The Great Garrick
1937 film by James Whale
The Great Garrick is a 1937 Warner Bros. historical comedy film starring Brian Aherne, and Olivia de Havilland. An ensemble cast includes Edward Everett Horton, Melville Cooper, Lionel Atwill, and Luis Alberni in support, and Marie Wilson and Lana Turner in credited bit parts.
Directed by James Whale, it is based on the play Ladies and Gentlemen by Ernest Vajda about the famous eighteenth-century British actor David Garrick, who travels to France for a guest appearance at the Comédie Française. When the French actors hear rumors that he said he will teach them the art of acting, they devise a plot to teach him a lesson. Though often overlooked by critics in favor of Whale's horror films, The Great Garrick was chosen by Jonathan Rosenbaum for his alternative list of the Top 100 American Films.
Plot
In London in 1750, renowned English actor David Garrick announces at the end of a performance that he has been invited to Paris to appear with the prestigious Comédie-Française. A fop declares that the French want Garrick to teach them how to act, and the audience raises the chant, "Teach the French!"
The playwright Beaumarchais, who was there, attributes the remark to Garrick himself, which outrages the Parisian theatre company. He devises a plot to cut Garrick down to size. The troupe, led by their president, Picard, takes over the inn where he will be staying en route to lay on an ambush.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2690314. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1937 and 1750.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Great Garrick” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.