I don't know whether it was because Miles Mander not only directed
and starred but wrote the screenplay that he gave his leading character,
Sir Hugh, sympathy when he was a bully, a cad and also a violent husband.
As the film progressed Madeleine Carroll's character, also Madeleine, started
to look a bit of a dill because she couldn't stop loving him.
When the film begins Madeleine is once again imploring her husband to forgive her jealous outburst - but she has every reason to feel like that because of Hugh's reaction is to leave for an extended stay in South Africa, Hugh calls it his "soul country", and right into the arms of a native girl and her son who seems to be Hugh's. Maddy's reasoning for Hugh's continued bad behaviour is that she has not been able to give him an heir - so she concocts a plan with her pregnant manicurist to help her bring up the child as Maddie's own - things go smoothly and Hugh hastens back but as the years go on Maddie has her own child, Stephan, who becomes all in all to Hugh and he barely acknowledges the other child.
Everything about Hugh would make any sensible woman pause - he never shows any gentleness towards Maddy. When he wants to see the child, his wish is law - even if it means waving a torch around and upsetting both baby and nursemaid and when he increasingly comes to doubt that Stephan is his, Maddy's refusal to clarify things leads to a brutal scene where he almost kills her.
I was so hoping that when she was coaxed onto the platform to give a speech for her husband's election campaign that she would denounce him
The movie was enthusiastically reviewed as stylistically inventive as Britain headed toward a more mature and sophisticated approach, as silents ended, and away from the overly stagey and melodramatic films of Britain's earlier attempts.
When the film begins Madeleine is once again imploring her husband to forgive her jealous outburst - but she has every reason to feel like that because of Hugh's reaction is to leave for an extended stay in South Africa, Hugh calls it his "soul country", and right into the arms of a native girl and her son who seems to be Hugh's. Maddy's reasoning for Hugh's continued bad behaviour is that she has not been able to give him an heir - so she concocts a plan with her pregnant manicurist to help her bring up the child as Maddie's own - things go smoothly and Hugh hastens back but as the years go on Maddie has her own child, Stephan, who becomes all in all to Hugh and he barely acknowledges the other child.
Everything about Hugh would make any sensible woman pause - he never shows any gentleness towards Maddy. When he wants to see the child, his wish is law - even if it means waving a torch around and upsetting both baby and nursemaid and when he increasingly comes to doubt that Stephan is his, Maddy's refusal to clarify things leads to a brutal scene where he almost kills her.
I was so hoping that when she was coaxed onto the platform to give a speech for her husband's election campaign that she would denounce him
- but no, her appeal and tears get him elected!!
The movie was enthusiastically reviewed as stylistically inventive as Britain headed toward a more mature and sophisticated approach, as silents ended, and away from the overly stagey and melodramatic films of Britain's earlier attempts.