Prestige (film)

Prestige is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Tay Garnett and written by Tay Garnett, Rollo Lloyd and Francis Edward Faragoh. The film stars Ann Harding, Adolphe Menjou, Melvyn Douglas and Guy Bates Post. The film was released on January 22, 1932, by RKO Pictures.

Plot
Therese accompanies her fiancée captain Andre Verlaine to his new posting at a French penal colony in Indochina. Faced with the climate and strain of his job, he descends into drunkenness.

Cast

 * Ann Harding as Therese Du Flos
 * Adolphe Menjou as Capt. Remy Bandoin
 * Melvyn Douglas as Capt. Andre Verlaine
 * Ian Maclaren as Colonel Du Flos
 * Guy Bates Post as Major
 * Rollo Lloyd as Capt. Emil de Fontenac
 * Clarence Muse as Nham
 * Tetsu Komai as Sergeant

Production
Although Melvyn Douglas recalled decades later that he was called in to replace Adolphe Menjou (who appears in the film), Turner Classic Movies states that Variety reported he replaced originally cast Robert Williams who had died of peritonitis on November 3, 1931 resulting from a ruptured appendix. Douglas claimed that Ann Harding was so unhappy with the picture that she asked the studio "to let her buy the negative and destroy it because she feared it was so bad."

Release
Prestige became available on DVD in October 2013, through a Spanish distributor.