Letty Lynton (1932)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Clarence Brown

Writers:

Marie Belloc Lowndes (novel)
John Meehan (writer)

Release Date:

14 May 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Wealthy socialite Letty Lynton is returning to New York, abandoning one-tine lover Emile Renaul in South America...

Plot Keywords:

Adirondack Mountains | Murder | New York City | Montevideo Uruguay | Based On Novel

Cast

Joan Crawford	...	Letty Lynton
Robert Montgomery	...	Hale Darrow
Nils Asther	...	Emile Renaul
Lewis Stone	...	District Attorney Haney
May Robson	...	Mrs. Lynton, Letty's Mothers
Louise Closser Hale	...	Miranda, Letty's Maid
Emma Dunn	...	Mrs. Darrow, Jerry's Mother
Walter Walker	...	Mr. Darrow, Jerry's Father
William Pawley	...	Hennessey

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Adrian, fashion designer for MGM's fabled leading ladies, unveiled the Joan Crawford soon-to-be-signature padded-shoulders look in this picture.

Movie Connections:

Version of Dishonored Lady (1947)

1850s Glasgow moved to 1930s Gotham

So many films of great movie stars are out of circulation for one reason of another. LETTY LYTTON is one of them. I have never seen it, although (from the sound of it it sounds interesting). I can though illuminate something of the background.

Marie Belloc Lowndes is recalled today for one novel (from a short story) entitled "THE LODGER". She was fascinated by crime and wrote books based on famous cases (like a younger contemporary, "Joseph Shearing"). THE LODGER was about the Jack the Ripper murders. Other novels of hers were turned into movies. THE STORY OF IVY became a film with Joan Fontaine as an unscrupulous poisoner (of her husband) - supposedly based on the Maybrick Murder Case of 1889.

LETTY LYTTON was based on the Madeleine Smith poisoning case of 1857 in Glasgow, Scotland. Madeleine was supposed to marry a Mr. William Minnoch, in a marriage approved by her very strict father (a leading architect). But she had been having very close relations with an Emile L'Angelier (foreign sounding for Scotland, but L'Angelier was from the Channel Islands of Great Britain). L'Angelier may have loved Madeleine, but he was also socially attracted to her position in Glasgow. He would not let her drop the relationship. Several times he visited her, and came home ill. The last time he died. Subsequently arsenic was found on his corpse. Love letters written by Madeleine led to her arrest. She was tried, but the jury (despite good reason) was not willing to find her guilty. They did not acquit either. Instead, she was found "Not Proven", which is a verdict on Scotland has. Madeleine eventually married an artist, George Wardle, until their divorce in the 1880s. She became a socialist (one of her friends in London was George Bernard Shaw). She married a second time, emigrated to America, and died in New York City (in the Bronx) in 1926 when in her nineties. She is buried there.

Certainly, in her later years, she did not have the wonderful wardrobe that was Ms Crawford's courtesy of MGM, but she had a reasonably quiet life. She fought a motion picture studio in the 1920s which wanted to make him a film about her career (it wasn't made). A woman of spirit (even if you do not think her innocent of murder). She did not know that LETTY LYTTON would appear in a film suggested by her story within a decade, nor that (in 1950) David Lean would make the definitive film about the case: MADELEINE.