Dishonored Lady

Dishonored Lady
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Stevenson
Produced by	Jack Chertok Hunt Stromberg
Screenplay by	Edmund H. North
Based on	Dishonored Lady (play) by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes
Starring	Hedy Lamarr Dennis O'Keefe John Loder
Music by	Carmen Dragon
Cinematography	Lucien N. Andriot
Edited by	John M. Foley
Production company	Hunt Stromberg Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	May 16, 1947 (1947-05-16) (United States)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Dishonored Lady is a 1947 American crime film directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe, and John Loder. It is based on the 1930 play Dishonored Lady by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes.

It is the story of a beautiful editor at a high-profile Manhattan fashion magazine who becomes a lively party girl at night. With the pressures of her work and her disappointing love life driving her to a breakdown, she seeks out the help of a psychiatrist, who recommends that she leave her job and her lifestyle behind and move into a smaller apartment under another name. Following his advice, she takes an interest in painting and meets a handsome neighbor.

Dishonored Lady was released by United Artists in the United States on May 16, 1947.

Plot

Madeleine Damien is the fashion editor of a slick Manhattan magazine called Boulevard. Men are attracted to her, including boss Victor Kranish, wealthy advertiser Felix Courtland and a former assistant, Jack Garet, who is now working for Courtland and blackmailing her about events from her past.

Madeleine makes a suicide attempt and is headed toward a breakdown. She crashes her car near the home of a psychiatrist, then, while under his care, quits her job and moves into a smaller flat under a new identity. She becomes interested in painting and in David Cousins, a handsome neighbor.

After having marriage proposed to her by David, who knows nothing of her past, Madeleine is confronted by Courtland, who is still interested in her. After she slips away from his home, Garet arrives. Accused of a home burglary by Courtland, Garet bludgeons him with a table lighter. Madeleine is charged with the murder and is too depressed to defend herself. David realizes the truth, confronts Garet and manages to save Madeleine just in time.

Cast

• Hedy Lamarr as Madeleine Damien
• Dennis O'Keefe as Dr. David Cousins
• John Loder as Felix Courtland
• William Lundigan as Jack Garet
• Morris Carnovsky as Dr. Richard Caleb
• Natalie Schafer as Ethel Royce
• Paul Cavanagh as Victor Kranish
• Douglas Dumbrille as District Attorney
• Margaret Hamilton as Mrs. Geiger, landlady
• Nicholas Joy as Defense Attorney

Production notes

• Production Dates: early May-late Jul 1946 at California Studios
• The film is also known as Sins of Madeleine.
• In 1936, a US Federal Court said that the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Letty Lynton (1932), based on a novel by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, also plagiarized the Sheldon-Barnes play Dishonored Lady. This has resulted in Letty Lynton being out of distribution since 1936.
• Production of the film was supposed to begin no later than January 1945, however problems with the Hays Office delayed production until May 1946. The Hays Office insisted that two affairs-one in Mexico and one in New York-might be "overloading" the picture, and also objected to the "night of sordid passion."
• A memo dated April 25, 1946 stated that, despite revisions, the script was unacceptable because of its gratuitous sex and its references to Madeleine's unsavory family secrets. In the released version of the story, references to Madeleine's parents were omitted completely. The character of Moreno and the affair in Mexico City were completely excised, and the "night of sordid passion" was not shown. All suggestions that Madeleine was a murderer, or had even contemplated murder, were also removed from the film. In a final studio synopsis in the Code file, Madeleine goes away on a trip hoping the time will come when David and she can be together; the reunion at the film's closing was added later.
• The film went over budget by $1.2 million and was a failure at the box office.

External links

• Dishonored Lady at IMDb
• Dishonored Lady is available for free download at the Internet Archive
• Dishonored Lady at the TCM Movie Database
• Dishonored Lady complete film on YouTube (Classics movie online)