The Age of Innocence is a 1934 American drama film directed by Philip Moeller and starring Irene Dunne, John Boles and Lionel Atwill. The film is an adaptation of the 1920 novel The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, set in the fashionable New York society of the 1870s. Prolific on Broadway, Philip Moeller directed only two films: this, and the 1935 Break of Hearts with Katharine Hepburn.
The novel was also adapted in a 1924 silent film version starring Beverly Bayne and a 1993 film version that starred Michelle Pfeiffer. A 1928 Broadway stage adaptation starred Katharine Cornell.
Contents
Plot
At his 1875 engagement party, the wealthy Newland Archer is surprised to meet his childhood friend Ellen, beautiful and grown up and now Countess Olenska. Olenska is the cousin of his fiancee May and is considered scandalous by the strait-laced society of the time. Newland, however, treats her well and sends her two dozen yellow roses. Olenska turns to Newland for advice about a possible divorce.
Cast
Irene Dunne as Countess Ellen Olenska
John Boles as Newland Archer
Lionel Atwill as Julius Beaufort
Helen Westley as Granny Manson Mingott
Laura Hope Crews as Augusta Welland
Julie Haydon as May Welland
Herbert Yost as Howard Welland
Teresa Maxwell-Conover as Mrs. Archer
Edith Van Cleve as Jane Archer
Leonard Carey as Jasper, the Butler
Harry Beresford as Museum Guard (uncredited)
Herbert Bunston as W.J. Letterblair (uncredited)
Reception
The film was a box-office disappointment.