The Good Fairy (1935) on Netflix
Luisa Ginglebuscher leaves a Budapest orphanage to work as an usherette, told to do good deeds daily. To fend off a millionaire, she claims a lawyer, Max Sporum, is her husband.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.4/101,850 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Luisa Ginglebuscher has grown up in a Budapest orphanage, entertaining the other girls with fairy stories. Now she works as an usherette in a movie palace, and the orphanage director, Dr. Schultz, urges her to perform a daily good deed and to be friendly to everyone. Walking home, Luisa is pestered by Joe, a masher who will not leave her alone, so she points out Detlaff, a waiter she met at the theater, and calls him her husband. Detlaff takes her for sandwiches, teaches her to dance, and secures her an invitation to an exclusive party. There, in a dress borrowed from the theater, she mistakes the meat-packing millionaire Konrad for a waiter and scolds him. When she understands what he wants, she says she is married and takes a name out of the telephone book.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Good Fairy (1935)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director William Wyler and star Margaret Sullavan clashed constantly while making the film, and Sullavan walked off the set several times. After learning her work was better on days they did not fight, Wyler avoided her, then on November 25 the two eloped to Yuma, Arizona, and married.
- Writer Preston Sturges stayed only about a day ahead of shooting, feeding new scenes to William Wyler to film off the cuff. After studio complaints over Wyler's many retakes, especially of Margaret Sullavan's close-ups, both men were dropped from the payroll.
- Filming began before the Hays Office had formally approved the script. The censors objected to the orphanage head explaining the facts of life to Luisa, to Konrad the millionaire's attempted seduction of her, and to a sofa in his apartment.
