East Lynne (1931)
A dream come true—you here in my arms, mistress of East Lynne.
East Lynne (1931) - watched 8/3/2024
Director: Frank Lloyd
Writers: Tom Barry, Bradley King
Starring: Ann Harding, Conrad Nagel, Clive Brook, Cecilia Loftus
Available to watch on YouTube
First Time Watch? Yes
I previously wrote a little bit about the one true lost film to be nominated for Best Picture, The Patriot, from 1928. Another nominee that will come along in a few years, The White Parade, while not completely lost, is not readily available for viewing—it’s housed in the UCLA Film & Television Archive and requires an appointment to their screening room in order to view it (something I very much plan on looking into/scheduling when the time comes—stay tuned).
And now, we have East Lynne. This movie is an interesting one, as for a long time it also was not readily available to see in full, only in the hands of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. There were scrappy little bootleg clips uploaded on YouTube, cobbled together into something resembling a cohesive film, though the most complete version was still missing the last ten minutes.
The film is still not available to stream, nor are there physical copies. It exists in its entirety on YouTube, after a generous and passionate creator uploaded a version that was screened at MoMA. There is an interesting bit of information at the front end of the video, some of which you can read below. I think this introduction sums up my feelings on film preservation, especially where it concerns these three mysterious Best Picture nominees.
Information loss is a big problem. Preservation of cultural artifacts must be done in a timely fashion. Some person or persons with money can make a restored re-release of these two films happen. The existing materials will not last forever.
[...]
By all accounts, the film was a wonder to the eyes and ears and, though its particular form of melodrama is sadly wasted on the tragically ironic, keen viewers reported amazement at the quality of the materials (which were certainly Blu-ray-ready) and at the chance to see a performance by the rarely lauded Ann Harding, who is sensational in the leading role.
It is our hope that the publication of these materials do more good than harm. For one, it cannot be said that these materials are in any way “acceptable” and are certainly flawed in their own ways much like the existing bootlegs of the rest of the film available online.
It is our hope that this video brings needed attention to the plight of East Lynne and films like it, which need financial sponsorship and film-savvy angels to put their resources together to see their release. Speaking off the dome, we could see Kino (to name one label) releasing it on a Blu-ray. Even a transfer from the preservation dupe would look wonderful.
For now, the film will remain online in less-than-attractive pieces as a taste of what could someday be ours.
Please understand that this film deserves to be seen properly and preserved for future viewing.
If you know someone that can make some calls, now is the time.
UCLA, make this film and The White Parade priorities and work with whomever necessary. These films are valuable entertainment and history. Set them free.
The most pathetic figure in life: the man who chooses a career over the woman he loves.
In 19th century England, Robert Carlyle (Conrad Nagel) is a man of high society and we’re not really given much of a reason why or how that came to be. He marries Isabel (Ann Harding), a bubbly, fun-loving woman. In the beginning, the two are madly in love. Robert’s sister, Cornelia (Cecilia Loftus) is the biggest hater of all time and immediately has an issue with their marriage, making it known to Robert that she doesn’t like Isabel.
Three years after the wedding, Robert and Isabel have since had a son, William, and Robert’s attitude toward Isabel has taken a drastic change. He seems to have little patience for her more free-spirited ways, even though honestly Isabel’s behavior is extremely tame. She spends her days mostly just playing with their toddler son and tending to her duties as a woman in high society, which basically amounts to being A Beautiful Woman. One day, after playing with her son outside, Isabel is reprimanded for her hair and clothes looking disheveled right before they are about to entertain guests.
One of their guests, William1 Levison (Clive Brook) is pretty into Isabel, and asks if she will be attending an upcoming ball, one that everyone knows she loves to attend every year. Robert lets her know that, unfortunately, he’ll be out of town on business the night of the ball. Levison suggests he could take Isabel to the ball, and Robert agrees—but only if she is chaperoned by his sister. Well, you know how this goes. On the night of the ball, after Isabel has already gotten all gussied up, Cornelia conveniently has a headache and says she can’t attend. Determined not to let a sickening look go to waste, Isabel leaves anyway, essentially saying “fuck it, we ball.”
She meets up with Levison at the ball, has probably the most adult-oriented fun that she’s had in ages, and Levison escorts her back to East Lynne. He even goes so far as to take Isabel up to her room, and kisses her. Isabel rejects his advances, and he leaves. The next day, while outside with her son teaching him how to ride a pony (she’s a very good, sweet mom!) Isabel’s nursemaid, Joyce (Beryl Mercer) informs her that her husband wants to speak to her right away. Isabel, believing that Robert is upset with her for going to the ball without Cornelia, apologizes profusely—but that’s not why Robert is upset. Oh, no. The hateful snitch Cornelia told him that she saw Levison take Isabel up to her room the night before. They have an argument that ends in Isabel leaving East Lynne, and Robert taking custody of William.
Isabel begins a relationship with Levison and moves with him to Paris, at the same time that the Franco-Prussian War is beginning. Their relationship mirrors the trajectory of Isabel’s first marriage—happy and loving at first, but as the war rages on around them, tensions between them rise and Isabel misses her son more than ever. After an argument with Levison, Isabel has had enough, and she leaves the house they share, set on going back to East Lynne. As she escapes, a nearby building is attacked and collapses, with Isabel getting stuck under the rubble and knocked unconscious. After being nursed back to health, Isabel is informed by her doctor that irreparable damage has been done to her optic nerve and she will soon go completely blind. This news makes her need to see her son again all the more urgent.
Back at East Lynne, little William has fallen ill. His doctor gives the family strict orders not to disturb him and let him rest through the night. Joyce sneaks Isabel into William’s room in the middle of the night to see him one last time. Isabel stays by his bedside all night, stroking his hair and touching his face but not once waking him up. By morning, Isabel is completely blind, the vision of her son peacefully sleeping in his crib the last thing she ever sees.
Robert catches Isabel as she is leaving, and he is furious—he immediately fires Joyce for sneaking Isabel in, but at that point Joyce has ceased to give a flying fuck and lets Robert have it—she tells him the truth of what happened on the night of the ball (which was a big fat nothing) and tells him how much Isabel loved Robert, and that he would never find a love like hers again. Feeling remorse, Robert goes after Isabel, who has managed to leave the house and is wandering the grounds helplessly, unable to see where she is going. She walks perilously close to a cliff that apparently the estate has been built on this entire time? Robert calls out to her and attempts to reach her, but he is too late—Isabel falls off the cliff to her death.
The cruelest truth is that we cannot live our lives apart from the opinion of the world.
The first few minutes of East Lynne had me thinking I was in for a tough time—this did not seem at all like something I would enjoy. A lot of dialogue in the first scene just kind of sounded like “Oh yes… indeed. Quite right, quite right. Indubitably.” That sort of thing, to me, is incredibly boring.
But all things considered, the story ended up intriguing me. At times, it infuriated me. But I think overall I have a slightly more favorable view of it than that of my fellow East Lynne watchers. I’m not leaping-out-of-my-seat in love with it, but the film does have its merits.
Or, maybe more accurately, the film has at least one stunning merit: Ann Harding’s performance. I fell in love with her characterization of Isabel immediately—she’s the only person in this movie I’d ever want to hang out with, which is great considering we spend almost the entire hour and forty-ish minutes with her. She’s funny, she’s effervescent, she doesn’t mind getting a little dirty, she loves to dance, she’s an attentive mother. She’s, truly, the entire package. Robert was lucky to be able to smell her farts, to be honest.
Harding performs these facets of Isabel’s character with ease, which makes the darker moments so striking, at times difficult to stomach. It’s hard to go through the movie seeing this character perpetually being punished, knowing for certain that she never did anything wrong, only to find out that she never finds her much-deserved redemption in the end. It’s an extremely bleak watch, especially for such a rare film that I was looking forward to, but I guess it do be like that sometimes?
One thing that also surprised me about this was the amount of solidarity between women that we see—not with Cornelia, obviously, but we see Joyce risking her job to continue communicating to Isabel, keeping her updated on her son. Joyce would even give William two kisses each night when she put him to bed—one from her, and one from Isabel. Joyce rocks. And when Robert remarries (very quickly, by the way!) his new wife is seemingly sympathetic to Isabel’s situation, and asks him to reconsider letting her see William. Okay, yes, exactly! Now that’s sisterhood!
None of this outweighs how depressing this movie ultimately is, and the needless way it punishes its main character. Isabel could have used a win. I wanted to see her win. Instead, her life is ended abruptly, with no consequences given to the men who destroyed her once beautiful life. I appreciated enough about this movie to not completely hate it, and to recommend it, even, but it left me feeling hopeless and empty. If you’re going to do that to me, movie, it better be for a damn good reason. With East Lynne, I simply can’t figure out what that reason could possibly be.
If you live to be a thousand years you’ll never have anyone to love you as she loved you.”
Quick Facts:
Nominated just one Academy Award, for Best Picture
Only one print of the film is known to exist, preserved in UCLA’s archives
Stray Observations:
2nd film so far that makes a three-year time jump after a wedding! What an oddly specific thing to have in common with The Divorcee.
The relationship between Robert & his sister, especially in relation to Isabel, is giving Phantom Thread vibes.
The “French” accents by American actors are silly, so so silly.
Daddy’s got a tall-ass hat.
At the East Lynne Christmas dinner, Cornelia takes a sip of a drink and says “Too much lemon. Bad for digestion.” Lemon is actually SO good for digestion, you fool. You dumb fuck. You absolute moron.
Not about the movie itself, but about the copy uploaded to YouTube: The ending is pulled from a recording of a screening, and you can distinctly hear the audience… fucking laughing as a newly blind Isabel tries to navigate her way around the grounds of East Lynne and eventually falls to her death? I guess seeing a blind woman stumbling, struggling to find her way is funny now? Weird stuff! Did not like! Would love it if this film could be released somehow without all that noise.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐½
Next Up: The Front Page (1931)
Is it not weird that there are two characters named William in this story? There aren’t that many characters, literally pick another name, wtf