Delicious (1931 film)

Delicious (1931) is an American pre-Code Gershwin musical romantic comedy film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, directed by David Butler, with color sequences in Multicolor (now lost).

Cast

 * Janet Gaynor as Heather Gordon
 * Charles Farrell as Larry Beaumont
 * El Brendel as Chris Jansen
 * Raul Roulien as Sascha
 * Lawrence O'Sullivan as Detective O'Flynn
 * Manya Roberti as Olga
 * Olive Tell as Mrs. Van Bergh
 * Virginia Cherrill as Diana Van Bergh
 * Mischa Auer as Mischa
 * Marvine Maazel as Toscha

Production background
The film features music by George Gershwin, including the introduction of Rhapsody in Rivets, which was expanded by the composer even before the film soundtrack was recorded into the concert work for piano and orchestra Second Rhapsody, regarded today as one of Gershwin's neglected masterpieces. Gershwin also contributed other sequences for the score, but only a five-minute dream sequence called The Melting Pot and the six-minute Rhapsody in Rivets made the final cut. Fox Film Corporation rejected the rest of the score.

Gaynor plays a Scottish girl emigrating by ship to America who runs afoul of the authorities and has to go on the run, falling in with a ragtag group of immigrant musicians in Manhattan. Gaynor and Farrell made almost a dozen films together, including Frank Borzage's classics Seventh Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), and Lucky Star (1929). Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for the first two and F. W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.

Preservation status
On December 14, 2011, Turner Classic Movies aired a print of the film restored by George Eastman House.

On September 22, 2013, it was announced that a musicological critical edition of the full orchestral score will be eventually released. The Gershwin family, working in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan, are working to make scores available to the public that represent Gershwin's true intent. The entire Gershwin project may take 30 to 40 years to complete, and it is unclear when the score to Delicious will be released. It will be the first time this score has ever been published.