Idiot's Delight

"The Biggest Thrill They Ever Gave You! Norma and Clark together in the romance of a "ham" song-and-dance man and a "red-headed liar from Omaha.""

Jan 27 1939 Approved 1h 47m
Comedy, Drama, Musical

A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.

Plot

When song-and-dance man Harry Van returns from World War I, he finds work hard to come by. His greatest success comes as straight man in a phony vaudeville mind-reading act with the tipsy Madame Zulieka. While on tour in Omaha he meets acrobat Irene Fellara, and they have a brief romance. Twenty years later while Harry is on tour in Europe with a troupe of leggy blonde dancers, his train is stopped at the Swiss border and he finds himself stranded in the Alps in anticipation of World War II hostilities. Harry and his chorines take refuge in an Alpine hotel with a group of disparate travelers who are also marooned there. Among them are an American pacifist, British newlyweds, a cancer researcher, a German munitions manufacturer, and a beautiful blonde expatriate Russian aristocrat who looks suspiciously like the Irene of two decades earlier.

Written by

Vicki Baum, Robert E. Sherwood

Directed by

Clarence Brown

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Languages

English, Esperanto

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
1,951
Average Rating
6.5 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA