Charming Sinners (1929) DVD-R

Starring Ruth Chatterton, Clive Brook, Mary Nolan, William Powell, Laura Hope Crews,
Florence Eldridge, Montagu Love
Directed by Robert Milton

Print: black/white
Runtime: 66 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

Charming Sinners was a stilted adaptation of Somerset Maugham's play The Constant Wife.
Robert Miles (Clive Brook) starts the ball rolling when he falls in love with Anne-Marie
Whitley (Mary Nolan), the best friend of his own wife Kathryn (Ruth Chatterton). In retaliation,
Kathryn begins a flirtation with her former boyfriend Karl Kraley (William Powell). After reels
and reels of verbal fencing, the status quo is re-established, and Robert and Kathryn are
reunited. So dour and restrained was Clive Brook's performance that one film critic
pretended to mistake him for the family butler! Charming Sinners was also filmed in several
foreign-language versions.