Journal of a Crime (1934)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

William Keighley

Writers:

Jacques Deval (play)
F. Hugh Herbert (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 March 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A wife shoots her husband's mistress. Afterwards, she is tormented by guilt when someone else is blamed for the crime. |

Plot Keywords:

Mistress | Guilt | Automobile Accident | Doctor | Romantic Rivalry

Cast

Ruth Chatterton	...	Francoise Mollet
Adolphe Menjou	...	Paul Mollet
Claire Dodd	...	Odette Florey
George Barbier	...	Chautard
Douglass Dumbrille	...	District Attorney Germaine Cartier (as Douglas Dumbrille)
Noel Madison	...	Costelli
Henry O'Neill	...	Doctor
Phillip Reed	...	Young Man at Party
Henry Kolker	...	Henri Marcher
Frank Reicher	...	Herr Winterstein
Edward McWade	...	Riguad
Walter Pidgeon	...	Florestan
Frank Darien	...	Stage Manager
Clay Clement	...	Inspector
Elsa Janssen	...	Frau Winterstein (as Elsa Jansen)

Runtime:

65 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2623-R, 3 September 1936 for re-release)

Company:

First National Pictures

Trivia:

The source is credited to a play onscreen, but it is actually a remake of the French film "Une vie perdue (1933)", written by the same author. Perhaps "screen play" was meant, since "screenplay" in the 30's was two separate words.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Une vie perdue (1933)

Weak Ending to Ruth Chatterton's Career at Warner Bros.

Looking at "Journal of a Crime," there is not much there, a short movie with too may gauzy shots of Chatterton attempting to look younger then she was. The contrast between this movie and "Female" is night and day. The fact that in this movie crime is not punished, a criminal seeming to get away with it, was not that unusual before July 1, 1934, when the Breen office started strict enforcement of the Production Code. Check out "Upperworld," another Warner movie released in early 1934 (and showing on TCM in September 2005). "Journal of a Crime" had a release date in March 1934. Chatterton was an above the title star, whose name was enough to bring in customers. Aside from her salary, Warner Bros. did not put much money in Chatterton's last starring role. Jack Warner probably made sure this movie was finished in 3 weeks within its meager budget. Chatterton's movie career was effectively buried until Turner started to release Pre-Code movies, first on the Forbidden Hollywood series of movies (which included "Female") and then on TCM.

By the time Warner Bros. released "Journal of a Crime," Ruth Chatterton was history on the Warners lot, her contract not renewed in February 1934, along with another troublesome actor, Richard Barthelmess. Both had protested the major studios' plan to reduce salaries for talent across the board in 1933, and both paid the price. Ruth Chatterton was earning over $375,000 a year when Warners let her go, the ostensible reason being that she hadn't had a hit since Frisco Jenny. Chatterton's husband at the time, George Brent, still under Warner's contract, then refused an assignment to work as co-star in 'Mandalay" and was put on indefinite suspension while the lawyers hashed things out. Although Chatterton appeared in a few more movies for other studios after her departure from Warners, her film career was pretty much over after this movie. For that matter, First National Pictures, which was a separate production unit at Warners, was merged into Warner Bros. in 1934. First National's production supervisor, Hal Wallis, had taken over Darryl Zanuck's job when Zanuck left Warner Bros. to protest the unfairness of cutting in half the pay of many studio employees in 1933 while top management kept their salaries in full. Warners was a studio with a mission to cut expenses, requiring movies to be made in 18 days (3 weeks, in the 6 long day movie studio work week, until overtime laws covered Hollywood craft workers in 1939) and trying to keep down the salaries of acting talent. Chatterton cost too much, her contract was up and she was out in the new, penny pinching Hollywood.