Dynamite

Cecil B. DeMille's first all-talking feature, made at MGM after he left Paramount. A pampered society girl will lose her trust fund if she is not married by a certain date, so she marries a condemned coal miner on death row, expecting him to be executed before the deadline. When he is pardoned at the last minute, the rough, honorable man arrives at her penthouse to claim his marital rights, upending her world. The film is packed with the class-conscious, never-quite-consummated scandal that was DeMille's specialty, complete with a polo-playing playboy, a penthouse, and a coal mine. Kay Johnson plays the socialite, Conrad Nagel her polo-playing beau, and Charles Bickford the miner. Mitchell Leisen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on the film. A silent version was released simultaneously for theatres not yet wired for sound. Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.