This would be your first chance to see one of Joan Crawford’s spicier pre-Code films since 1936, when MGM took the film out of circulation after a legal dispute over the writing credits! Ninety years on, we can finally enjoy this salacious melodrama about a socialite accused of poisoning her ex lover when he threatens to expose their affair just as she’s settled on a better match (the story was inspired by a real life case from Scotland, in 1857, later filmed twice more, as Dishonoured Lady in 1947, and by David Lean as Madeleine, in 1950).
It’s a prime Joan Crawford performance (“I love playing bitches,” she confessed), and no less an authority than costume designer Edith Head said that Adrian’s white organdy gown in this film represented “Hollywood’s single biggest influence on fashion”. Macy’s flooded the market with an imitation that sold more than half a million units and British Vogue reported that “the country was flooded with little Joan Crawfords” with ruffled sleeves and puffed shoulders.
Letty Lynton is top tier Crawford, a stylish and funny romp with a dark edge that allows its star to give her talent for histrionic melodrama a real workout… [It] benefits from squeaking through the system just before the censorious Hays Production Code took effect. The movie would have been unreleasable just a few years later, with so many code violations (from pre-marital sex to suicide and consequence-free murder) that removing them would make the film incomprehensible. The impeccably preserved sound and image only serve to accentuate just how modern a film Letty Lynton was and is; how many movies can be said to justify a 90-year wait?
Jim Hemphill, IndieWire
Clarence Brown
Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Nils Asther
USA
1932
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Hunt Stromberg, Irving Thalberg
Screenwriter
Wanda Tuchock, John Meehan
Cinematography
Oliver T. Marsh
Editor
Conrad A. Nervig
Also Playing
American Doctor
One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.
The Blue Caftan
Richly erotic and deeply moving, Maryam Touzani’s queer-themed film takes us to urban Morocco and into the lives of three beautiful souls. Halim is a master tailor; Mina is his loyal wife; Youssef is the man who slowly comes between them.
The Sun Never Sets
At the suggestion of her much older (divorced) boyfriend, Wendy (Dakota Fanning) takes a summer to reevaluate her life and date other people. She's reluctant at first, but then reconnects with an old flame... A gentle indie comedy from Joe Swanberg.