DISHONORED LADY

US, 1947, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O’ Keefe, John Loder, William Lundigan, Morris Carnovsky, Natalie Schafer, Paul Cavanagh, Douglas Dumbrille, Margaret Hamilton.
Directed by Robert Stevenson.

Dishonored Lady is a star vehicle for Hedy Lamarr, reputed to be one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood. This film certainly justifies this claim. Her leading man is Dennis O’ Keefe, an earnest doctor who had military service. The villain, suave and handsome, is William Lundigan. There is a strong supporting cast of character actors including John Loder as a wealthy man who manipulates Hedy Lamarr, Morris Carnovsky as the sympathetic psychiatrist. Douglas Dumbrille, often a villain (and the foil of the Marx Bros in several films), this time is the district attorney. Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West, plays the role of the landlady.

The film is set in the fashion world and its glamour and wealth. However, Hedy Lamarr’s character is something of a nymphomaniac and needs psychiatric help – and she tries to overcome her life and make something of it. A crisis comes when she is falsely accused of murder.

The film is highly melodramatic – and, one hopes, implausible. However, this is the kind of melodrama that was very popular at the time and still has quite a fascination.

Robert Stevenson directed English films in the 1930s including Tudor Rose and King Solomon’s Mines. He moved to Hollywood in the 40s and directed Jane Eyre. After much television work in the 1950s, he went on to direct almost twenty films for Walt Disney – and he was the only director to have an Oscar nomination for direction for a Disney film, Mary Poppins.

1. A 1947 melodrama? Romance? The interest in psychiatry? The interest in courtroom scenes? The combination of realism, glamour?

2. The black and white photography, the New York worlds, the magazine, clubs and restaurants? The contrast with scientific investigation, ordinary apartments? The film relying on Hedy Lamarr and her beauty?

3. Madeleine, Hedy Lamarr, her glamour and beauty, with the car, the police intervention, her seeming to attempt suicide, the doctor living nearby, his offer of help?

4. Madeleine’s life, her skills at the magazine, the attentions of Jack Garet, unwelcome? Courtland and his influence? Gossip? Her firing her secretary, her whims? Her being caught up in relationships with men?

5. Going to the psychiatrist, the sessions, the psychiatrist’s character, his care, listening to Madeleine, stern with her, his hopes?

6. Her leaving the magazine, the apartment, Mrs Geiger and her attentions as landlady? The encounter with David, the mouse? Their talking, her artwork, the sketches, his invitation to her to sketch his scientific research? Her skills at this? Working in the lab? His doctorate and thesis? Presentation of the thesis, the favourable comments on the illustrations, his achievement?

7. Madeleine falling in love with David, a man from a different world, their being together, her caution? The discussions with the psychiatrist? David’s proposal, her wariness? David and his war experience? A decent man?

8. Ethel, wanting Madeleine’s help, inviting her to the restaurant, Courtland and his being present? Garet and his information to Courtland? Madeleine and her drinking, Courtland and the attraction, the car, the visit to his house?

9. Garet, stealing, Courtland knowing this, Garet coming to the room after Madeleine left, murdering Courtland? The headlines, the circumstantial evidence against Madeleine?

10. David and his shock? Madeleine and her arrest? In court, the evidence against her, not offering any defence?

11. David, his declaration of love, her changing her mind, the defence?

12. David determined to solve the case, going to the apartment, the issue of the safe, encountering Garet, their fight?

13. The hidden safe, the money? Resolving the problem and the mystery?

14. Madeleine, going to the airport, with the doctor? David coming after her – and the Hollywood happy ending?