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The Woman Accused1933 US Dir Paul Sloane Cast Nancy Carroll, Cary Grant, John Halliday, Jack La Rue IMDb |
Mostly a retread of the more polished Letty Lynton, stars adorable Nancy Carroll as a woman with a sexual past that comes back to haunt her current romance (with a young, still-developing Cary Grant). I won’t spoil any of the proceedings, but if you are familiar with Letty, she deals with her dangerously obsessive ex similarly, ends up similarly, and goes on a luxury cruise in the meantime similarly. Mostly engaging throughout, but ends with… simply the most shocking thing I have seen in pre-Code cinema. No, I don’t mean Nancy Carroll’s frequently exposed bare back. No, I don’t mean delightfully revealing exchanges like this:
Jeffrey Martha, be sweet and get out. I want to talk to Glenda — alone.
Martha In here?
Glenda Of course! Now, Martha, don’t tell me that when you were a girl ladies didn’t entertain gentlemen in their bedrooms.
Martha Yes, but they married them first. I’ll be here waiting. A scream will bring me.
Glenda A scream? From whom?
Martha Well the way things are going nowadays it’d be hard to tell which one would scream first. I’ll come whichever calls.
That’s all par for the course. This is something else entirely — shocking in part because it involves Cary Grant, who does play his usual suave charmer in the film, but also just… not what you expect to see in a 1933 film. I can’t do it justice by telling it, so if you don’t mind the spoiler see it for yourself:
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Odd that you are worried about spoilers. I don’t think anybody has seen either this or Letty–you are probably 1 of 10 living who has seen both. You should use YouTube more in your posts.
Comment by Mango — 8 May 2008 @ 8 May 2008Haha, truth. I’m special. I agree about YouTube. It’s pretty sexy.
Comment by Lauren — 8 May 2008 @ 8 May 2008Letty Lynton is one of my favorite films… great performances by everyone, I can’t wait for it to be released on DVD!
Comment by Dulcette — 11 May 2008 @ 11 May 2008Is a DVD in the works? I’d be so thrilled! The copy I watched was so awful… I hope it overcomes what legal issues remain to finally be restored & released! It’s such a great film.
Comment by Lauren — 12 May 2008 @ 12 May 2008Oops, I think I lost my reply! But you can read about the Letty release at the Joan Crawford message board at the IMDb site. Apparently it’s been restored and ready to go.
Sorry if I double posted! ^_^
Comment by Dulcette — 12 May 2008 @ 12 May 2008This one looks interesting. I really loved Letty Lynton, so this is a film I’d definitely want to watch.
And yeah…. holy crap to that ending. Though I kind of wished it had just ended right there, roll credits. Kind of like a certain movie that came out last year…
Comment by Katie — 22 May 2008 @ 22 May 2008Dulcette, I’m so excited about Letty Lynton!! Aaah, this is the best DVD news I’ve heard in ages. I’ll have to buy this.
Katie, if you enjoyed Letty and you’re a Cary fan it’s sure to be of interest. There are a few great moments in it, but nothing quite like that one…
Comment by Lauren — 22 May 2008 @ 22 May 2008