It's a true over the top melodrama and it's not really surprising that it didn't do well at the box office. The most amazing thing is that you don't get the full impact of the plot until the very end when Myrna Loy as the strangely exotic Ursula Georgi explains to the ivory white Irene Dunne how she had wanted so badly to pass as white at the finishing school they attended, and that the reason she took her revenge was because they had rejected her as a half-caste.
"Do you know what it means to be a half-breed, a half-caste, in a world ruled by whites?" Myrna Loy hisses. "I spent six years slaving to make enough money to put me through finishing school, to make the world accept me as white. But you, and the others, wouldn't let me cross the color line."
"But we were young," whimpers Irene Dunne. "Maybe we were cruel. But you can't use that to justify murder!"
"I can," says Myrna calmly as she slowly moves closer towards Irene to hypnotize her (this bit also looks a LOT like the lesbian seduction scene in Dracula's Daughter).
This was one of many, many such roles for Myrna Loy who played everything from Latina to Chinese in her early Hollywood career.
"Do you know what it means to be a half-breed, a half-caste, in a world ruled by whites?" Myrna Loy hisses. "I spent six years slaving to make enough money to put me through finishing school, to make the world accept me as white. But you, and the others, wouldn't let me cross the color line."
"But we were young," whimpers Irene Dunne. "Maybe we were cruel. But you can't use that to justify murder!"
"I can," says Myrna calmly as she slowly moves closer towards Irene to hypnotize her (this bit also looks a LOT like the lesbian seduction scene in Dracula's Daughter).
This was one of many, many such roles for Myrna Loy who played everything from Latina to Chinese in her early Hollywood career.