Adapted from the play "Burnt Offerings", it was originally produced under the title "The Woman in the Chair" and in the 1980s it was re-released as "Voice From the Grave". Whatever the title it was an extraordinarily strange little film using a stream of consciousness narrative (used the same year by Preston Sturges in "The Power and the Glory") and according to some critics, maybe the best independent feature of the thirties. It definitely would have confused a lot of viewers of the day but as a Majestic release it would have played on the bottom half of double bills, so it may have been a pleasant surprise or a confusing one.
Edith Crawford (Claire DuBrey, who played the first Mrs. Rochester in the 1934 version of "Jane Eyre") visits her brother, a District Attorney (Alan Dinehart), determined to find out who her husband, Bill, is having an affair with. The "other woman" is Nora Moran (Zita Johann)who is about to be executed for murder. There is a very confronting scene involving preparations before an execution and then Nora's subconscious mind takes over. After a rather sad childhood, Nora finds herself working in a circus for Paulino (John Miljan), a lecherous lion tamer who rapes her. A year later Nora feels she has found happiness with Bill but Paulino comes back on the scene, hoping to try some blackmail and is killed.
There is much "avant garde" film-making in this. Apart from SOC, there are flashbacks within flashbacks (similar to the 1940's movie "The Locket"), eerie appearances - Sarah Padden, as one of Nora's circus friends, suddenly materializes beside her prison bed, as does Nora, who appears to Bill (Paul Cavanaugh), to plead with him not to let her die in vain. (He is really a weak person and Nora begs him to try to be strong for her sake). There is even a bizarre fantasy sequence in which the men in her life discuss events standing around her coffin!!! It is a very strange movie!!
Alan Dinehart seems to be the only actor in the movie that you can warm to. He is not particularly a "good guy" but has a dimension to his acting that the other players lack. Zita Johann a stage actress, who D.W. Griffith selected for the female lead in his film "The Struggle", had the intensity but no heart. You somehow can't imagine her as a chorus girl - Mae Clarke would have been perfect, but that is just my opinion. Cora Sue Collins was a child star who seemed to get some plum roles (until Shirley Temple came along) - she had played Greta Garbo as a child in "Queen Christina". She was top billed in a part that only lasted 60 seconds at the most. Henry B. Walthall, was also in the cast as the kindly Father Ryan, who looked after Nora as a child.
Recommended.
Edith Crawford (Claire DuBrey, who played the first Mrs. Rochester in the 1934 version of "Jane Eyre") visits her brother, a District Attorney (Alan Dinehart), determined to find out who her husband, Bill, is having an affair with. The "other woman" is Nora Moran (Zita Johann)who is about to be executed for murder. There is a very confronting scene involving preparations before an execution and then Nora's subconscious mind takes over. After a rather sad childhood, Nora finds herself working in a circus for Paulino (John Miljan), a lecherous lion tamer who rapes her. A year later Nora feels she has found happiness with Bill but Paulino comes back on the scene, hoping to try some blackmail and is killed.
There is much "avant garde" film-making in this. Apart from SOC, there are flashbacks within flashbacks (similar to the 1940's movie "The Locket"), eerie appearances - Sarah Padden, as one of Nora's circus friends, suddenly materializes beside her prison bed, as does Nora, who appears to Bill (Paul Cavanaugh), to plead with him not to let her die in vain. (He is really a weak person and Nora begs him to try to be strong for her sake). There is even a bizarre fantasy sequence in which the men in her life discuss events standing around her coffin!!! It is a very strange movie!!
Alan Dinehart seems to be the only actor in the movie that you can warm to. He is not particularly a "good guy" but has a dimension to his acting that the other players lack. Zita Johann a stage actress, who D.W. Griffith selected for the female lead in his film "The Struggle", had the intensity but no heart. You somehow can't imagine her as a chorus girl - Mae Clarke would have been perfect, but that is just my opinion. Cora Sue Collins was a child star who seemed to get some plum roles (until Shirley Temple came along) - she had played Greta Garbo as a child in "Queen Christina". She was top billed in a part that only lasted 60 seconds at the most. Henry B. Walthall, was also in the cast as the kindly Father Ryan, who looked after Nora as a child.
Recommended.