Dishonored Lady

Dishonored Lady (1947) is a film starring Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe, John Loder, William Lundigan, and Natalie Schafer, directed by Robert Stevenson, and released by United Artists. The film is based on the play Dishonored Lady (1930) by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes.

Synopsis

Madeleine Damien is the fashion editor of a slick Manhattan magazine by day and a lively party girl by night. Unfortunately, the pressures of her job, including kowtowing to a hefty advertiser, and her bad luck with men are driving her to a breakdown. She seeks the help of a psychiatrist, and under his orders, quits her job and moves into a smaller flat under a new identity. She becomes interested in painting and a handsome neighbor. He soon finds out about her past when an ex-suitor implicates her in a murder.

Cast

• Hedy Lamarr as Madeleine Damien
• Dennis O'Keefe as Dr. David Cousins
• John Loder as Felix Courtland
• William Lundigan as Jack Garet
• Morris Carnovsky as Dr. Richard Caleb
• Natalie Schafer as Ethel Royce
• Paul Cavanagh as Victor Kranish
• Douglas Dumbrille as District Attorney
• Margaret Hamilton as Mrs. Geiger, landlady
• Nicholas Joy as Defense Attorney

Production notes

• Production Dates: early May-late Jul 1946 at California Studios
• The film is also known as Sins of Madeleine.
• In 1936, a US Federal Court said that the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Letty Lynton (1932), based on a novel by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, also plagiarized the Sheldon-Barnes play Dishonored Lady. This has resulted in Letty Lynton being out of distribution since 1936.
• Production of the film was supposed to begin no later than January 1945, however problems with the Hays Office delayed production until May 1946. The Hays Office insisted that two affairs-one in Mexico and one in New York-might be "overloading" the picture, and also objected to the "night of sordid passion."
• A memo dated April 25, 1946 stated that, despite revisions, the script was unacceptable because of its gratuitous sex and its references to Madeleine's unsavory family secrets. In the released version of the story, references to Madeleine's parents were omitted completely. The character of Moreno and the affair in Mexico City were completely excised, and the "night of sordid passion" was not shown. All suggestions that Madeleine was a murderer, or had even contemplated murder, were also removed from the film. In a final studio synopsis in the Code file, Madeleine goes away on a trip hoping the time will come when David and she can be together; the reunion at the film's closing was added later.

External links

• Dishonored Lady at the Internet Movie Database
• Dishonored Lady is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Dishonored Lady at the TCM Movie Database