Transgression (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Transgression |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 70 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Herbert Brenon |
| script | Martin Flavin |
| production | RKO |
| camera | Leo Tover |
| cut | Arthur Roberts |
| occupation | |
| |
Transgression is a 1931 American film starring Kay Francis .
action
The young Elisie Maury is married to the much older Robert, who leaves her in the care of his tyrannical sister in England during an extended stay in India. Elsie is oppressed by her sister-in-law and leads the life of a slave. One day the shy young woman gathers all her courage and flees to Paris. Within a very short time, the unattractive Elise develops into a vamp who seduces the men in rows and plays with her lovers at will. One day Elise falls for the Spanish nobleman Don Arturo, who casts her spell on her during a passionate tango. They both go to Spain and Don Arturo swears eternal love to Elsie. In the exuberance of feelings, the young woman writes to her husband and declares that she will never return. She confesses to Arturo how happy she is when the father of a young girl from the village who has made Arturo pregnant appears and shoots Arturo. The deeply shaken Elsie returns home to England and is soon afterwards blackmailed because of the letter she was still writing in Spain. Many complications follow before Elsie and her husband find true happiness.
background
Within a few months, Kay Francis had risen to become a popular actress in the melodramatic fate of women, even if her home studio Paramount didn't really know how to use it. After some success at the side of William Powell , Francis was especially popular among the female audience for her ability to carry extravagant wardrobes on the screen with the utmost ease. Her films often showed Francis as a woman who has to endure endless strokes of fate in search of true happiness. The newly founded studio RKO hired the actress for the remake of Transgression , a material that also starred Ricardo Cortez in the lead role as early as 1924 . The representation of extramarital sex and female self-determination was quite daring for the time, but not an outrage, as the Production Code was not yet in force and the current censorship regulations were handled rather laxly.
The film is by Herbert Brenon , who staged some successes during the silent film era, such as Sorrell and Son with Nils Asther or Beau Geste with Ronald Colman and Alice Joyce , without any particular inspiration. With a few exceptions, the dialogue is banal and the characters barely have any depth. Francis later made three more films with Cortez, who met a violent death in each of these films. The success of Transgression was short-term, however, as Paramount still didn't know what to do with Francis. A short time later, she moved with Ruth Chatterton and William Powell in early 1932 to Warner Brothers , who promised her better pay and bigger roles.
Reviews
The film was dismissed as old-fashioned by the critics.
The New York Times didn't say anything positive:
“[The movie] is not particularly subtle. [...] Kay Francis gives a clean presentation. "
The Los Angeles Evening Herald was similarly critical of the goings-on on the screen:
" Transgression has much of the breathless quality that was popular in the old silent films."
Theatrical release
The film cost $ 279,000 to make and turned out to be a flop at the box office. In the US, revenue was just $ 269,000, with a very modest $ 41,000 coming from overseas markets. With total revenues of just $ 310,000, the studio ended up lucky to only post a loss of $ 85,000.
Web links
- Transgression in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Transgression at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Transgression (1931). In: Kay Francis Films. Archived from the original on February 18, 2014 .
source
- Scott O'Brien - Kay Francis - I Can't Wait to be Forgotten - Her Life by Film and Stage; ISBN 1-59393-036-4
Literature on the subject of pre-code films
- Mark A. Viera: Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, ISBN 978-0-8109-4475-6
- Mick LaSalle: Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood - ISBN 978-0-312-28431-2
- Thomas Doherty: Pre-Code Hollywood. ISBN 978-0-231-11095-2
- Lea Jacobs: The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, 1928–1942 - ISBN 978-0-520-20790-5