It just makes you wonder what could have been had Jeanne Eagels lived. The plot follows very much the same trajectory as the 1940 version. In fact, some of the very same dialogue is used. There is one major difference - we are shown the wild and hard side of Leslie Crosbie (Jeanne Eagels) right from the start, not left until the end of the film to guess exactly what really lurks behind the face of the crocheting angel we are presented in the 1940 version.
At the beginning we watch her bid her bland husband (Reginald Owen) goodbye as he heads to work. She makes sure he is gone and then writes the famed "letter" to her lover, Geoffrey Hammond, demanding he appear. In a clever bit of casting, here Hammond is played by Herbert Marshall, and very convincingly so. In 1940, the same actor plays Leslie's loving and trusting husband, also convincingly. What a great tribute to Marshall's range as an actor. You get to see Hammond with his Eurasian mistress (in 1940 the production code demanded they be married) complaining about Leslie, but saying that he must go see her one last time and put an end to her illusion that the affair is still on. You see the entire exchange between Leslie and Hammond - a conversation between a woman in love and a man who has moved on. You then see her deliberately pump a multitude of bullets into Hammond, which is where the 1940 film begins. The look on Leslie's face as she fires is the same in 1929 as 1940, but here we get to see the reason for that blank expression - it's not shock from an attempted sexual assault, it's payback for rejection.
The rest of the film plays out pretty much like the 1940 version, up until the end when Robert discovers he is too impoverished to buy his own plantation and must continue on working for the company, all because Leslie was guilty all along and had to pay blackmail to insure suppression of her last letter to Hammond. Robert tells Leslie that her punishment will be to stay in the home where the murder took place, haunted by her memories of both love and death. She, however, has one more bullet - a verbal one - this time aimed at her husband Robert. She tells him "with all my heart I still love the man I killed". Here, Leslie says this to lash out at Robert, to make sure that if she is stuck with him he realizes he is equally stuck with her. In 1940, Bette Davis says it as a woman whimpering out one last confession to her husband to profess that she is not worthy of the love of a man for which she feels nothing.
Both movies are very effective, but this one just has a realistic edge to it that was not possible in the 1940 one. It's just too bad that the existing copies I've seen are in such poor shape, but it's still very much worth watching.
At the beginning we watch her bid her bland husband (Reginald Owen) goodbye as he heads to work. She makes sure he is gone and then writes the famed "letter" to her lover, Geoffrey Hammond, demanding he appear. In a clever bit of casting, here Hammond is played by Herbert Marshall, and very convincingly so. In 1940, the same actor plays Leslie's loving and trusting husband, also convincingly. What a great tribute to Marshall's range as an actor. You get to see Hammond with his Eurasian mistress (in 1940 the production code demanded they be married) complaining about Leslie, but saying that he must go see her one last time and put an end to her illusion that the affair is still on. You see the entire exchange between Leslie and Hammond - a conversation between a woman in love and a man who has moved on. You then see her deliberately pump a multitude of bullets into Hammond, which is where the 1940 film begins. The look on Leslie's face as she fires is the same in 1929 as 1940, but here we get to see the reason for that blank expression - it's not shock from an attempted sexual assault, it's payback for rejection.
The rest of the film plays out pretty much like the 1940 version, up until the end when Robert discovers he is too impoverished to buy his own plantation and must continue on working for the company, all because Leslie was guilty all along and had to pay blackmail to insure suppression of her last letter to Hammond. Robert tells Leslie that her punishment will be to stay in the home where the murder took place, haunted by her memories of both love and death. She, however, has one more bullet - a verbal one - this time aimed at her husband Robert. She tells him "with all my heart I still love the man I killed". Here, Leslie says this to lash out at Robert, to make sure that if she is stuck with him he realizes he is equally stuck with her. In 1940, Bette Davis says it as a woman whimpering out one last confession to her husband to profess that she is not worthy of the love of a man for which she feels nothing.
Both movies are very effective, but this one just has a realistic edge to it that was not possible in the 1940 one. It's just too bad that the existing copies I've seen are in such poor shape, but it's still very much worth watching.