The Strange Case of Clara Deane

It's 1912 and Wynne Gibson has a great career as a dress designer for Lee Kohlmer. She throws it all over to get married to insurance agent Pat O'Brien. Soon they have a daughter, Cora Sue Collins, but O'Brien isn't working so steadily at selling insurance any more. In fact, he's a gangster, as Miss Gibson discovers when they're out for a joyride and he commits robbery and shoots down a pursuing cop. Miss Gibson goes to prison too. When she gets out, she wants to see her daughter, who has grown up to be Frances Dee, the adopted daughter of Police Inspector Dudley Digges -- great onomatopoeia, that, he should have stayed a detective -- who thinks thinks her unnamed parents are dead.

It's got a bit of a MADAME X vibe to it, as you can see, and the casting is very interesting, with Digges holding the acting honors. He was one of those supporting actors of the 1930s wo would turn up in good pictures, do his bit as a minor authority figure, and get offscreen, leaving the stars very much. I'm not so fond of Miss Gibson's performance; as the lead, she should be more interested, but she plays the character as depressed and hesitant.... and depressed characters rarely do anything particularly interesting.

There's been some mention of the poor image quality of these pre-code Paramounts that have been showing up recently, and that's understandable. They look like TV prints that were recorded off the air 40 years ago. They probably were. Yet the sound tracks always seem to be in good shape.

Wynne Gibson didn't get to play a lot of leading roles, and she proves up to the task in this Stella Dallas/ Madelon Claudet/ Madame X-type weepie about the bad things that happen to a good woman. She's a talented dress designer circa 1912 who marries a shady insurance dealer (Pat O'Brien, cast against type and convincingly smarmy) and ends up an unwilling accomplice in an armed robbery. Forced to give up her adorable daughter, she emerges from prison and tries to track her down, hindered by a Javert-like but not entirely unsympathetic inspector (Dudley Digges). Gibson's makeup job doesn't convince you she spent 15 years at hard labor, but it's a sincere performance, and the mother-love suds churn up to a satisfying climax. This one isn't even shown on TCM (I saw it at Cinefest 2006, in Syracuse), and it's a shame, because it's faster-moving and less pretentious than other, more famous titles in this often-annoying subgenre.

Old-fashioned soaper ala "Stella Dallas", which was made previously and remade a few years after this film. In this case, a mother is forced to give up her child then searches for her years later, in this case after getting out of prison. She was unjustly accused of aiding her husband in a robbery, and spends a great deal of time looking for her daughter. The picture stars Wynne Gibson in the title role, Pat O'Brien as her husband and Dudly Digges as the (semi) helpful detective.

The acting is the best part of the film as all three actors are superb, especially Gibson. She never became a top star in Hollywood and which seemed to suit her, as she was primarily a stage actress. It's dated, of course, so you watch it as a museum piece without relevance these days, except for the 'crime does not pay' angle. And do people still go to prison for 15 years at hard labor for such a crime? It was shown at Capitolfest, Rome, N.Y., 8/19.

******* 7/10 - Website does not print my star rating.