The Big Pond is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy film based on a 1928 play of the same name by George Middleton and A. E. Thomas. The film was written by Garrett Fort, Robert Presnell Sr. and Preston Sturges, who provided the dialogue in his first Hollywood assignment, and was directed by Hobart Henley. The film stars Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert, and features George Barbier, Marion Ballou, and Andrée Corday, and was released by Paramount Pictures.
The Big Pond was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Maurice Chevalier. It also provided Chevalier with his first American hits "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" by Irving Kahal, Pierre Norman and Sammy Fain and "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" by Al Sherman and Al Lewis.
Cast
- Maurice Chevalier as Pierre Mirande
- Claudette Colbert as Barbara Billings
- George Barbier as Mr. Billings
- Marion Ballou as Mrs. Billings
- Andrée Corday as Toinette
- Frank Lyon as Ronnie
- Nat Pendleton as Pat O'Day
- Elaine Koch as Jennie
Songs
- "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" by Al Sherman and Al Lewis
- "This Is My Lucky Day" by Lew Brown, B. G. DeSylva and Ray Henderson
- "Mia Cara" and "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" by Irving Kahal, Pierre Norman and Sammy Fain
Production
The Big Pond and its French language version La grande mare Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, Andrée Corday and Nat Pendelton played the same roles in both versions. One critic noted that the French-speaking audience sounded as though they had picked up on risqué lines that must have been edited-out of the English-language version, due to the Production Code. Chevalier said that this lent extra charm to the French-language versions of his films.