Up Pops the Devil (1931)
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland and released by Paramount Pictures, Up Pops the Devil is a pre-Code comedy-drama that explores ambition, marriage, and shifting gender roles with a light touch and a modern sensibility. Based on a successful Broadway play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, the film stars Norman Foster and Carole Lombard, whose chemistry had already been proven in It Pays to Advertise earlier that year.
Plot Summary
Steve Merrick (Norman Foster), a successful advertising man, decides to quit his job to become a novelist—a move that throws his marriage into turmoil. His wife Anne (Carole Lombard) is supportive at first, but as Steve becomes consumed by his writing and neglects their relationship, Anne is forced to take a job as a dancer in a Broadway show to support them. The strain deepens when Anne discovers she’s pregnant, and the couple must confront the cost of chasing dreams versus sustaining love.
Cast Highlights
- Norman Foster as Steve Merrick
- Carole Lombard as Anne Merrick
- Richard “Skeets” Gallagher as Biney Hatfield
- Lilyan Tashman as Polly Griscom
- Stuart Erwin, Edward J. Nugent, and Joyce Compton in supporting roles
Behind-the-Scenes Trivia
- Originally planned as a Paramount East Coast production starring Nancy Carroll, but she was replaced by Lombard and the shoot moved to Hollywood
- One of over 700 Paramount films sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for TV distribution, though this title was excluded from the package due to legal complications and may have never aired on television
- The original stage play was adapted into a musical called Everybody’s Welcome, which introduced the now-iconic song “As Time Goes By”
- The film was later remade as Thanks for the Memory (1938), starring Bob Hope and Shirley Ross
