Dishonored Lady (DVD)

Hedy Lamarr is Madeleine Damien, a gorgeous and sophisticated fashion editor living life in the fast lane in an age when "good girls didn't." Depressed by her tarnished reputation, she deliberately crashes her car into a tree and lands on a psychiatrist's couch. Encouraged to change her ways, she starts over with a new name and a new career. She falls in love with a young doctor (Dennis O'Keefe) but her past-life returns to haunt her. Dragged into her old party-girl habits by former coworkers, Madeleine goes home one night with an ex-lover. When he turns up murdered, she finds herself the prime suspect. A courtroom trial follows, and Madeleine is forced to fight for her life.

Edmund North's gripping screenplay is based on the much-publicized murder trial of Madeleine Smith, a young Scottish woman accused of murdering her lover in 1857. David Lean also told the story of this reputed "Trial of the Century" in his 1950 film, Madeleine.

• drama