The Duke Steps Out

62 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguagesSound (Synchronized)
(English Intertitles)Budget$218,000^[1]Box office$920,000^[1]

The Duke Steps Out is a 1929 American synchronized sound comedy-drama film directed by James Cruze and starring William Haines and Joan Crawford. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film is lost, but the Vitaphone sound discs track of music and sound effects survive in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.^[2][3]

Plot

Duke (Haines) a pampered millionaire's son, who longs to be a boxer, takes an interest in Susie (Crawford), a college coed, after he defends her from being bullied. Duke's interest in Susie leads him to enroll in the same school as Susie. After a misunderstanding between Duke and Susie, they realize they are meant to be together and are reunited.

Cast

• William Haines as Duke
• Joan Crawford as Susie
• Karl Dane as Barney, Duke's Chauffeur
• Tenen Holtz as Jake, Duke's Manager
• Edward Nugent as Tommy Wells
• Jack Roper as Poison Kerrigan
• Delmer Daves as Bossy Edwards
• Luke Cosgrave as Professor Widdicomb
• Herbert Prior as Mr. Corbin
• Gwen Lee (uncredited)
• Harold Lockwood (uncredited)
• Gertrude Messinger (uncredited)
• Marie Messinger (uncredited)

Music

The film featured a theme song entitled "Just You" which was composed by William Axt, David Mendoza and Raymond Klages.

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $714,000 in the US and Canada and $206,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $343,000.^[1]

See also

• List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)

References

External links

• The Duke Steps Out at IMDb
• The Duke Steps Out at the TCM Movie Database
• Synopsis at AllMovie