Laughter 1930

Peggy Nancy Carroll Gibson is a Follies dancer who forsakes her carefree attachments in order to marry a millionaire. Her elderly husband, Frank Morgan C. Mortimer Gibson, is a well-meaning bore, and Peggy soon finds his conventional world stifling. Seeking something livelier than the dull routine of married life, she begins looking for entertainment elsewhere while still bound by marriage.

About a year after the wedding, three major developments unfold almost simultaneously: Peggy’s former lover, Paul Lockridge, Fredric March, a witty composer and pianist, returns from Paris and offers companionship as a diversion from her stuffy life; Ralph Le Sainte, Glenn Anders, a young sculptor who is still in love with Peggy, plans his suicide in a mood of bitterness; and Mortimer’s daughter Marjorie, Diane Ellis, returns from schooling abroad. Marjorie is soon paired with Ralph, and the romance that develops between them runs in parallel with the adult affair between Peggy and Paul, painting a portrait of longing, wealth, and the trouble those forces can cause in a household.

Ralph and Marjorie’s escapades bring considerable trouble for Mortimer, while Paul implores Peggy to go to Paris with him, declaring:

You are rich—dirty rich. You are dying. You need laughter to make you clean.

But Peggy refuses, torn between the security of wealth and the lure of genuine happiness. When Marjorie plans to elope with Ralph, Peggy exposes the sculptor as a fortune hunter; distraught, Ralph takes his own life. In the wake of these upheavals, Peggy confesses her unhappiness to Gibson, and ultimately decides to leave behind the stifling life she once thought would bring her contentment. She joins Paul and—amid laughter and the promise of Paris—begins a new chapter.