Brilliant Marriage (DVD)

Park Avenue debutante Madge Allison and her family are visited by a strange French woman named Yvette Duval, who claims that Madge is actually the daughter of a murderess. Mortified when her parents verify the outrageous claims by paying hush money to the intruder, Madge refuses to see old friends and disengages from her social set to seek diversion among Bohemians in Greenwich Village. She takes up with devil-may-care reporter Garry Dane, to whom she confides her dark secret only to find it splashed across the front pages of his newspaper.

The idea that a well-bred society girl could be thoroughly corrupted by association with the arty and eccentric denizens of Greenwich Village, features in numerous movies during the silent and early talkie period. Brilliant Marriage departs from formula in making its discredited ingenue the child of a killer - a melodramatic gimmick that works to the story's advantage and provides top-billed Joan Marsh with an opportunity for a high-powered performance. One of the early 30s' most beautiful starlets, Marsh gets strong support from Ray Walker (cast to type as a brash newshound) and Inez Courtney (who nearly steals the show as Garry's sob-sister gal pal). Actor John Marlowe later garnered fame as Hugh Marlowe and appeared in several 1950s science fiction classics including The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).

• drama