Customer Reviews

Hedy Lamarr Collection (The Strange Woman / Dishonored Lady)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lamarr is visually stunning and gives very good performances in both of these underrated gems. Both movies are gripping and have believable plots and dialouge. In addition the content is very racey for the time.

The image quality of this Triton DVD is good. While not up to Criterion or tier 1 studio quality it is very watchable. Most of the image is semi-crisp. I did not notice alot of hiss, though there is some. On "Strange Woman" there is one part lasting 1-2 minutes where there is a loud hum.

Overall this is a very good buy. You get two movies with the beautiful Lamarr(she turns her head, lifts her eyes and a man would do anything). The quality is better than average. The plots and acting are great.

I couldn't lose when purchasing this DVD...here's another oppurtunity to see Hedy Lamarr, by the way, who was a very good actress...she's a pure/natural beauty and the camera didn't lie while she was matriculating before it...as with all gorgeous Hollywood actresses, the lighting had to be perfectly bright to bring out all the wondrous highlights of their countenance...as stated above, this movie was not so important to me...only Hedy Lamarr, that tantalizing Czech/Republic import, who fortunately emigrated to Hollywood before the Nazis marched into the Sudatenland in 1939...she contributed to the mystique of the 1940s Hollywood scene; besides, other reviewers do a good critique of this flick....SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF

Following a series of badly-received films, M-G-M allowed Hedy Lamarr to set up her own production unit inside the studio where she could develop properties that were tailor-made for her. DISHONORED LADY was one of the films she made during this time, based on a play written by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes (and originally staged on Broadway by renowned Guthrie McClintic). She plays Madeleine Damien, a sophisticated magazine designer who abandons her hedonistic lifestyle, only to be implicated in a murder. She co-stars with her husband at the time, John Loder, and they have a good onscreen rapport. With Dennis O'Keefe and Natalie Schafer.

Here is a film ripoff of a play, according to what I read.
I also read that this was a vehicle for the lead, though it seems funny to me that a woman would go out of her way to play a dishonored woman as a showcase for herself. I went in blind, and it seems early that it's fairly exploitative and by the end it becomes more of a legitimate film. I wish it had chosen one route.

We follow a dark protagonist, a beautiful woman working for a magazine, a whore and thrill seeker who apparently takes after her poppa, who was apparently a pink plunderer with an artistic flair. That's mentioned, but again the movie feels split in two between the skank-at-large and the story of the redeemed lady.

The dishonored lady meets the man of her dreams, a geeky scientist. It's not totally convincing when he falls snap out of infatuation for her when confronted with her other side. Plot is too much at the forefront. The acting is fairly good. In some instances the film chooses to "tell rather than show" with a virtuous psychiatrist character. The film seems to me to milk Casablanca and Citizen Kane imagery, but maybe I'm crazy.

It brings some sadness to me when reminded of the fact that at one point it was actually a bad thing to be a whore. That day is behind us. These days, it's pretty hard to become "dishonored".

We all have our problems.
The women in this movie shows that by effort
we can overcome the obstacles of our personal
short comings
and meet our better expectations for ourselves.
Today is the first day of our future life.