Journal of a Crime

Ruth Chatterton ends the Warner Bros.' phase of her illustrious film career on a high note -- elevating what could have been a lurid melodrama into a sensitive, underplayed and compelling character study. In this adaptation of the Jacques Deval drama Une Vie Perdue, Chatterton plays Francoise, driven to despair by her Paris playwright husband, Paul (Adolphe Menjou), whose dalliance with his current diva, Odette (Claire Dodd), threatens to escalate from fling to full-fledged divorce. Discovering that there are no laws in Paris that could protect a loving wife from the whims of a vainglorious vixen, a fugitive felon (Noel Madison) gives Francoise surprising cover for a most desperate and deranged act. But cover cannot salve a guilty conscience, and Paul has the patience to wait for Francoise to do the right thing for soul and society. Fate, however, has shocking plans of its own for Francoise.

• crime
• drama