Journal of a Crime just makes it under the wire as a pre-Code film, the Code going into effect later in 1934. It is written by F. Hugh Herbert and Charles Kenyon and based on a play by Jacques Duval. It is basically a two-person story: Francoise Moliet (Ruth Chatterton) kills her husband's (Adolf Menjou) mistress, Odette Florey (Claire Dodd) and gets away with it when they catch a bankrobber, Costelli (Noel Madison) who had killed a bank teller and was hiding in the theatre where the murder of Odette took place as the play that Mr. Moliet had written was in rehearsal; Costell is blamed for also shooting Odette and is sentenced to death. Paul Moliet doesn't turn his wife in and just lets her guilty conscience gradually destroy her health, as Paul even takes in Odette's dog and Francoise goes to Costelli in his jail cell to confess to him; Costelli doesn't care and only wants to know how Robinson Crusoe ends, since his tattered copy is missing the ending.
Francoise eventually decides to turn herself in but, as she is walking to the district attorney's office she rescues a child from being hit by a car; she herself suffers a severe brain injury and when she recovers she cannot remember anything of the past. The film ends with Paul taking Francoise home.
This admittedly contrived plot is beautifully acted, with complete conviction by Chatterton (whose film acting career ended in the thirties) and dapper Menjou (who acted in Chaplin's A Womam of Paris in 1923 and made his last film in 1960). Keighley, who directed mostly routine films (from 1932 to 1953), works with cinematographer Ernest Haller to keep his camera mobile, as Paul continues his writing career while Francoise stays miserably at home.
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