Hearts Divided (1936)

Directed by

Frank Borzage

Genre

drama film, biographical film, musical film, romance film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 27m

Rating

5.5 of 10 from 4 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a musical film about the real-life marriage between an American woman named Betsy and Jerome Bonaparte, who was Napoleon's brother. Napoleon tries to break them apart, but Hollywood gives the couple a happier ending than they had in real life.

romanticold-fashionedmusicallightidealisticslightly tragicwhimsical

What happens

Hearts Divided is a 1936 American musical film about the real-life marriage between American Elizabeth 'Betsy' Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon. It stars Marion Davies and Dick Powell as the couple. The film was a remake of the 1928 silent film Glorious Betsy, which was in turn based on the play Glorious Betsy by Rida Johnson Young. In real life, they were married in Baltimore, before sailing for Europe. Napoleon annulled the marriage, in spite of the existence of a child, and forced Jerome to marry Catharina of Württemberg, making him king of Westphalia. “Luckily, Hollywood treats the lovers Betsy and Jerome with a little more compassion. The couple is even granted a second chance at happiness by Claude Rains' Napoleon.” (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• A Royal Divorce (1938)
• The King Steps Out (1936)
• The Loves of Madame Dubarry (1936)
• Cain and Mabel (1936)
• Mayerling (1936)
• Walking on Air (1936)
• Conquest (1937)
• Sing, Baby, Sing (1936)