as international as hate. ….As for the chief characters, they have retained their considerable, if somewhat pat, theatrical charm, and they are still Mr. Sherwood's. … we are ready to suppose that the present American ending, on what can only be described as a note of defiant hooferism, with Gable pounding on the piano and Miss Shearer ecstatically "trucking" as the walls collapse, was the best that was cinematically available. (There is a different ending for Great Britain, with sentimental songs). Even that effect of the conventional movie fadeout, as the bombers recede, we can accept.” Recalling the play's ending, he observed: “No doubt the fine irony of Mr. Sherwood's conclusion that feeling, as the "two cheap people" burst hysterically into "Onward Christian Soldiers." that the gods were laughing would have been unseemly in a movie theatre. … Did we say that "Idiot's Delight" makes a swell movie? If you don't see it you'll be missing one of the year's events.” Writing in The Spectator, Graham Greene observed: “Over-acting could hardly go further...” Nelson Bell observed in The Washington Post on February 8, 1939: “Mr. Sherwood selected his title with a view to epitomizing his free notions of the motivation, in presumably high places, of armed conflict. His editorial instinct is highly emblazoned in the expression, in two words, of the only feasible basis that can exist for the precipitation of international slaughter.” Box office According to MGM records, the film recorded a loss of $374,000, one of only three films that Clark Gable made at MGM to lose money. The others are Parnell and Too Hot to Handle. Notes External links Idiot’s Delight at Turner Classic Movies 1939 films 1939 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films Anti-war films American black-and-white films American films based on plays Films directed by Clarence Brown Films set in the Alps Films set in hotels Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films scored by Herbert Stothart 1930s political films 1930s war drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films