The Trespasser

US (1929): Drama

Gloria Swanson plays the "other woman" -- kept by her employer. It's typical of the genre known as "women's pictures." Swanson does an excellent job in her first talkie and earned her second Oscar^® nomination for her work. It's fun to see a blatant continuity error -- she enters the bathroom to freshen wearing a bob cut and emerges with long hair. Swanson sings "Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere", "Toselli Serenade" and (with Robert Ames) "I Love You Truly".

Written and directed by Edmund Goulding, whom Miss Swanson originally hired to help her complete Queen Kelly, the unfinished silent epic she'd started with Erich von Stroheim. After he'd spent months editing Von Stroheim's footage, Goulding persuaded Swanson to make The Trespasser instead. He wrote the script in three weeks, the movie was in theaters by the end of the year, and Swanson recouped enough money to pay off Queen Kelly's backers. (IMDb)

 View a clip of Gloria Swanson singing "Toselli Serenade" and stills from this film on YouTube.com.

1 nomination