The World Moves On

The World Moves On is a 1934 American drama film directed by John Ford and starring Madeleine Carroll and Franchot Tone. It was the first Hollywood code approved film. Plot The story opens in the year 1825, when two families, cotton merchants in England and America, with branches in France and Prussia swear to stand by each other in a belief that a great business firmly established in four countries will be able to withstand even such another calamity as the Napoleonic Wars from which Europe is slowly recovering. Then many years later, along comes World War I and the years that follow, to test the businesses. Cast Madeleine Carroll as Mrs. Warburton, 1825/Mary Warburton Girard, 1914 Franchot Tone as Richard Girard Reginald Denny as Erik von Gerhardt Sig Ruman as Baron von Gerhardt (as Siegfried Rumann) Louise Dresser as Baroness von Gerhardt Raul Roulien as Carlos Girard (1825) / Henri Girard (1914) Stepin Fetchit as Dixie Lumsden Hare as Gabriel Warburton (1825) / Sir John Warburton (1914) Dudley Digges as Mr. Manning Frank Melton as John Girard (1825) Brenda Fowler as Madame Agnes Girard (1825) Russell Simpson as Notary (1825) Walter McGrail as The Duallist (1825) Marcelle Corday as Madame Girard II (1914) Charles Bastin as Jacques Girard, the Boy (1914) Barry Norton as Jacques Girard (1924) George Irving as Charles Girard (1914) Ferdinand Schumann-Heink as Fritz von Gerhardt Georgette Rhodes as Jeanne Girard Claude King as Colonel Braithwaite Ivan F. Simpson as Clumber (as Ivan Simpson) Frank Moran as Sergeant Culbert, Soldier in Trench Production notes Most of the World War I battle footage was taken from the 1932 French film Wooden Crosses. This film was the first to receive an MPPDA (now, the MPA) certificate under the new Production Code, and received certificate #1.