This movie is totally dated.
Outcast Lady stars Constance Bennett, one of my favorite actresses, along with Herbert Marshall, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Hugh Williams, Elizabeth Allen, Henry Stephenson, Ralph Forbes, and Leo G. Carroll.
This film is a remake of a 1929 film of Garbo's - I'm sure it was better.
Constance is Iris March Fenwick, a woman from a less than successful family who nevertheless had childhood playmates from prestigious families: Napier (Marshall) and Boy (Forbes), both of whom are in love with her.
Napier wants to marry her, but his father (Stephenson) feels it will be detrimental to his career - Iris has no money and no status. He decides to take a job out of the country, make good, and then come back for her.
It doesn't work out that way, and Iris several years later marries Boy. On their wedding night, she discovers a note that someone slipped her, stating that Boy had been in prison under another name. We're not told the crime, but it must have been heinous, because when she shows Boy the note, he jumps out a window.
Iris is blamed, for reasons that aren't terribly clear. Well, first off, people think she pushed him. That aside, people believe that Boy discovered he had made a horrible mistake in marrying Iris and jumped to his death in horror. I guess I don't have the imagination for this - I can't imagine, after knowing her for years, what he discovered. I guess the implication is she had too much sexual know-how.
Iris bravely refuses to tell anyone the real reason for Boy's suicide. Everyone hates her. She then travels and has dalliances. Her brother, Gerald (Marsh) is a down and out alcoholic. He won't speak to her since he blames her for Boy's death. I mean, he sounds like he was in love with him.
Iris wants to help Gerald but since he won't have anything to do with her. Will she finally decide to tell him the truth about Boy?
This thing was totally over the top, so melodramatic, I wanted to scream. The end didn't surprise me at all.
Constance, of course, was gorgeous and in beautiful Adrian gowns. She's very appealing. It's highly doubtful that Herbert Marshall, fourteen years older than both Bennett and Forbes, was a childhood playmate. Still, he's noble and earnest.
Marsh as Gerald comes off as a crazy man. Some of that can be attributed to the acting style back then, and the rest can be attributed to the script.
These actors have all been in better films.
