Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Unfaithful (1931)

A society drama in early 1930s England: it's all posh accents, dinner jackets and feather boas apparently. Fay Houston (Ruth Chatterton) is an American heiress who has come over to jolly old England to marry rich toff Ronnie (Paul Kavanagh). Unfortunately Fay soon finds out that Ronnie has a mistress whom he is unwilling to ditch.

To make matters more complicated the mistress (Juliette Compton) is the wife of Fay's unstable brother Terry (Donald Cook). Fay thus becomes a notorious party girl to keep the attention from Terry, and then in Paris she meets Carl (Paul Lukas) a struggling artist...

This early talkie is a bit cliche to be honest but looks sumptuous. Overall the plot doesn't make a great deal of sense, Fay's solution to protect her brother is to show plenty of flesh, pretend to be an adulteress and sing some songs. Its nuts but so elegant.