CYNARA (1932)

Jim Warlock (Ronald Colman) is meeting his wife Clemency (Kay Francis, at left) before he heads off alone to South Africa, his career and his marriage in shambles. We flashback to months earlier as Jim, a successful London barrister, is about to celebrate his seventh wedding anniversary. His old friend John eggs him on about having a colorless life, and in fact, Jim is a little put out that Clemency is taking off for a trip to Venice with her younger sister who is trying to avoid a boyfriend scandal. Jim and John go out to dinner that night where a young girl named Doris (Phyllis Barry), on a bet with her friend, flirts with Jim. He takes her to see a Charlie Chaplin movie and is obviously enchanted by her, but balks at anything more. However, John finagles an invitation for Jim to judge a swimsuit contest at a town gathering where he knows Doris will be a contestant. Jim picks her as the winner, and when she falls and hurts her ankle, he takes her back to her flat where one thing leads to another, but only after she assures him that he is not her first lover, and that she will not be a nuisance in his marriage. By now, we know where this is going: she does become a nuisance, going as far as, at the end of a countryside interlude, threatening suicide when he has to go back to meet his returning wife. He tries to keep his relationship with her going, but finally writes a "Dear Doris" letter breaking it off. [Spoilers follow:] Doris does kill herself and when Jim's letter is found, he is called to testify at the inquest. To protect her reputation, Jim lets the coroner believe that he was her first lover. He is not legally responsible for her death (the coroner says dramatically that she "ended her own life preferring the judgment of the infinite to the opinions of her fellow men") but his own reputation is now soiled and he decides to leave England alone. Back in the present timeline, is it possible that Clemency will live up to her name and forgive Jim?

Current day viewers may be surprised at the answer. In general it's only in the pre-Code days that a movie could end with reconciliation and forgiveness for an adulterer, especially where such sordid circumstances as the suicide of a mistress were involved. The ending feels a bit rushed, and the character of Clemency is not fleshed out as much as she should have been, but it's a bit refreshing to have the wronged wife forgive the cheating bastard. Given the melodramatic plot elements, the acting here is a little underplayed, which is also refreshing. Colman is a little less stoic than he would be later in his career, Francis a little less tortured than she sometimes came off. Barry, with whom I was not familiar, is good as the mistress who doesn't so much scheme as hope. The likable Henry Stephenson is fine as John. The title comes from an ode by Horace: "I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion." The Irving Berlin standard "Blue Skies" becomes theme music for the illicit lovers. [TCM]