Elsie is left to fend for herself (and fend off suitors) when her husband disappears for a year: he’s buried deep in some Indian mine while she navigates Parisian minefields of unholy matrimony. Herbert Brenon’s direction is slow and lackluster and even the great DP Leo Tover’s compositions are dull and typical, though Kay Francis suffers tragically she retains her innocent charm and erotic beauty. But it’s the final act that saves the film from complete boredom though it fails to resolve her emotionally flawed marriage and leaves the situation status quo.
Plot: hubby goes away and his young adorable wife Elsie (Kay Francis) is sent off to Paris to kill time until his return. What did he think would happen, for god’s sake? Elsie becomes friends to the suave Arturo (Ricardo Cortez) who seeks benefits from his Platonic companion. He eventually tricks her into staying at his Spanish villa mano-a-womano. Then the shit hits the fan! So, hubby is too vanilla, and we are given no background or insight into his character; we just accept him as a decent older guy with a creeper mustache. Arturo is given some exposition as a sinister “ladies-man” and his obsessive demeanor with Elsie is troubling, yet he respects her boundaries. The film is almost entirely from Elsie’s perspective and is concerned with her struggle to make the right decision: divorce hubby to run away with another rich mysterious dude or stay in her static marriage. At the villa she pens a “Dear John” letter to hubby and off it goes in the mail moments before Arturo meets his doom at the hands of a vengeful father. Seems Arturo raped a sixteen-year-old girl, and she died giving birth to his child! He’s shot dead, she flees into the moist night and must recover the letter before it reaches hubby in England.
The final act even retains another surprise: Arturo’s mad scientist-looking cohort actually has the letter (he never mailed it) and uses it to blackmail Elsie. She finally relents and is about to tell her hubby everything when they discover that the letter is blank! Turns out Arturo burnt the original letter and shoved blank paper in the envelope when he sealed it with his ring, just before he was murdered. Was this a true act of love on his part or another form of manipulation? Hubby declares he doesn’t need to know the facts and they live happily ever after. I guess.
Final Grade: C