Someone once said that they don't make pictures in Hollywood they remake them. Stronger Than Desire is a remake of William K. Howard's Evelyn Prentice from 1935. The screenplays are fairly close but if I prefer Fenton's film it's because I prefer Walter Pigeon and Virginia Bruce to William Powell and Myrna Loy, cinematographer William Daniels to Charles G. Clarke and director Leslie Fenton to Howard.
Walter Pigeon is a busy lawyer who, it is suggested, occasionally sleeps with his clients. When the film starts Pigeon has just gotten Rita Johnson off on a manslaughter charge while scorning her overtures. Then Johnson appears in his compartment on a train to Boston and he spanks her. This seems to excite her and they kiss and (presumably) have an affair. Meanwhile Bruce is a bored socialite and takes up with lounge lizard Lee Bowman, who saves her (presumably) innocent notes and attempts to blackmail her. She shoots him; his wife, the always effective Anne Dvorak, is arrested for the crime. Pigeon discovers Bruce's relationship with Bowman, by finding a picture of him that has Bruce reflected in his eyeball, at the same time that Bruce blurts out a confession in court. Pigeon puts Dvorak back on the stand and cleverly elicits from her that Bruce's shot missed Bowman and Dvorak shot him when he attacked her. The jury acquits Dvorak, Pigeon forgives Bruce and husband and wife and young daughter sail for Europe.
This rather crazy plot works on a number of levels, examining gender roles and hypocrisy as well as class differences and struggles. Cinematographer William Daniels (who photographed most of Greta Garbo's films) captures the life and wealth of Bruce and Pigeon with glamorous backlighting, contrasting it with the dingy apartment of Dvorak and Bowman. Leslie Fenton's direction is subtle, making it entirely plausible that Bruce could fall for Bowman, who brings some excitement into her boring upper-class existence.
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