Captive

In Letty Lynton Joan Crawford in the title role abandons the shopgirl roles she was famous for. Here she's quite the rich heiress and as the story opens she's sailing home to New York after giving Nils Asther the air.

Half of Letty Lynton takes place aboard ship and it is there that she meets and falls for the equally rich Robert Montgomery. By the time the boat arrives in New York these two are ready to be wed and they break the news to the parents.

But Asther is persistent and he wants her back because no woman gives him the brush. It leads to some real trouble for Crawford.

It's always been of interest to me how the movie going public just ate up stories like this of the very rich for whom the Great Depression was not touching in the slightest. The only relatively poor people among the main players are District Attorney Lewis Stone and Crawford's maid Louise Closser Hale who is more of a confidante than her stern mother May Robson.

Sex was not the only thing censored by The Code when it was promulgated for the film industry. The actions of several people would not be tolerated when Crawford does get herself into a nice jackpot as she does in and as Letty Lynton.

Joan Crawford's legion of fans will approve of this Depression Era romantic melodrama.