachel.