Letty Lynton – Blu-ray

A copy right dispute has kept Letty Lynton out of distribution since the mid 1930s, but thanks to public domain there’s now no copyright restriction on the title and for the first time in 90 years the film is available. It looks fantastic, as miraculously MGM preserved the elements of the film despite being unable to monetize it. The picture itself is not a lost masterpiece but it is pretty good, and Crawford delivers a star making performance as this was one of the pictures that rocketed her to the A list.

Unseen for many years due to copyright and other problems, Letty Lynton receives its official blu-ray release. Warner Archive have done a stellar job in restoring this film, Director Clarence Brown guides Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery through this melodrama. Nils Asther provides us with a suitable nasty villain and MGM regulars May Robson and Lewis Stone give solid backup. The icing on the cake is the feature-length documentary about Irving Thalberg, MGM’s boy wonder, which s a welcome addition to this already packed release.

As a fan of Pre Code films. I usually consider them as being sexually provocative even to the point of incest, open marriages and with the gangster genre hard hitting violence. Letty Lyndon is somewhat different. To say more would spoil the plot but this film is very much PreCode. Also, this film is very much a Joan Crawford star vehicle.