Lil Dagover

Shortly before my DVR died, I watched The Woman from Monte Carlo. It's available on a Warren William box set, so I'm comfortable doing a full-length review here.

The scene is France's Mediterranean coast in 1914, so just before the start of World War I. Captain Corlaix (Walter Huston) is the captain of the Lafayette a French warship pulling into port. He knows there's a possibility of the war about to break out, discussing a secret code for a friendly ship to pass. Also, his men are ordered to stay on board and not go into port because of the tense situation.

However, there's a party for the officers' and sailors' wives, and among those is Lottie Corlaix (Lil Dagover). When she gets on board the ship, she sees that one of her husband's officers is Lt. d'Ortelles (Warren William), which is a problem since she has a past with him and Capt. Corlaix wouldn't be happy knowing that his wife was less than fully faithful with him. Also on board is Brambourg (John Wray), who also knows that Mme. Corlaix has a past, even if he doesn't fully know what it is.

I mentioned it was 1914 and that the situation is tense, and sure enough all of the wives are going to have to get off the boat because it looks like there really is going to be a war. However, Lottie has been busy seeing d'Ortelles, and fails to get off the boat in time, so it's already pulling out into the open ocean! It's not as if she can jump out a porthole and swim back to shore without being noticed, so she has to hide in d'Ortelles' cabin.

Meanwhile, Brambourg is doing a "lights out" inspection that requires him to go to every cabin, so there's a good chance that he's going to catch d'Ortelles and Lottie together. While he's in d'Ortelles' cabin, the two see the code that Capt. Corlaix was talking about at the beginning of the movie. But: it turns out that some spies had gotten a hold of the code, because this isn't a friendly ship, and it winds up attacking the Lafayette, with a substantial loss of life!

Unsurprisingly, there's a naval court of inquiry, and even though we know Capt. Corlaix is in the right, his defense doesn't have the evidence to prove it. Brambourg is seemingly the spy, having no desire to tell the truth that he saw the code given. As for d'Ortelles, he was wounded in the brief naval battle and has been in a naval hospital delirious ever since, so he's in no condition to testify. And even if he could testify, his health means his testimony would be discounted in favor of Brambourg's.

Ah, but there's one other witness to it all: Lottie. The only problem is, she wasn't supposed to be there, and if she gives her evidence, everybody is going to know that she and d'Ortelles were having an affair, which is also a bit of a problem.

This is based on a play which apparently starred Jeanne Eagels in its first American showing; and if the film has a weakness it's that the stage origins really show. All of the leads try but the material is ground that' been covered quite a few times in movie history and so this isn't the best work for most of the cast. It's not notably bad; it's just that it's also not notably great.

The one person worth mentioning is Lil Dagover. She was a European actress, born in the Dutch East Indies to German parents and became a silent film star in Germany, most notably in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. With the advent of sound movies and the popularity of both Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, other Hollywood studios wanted their own exotic European actresses, so Warner Bros. brought Dagover to Hollywood to make this movie. She's really too old for the part but other than that isn't bad. However, she never made another movie in Hollywood, instead going back to Germany to continue a long acting career.