Tarnished Lady (1931) DVD-R

Starring Tallulah Bankhead, Clive Brook, Phoebe Foster, Alexander Kirkland, Elizabeth
Patterson
Directed by George Cukor

Print: black/white
Runtime: 83 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

Renowned American-born London stage star Tallulah Bankhead made her feature sound
film debut in this drama based on Donald Ogden Stewart's story New York Lady. Bankhead
plays Nancy Courtney, a gold-digging socialite who sets her sights on Norman Cravath (Clive
Brook), a wealthy tycoon. Their marriage exasperates Nancy's ex-boyfriend, DeWitt Taylor
(Alexander Kirkland), and her rival, Germaine Prentiss (Phoebe Foster). Nancy soon grows
tired of the tedium of marriage and returns to making her rounds in nightclubs (some
scenes were shot on location in a Harlem club). Nancy finally gets her own job and becomes
increasingly independent even after she has a child. But Cravath's fortune is wiped out in
the stock market crash. Nancy feels bad for her husband and returns to him, and for the
first time they discover true love together, unsullied by the pursuit of material wealth. This
film was the first feature directed solely by George Cukor, who would go on to be the
champion of "women's pictures" such as The Philadelphia Story.