Lighthouse

June Lang and Don Castle are talking about getting married. When she makes a surprise visit to the lighthouse where she thinks he's in charge, she discovers he works for John Litel and is away visiting his wife. To get revenge, she marries Litel and comes to live at the lighthouse, where Castle tells her he has been trying to get a divorce. Then Litel has an accident.

This bleak triangle is from PRC films, so I didn't expect much from it. Certainly the story has been done many times. The good acting, however, is a compensation. June Lang, in her last role on the big screen, is sullen and sultry. Walter Strenge's dark photography is effective. The two-shots look like old-line Lasky Lighting.

Strenge was another of those well-respected cinematographers who never got out of the Bs and spent a decade or two shooting television shows. Despite those unprepossessing credits, he was nominated for a Best B&W Cinematography Oscar for a B western, served as president of the ASC from 1958 through 1960, and developed the standard field-of-depth charts.