Letty Lynton is a racy 1932 Joan Crawford film that has not been screened (legally) since January 1936. Finally, thanks to the efforts of Joan Crawford’s grandson Casey LaLonde (who sadly died this June), this has finally been re-released on a beautiful Warner Archive Blu-ray.
The story behind the film is rather fascinating. Supposedly MGM wanted to buy the rights to the Broadway show Dishonored Lady, but they feared the wrath of the censors. So, they bought the rights to the book Letty Lynton by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, which was also based on the true crime story of Madeline Smith, a Scottish socialite who poisoned her lover.
The film, starring Joan Crawford was directed by Clarence Brown (a favorite director of Crawford’s) and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve). Letty (Crawford) is languishing in Montevideo, involved in a toxic relationship with Emile (Nils Asther). She and her devoted maid Miranda (Louise Closser Hale) flee to an ocean liner headed for New York. On board the ship she begins a whirlwind love affair with wealthy Jerry Darrow (Robert Montgomery). He proposes to her and she happily accepts, but when they arrive in Manhattan, to her horror, Emile is waiting at the dock, having flown to NY.
Emile threatens to show Jerry a bunch of steamy letters from Letty that he has saved and demands she meet him at his hotel at 8pm. Distraught, Letty takes a vial of poison from the medicine cabinet and heads to the hotel room planning to commit suicide if Emile refuses to free her. But things do not go according to plan and soon she is meeting with the district attorney (Lewis Stone), accused of murder.
The film was a smash at the box office and Letty’s dress (designed by Adrian), with its huge ruffled-shoulders, became a fashion craze across the country. In a review from the “Motion Picture Herald,” “The gowns which Miss Crawford wears will be the talk of your town for weeks after…and how she wears them!”
But the writers of the play Dishonored Lady sued the studio, saying that the MGM film followed too closely to their play. Because of the litigation, and the fact that the Second Circuit Court awarded 1/5 of the net profits for the movie, MGM shelved the picture and it hasn’t been seen for 90 years until Crawford’s grandson successfully argued that since the copyright for Dishonored Lady lapsed in 2025 it was now safe to screen the film again. So, this is a real treat for film lovers.
The Blu-ray comes with several radio programs with Joan Crawford, including Lux Radio Theatre‘s A Doll’s House starring Joan Crawford and Basil Rathbone. Yes indeed, Joan does Ibsen!
