It's difficult to know what exactly happened to 'The Strange Woman' along the way: Did the censors make them inject the morality? Did Hedy demand her character have some goodness? Whatever the case, the end result is somewhat schizophrenic and confused.
Hedy Lamarr is at her sultry best in this melodramatic period romance (I wouldn't call it a noir) that follows the life of a young girl in a small logging town Maine who uses her natural beauty and powers of seduction, to gain wealth and power, leaving a wake of destruction in her path. She's the sort of anti-hero you really want to hate, a real bad seed. But for some reason, she keeps doing nice things for people, which is totally confusing, because it's utterly out of character.
There are a whole lot of indecent affairs, backstabbing. There's also a whole lot of God bothering and women's temperance meetings, none of which is all that relevant to the story, but probably served to get the movie through the censorship gauntlet. It all leaves one wondering what this film could have been.
Hedy Lamarr is at her sultry best in this melodramatic period romance (I wouldn't call it a noir) that follows the life of a young girl in a small logging town Maine who uses her natural beauty and powers of seduction, to gain wealth and power, leaving a wake of destruction in her path. She's the sort of anti-hero you really want to hate, a real bad seed. But for some reason, she keeps doing nice things for people, which is totally confusing, because it's utterly out of character.
There are a whole lot of indecent affairs, backstabbing. There's also a whole lot of God bothering and women's temperance meetings, none of which is all that relevant to the story, but probably served to get the movie through the censorship gauntlet. It all leaves one wondering what this film could have been.