DISHONORED LADY

In this drama, Madeleine Damien (Hedy Lamarr) is a successful magazine editor with a free-spirited private life, but a number of failed relationships and years of burning the candle at both ends have taken their toll and Madeleine is suicidal and on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Her psychiatrist, Dr. Caieb (Morris Carnovsky), advises her to find a less stressful and more personally satisfying line of work, so Madeleine leaves the publishing industry and moves to a flat in Greenwich Village, where she pursues a long-standing dream of becoming an artist. Madeleine falls in love with a scientist living in her building, Dr. David Cousins (Dennis O'Keefe), and they plan to marry. However, shortly before they are to wed, David is called out of town and Madeleine decides to visit a nightclub, where she runs into Felix Courtland (John Loder), a jeweler with whom she once had an affair. Felix invites Madeleine back to his apartment, but before long she begins to think better of it and tries to slip out the back before he gets the wrong idea; however, at the same time Jack Garet (William Lundigan), a former employee of Felix, arrives at the front door.

Jack stole some jewels from Felix but begs him not to turn him in to the police; a fight breaks out, and Jack kills Felix. Since Madeleine was the last person to be seen with Felix, she is accused of murdering him, and David, not knowing of her stormy personal life before he met her, refuses to have anything to do with her

THE STRANGE WOMAN

Set in the early 19th century, The Strange Woman takes place in Bangor, Maine, where logging and lumber mills have made the town prosperous. Jenny Hager (Lamarr) has grown up in Bangor, not far from the watchful eye of wealthy Isaiah Poster (Gene Lockhart). The fact that Jenny is twenty years Isaiah's junior does not stem his amorous intentions, and when she's finally out of her teens, Jenny accepts his proposal of marriage.

But beneath her sweet exterior, Jenny is a shrewd, conniving women, and while she makes a fine life for herself with Isaiah's money, she obviously doesn't care for him. When Isaiah's son Ephraim (Louis Hayward) visits from college, Jenny is immediately attracted to him, and she tells him that she'll marry him if he murders his father. But, unknown to Ephraim, Jenny is already scheming to win the affections of businessman John Evered (George Sanders), even though he's pledged to marry her best friend Meg (Hillary Brooke). Based on a novel by Ben Ames Williams, The Strange Woman was generally considered one of Hedy Lamarr's best performances.