ludivinereynaud The movie is certainly enjoyable. However, the plot is in my opinion, lacks subtleties as there was something somewhat ludicrous about Lamarr's borderline-psychopathic femme fatale part. From the beginning to the end, the movie was generally fairly predictable.I am very fond of Lamarr, and, apart from her stunning looks (although marred by an overly heavy make-up in this particular movie), I still thought she played her part well. Add to that that this is a period drama, with stunning costumes.Having said that, once again the overall plot didn't really cut much ice with me.

Robert J. Maxwell This romantic melodrama, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer -- the giant of Poverty Row best known for his ability to write, produce, and direct a full-fledged movie on a budget of two cents -- has Hedy Lamarr as a scheming, poor, young wanton in 19th-century Bangor, Maine. Of course all the men are after her because she's beautiful. She really is. It doesn't matter that her name isn't actually Hedy Lamarr. Nobody is named Hedy Lamarr. She was born Cosima Ausgang von Bahnhof in Furzheim, Germany. But, honestly, it doesn't detract from her appeal, nor does the fact that she got into Hollywood movies by seducing a move mogul on a trans-Atlantic passage.She insinuates herself into the arms of the lustful and rotund Gene Lockhart. He believes he's tricked her into marriage but it's the other way around. He's the richest merchant in the port of Bangor and besides he has a handsome young son, Louis Hayward, away at Harvard. Once properly ensconced in Lockhart's home, she writes Hayward, who is her age, to hurry back to Bangor so "I can show you how warm a mother can be," the slut. The thoughtful decent architect returns to his home. Lamarr at once puts tantalizing moves on him.Ulmer has a reasonable budget here and makes good use of it, and there are some adequate performances. Gene Lockhart in particular knows his way around a rather complicated role. Hayward is less jaunty than usual. In fact, he's something of a milquetoast. When a mob abuses a young working woman, it's Lamarr who intervenes, not Hayward. Lamarr herself, hobbled by a slight accent, projects the workings of her mind the way a traffic light signals "go" or "caution" or "halt." There's not the slightest hint of subtlety. But, honestly, it doesn't detract from her appeal.Halfway through, George Sanders shows up. He's Lockhart's foreman at the lumber camp. A foreman, yes, but a dapper one. I've never really thought of George Sanders as a rough-and-tumble man of the woods, a Sebastian Junger, but rather the cad he usually is. However, his smooth posh baritone saves his bacon. He's the beau of Hillary Brooke, a childhood friend of Lamarr's. But the moment he appears, Lamarr's features become incandescent and glandular. She begins to avoid her son. Has Hayward shown himself to be not enough of a man? Is there any end to Lamarr's depravity? It has to be said that the plot is a little unraveled somewhere around the mid-point. Things kind of nudge themselves into the plot without adumbration. A riot erupts out of nowhere. The selfish Lamarr begins distributing money, leading the Temperance League, and doing community service without explanation. Maybe we're meant to exercise our inferential faculties with more vigor. I think it's bad screen writing.Then, when Hayward is packing for a trip up river and they're alone in the house, she lets her hair down, descends the grand staircase, snuffs out the lights and silently approaches him while he gawks at her in fright. For a moment, it looks like a vampire movie. But instead of sucking his blood, she extorts the poor guy, blackmailing him into thinking that he must snuff his own father. Patricide is a serious business. If you were a patricide in traditional China, you would be subject to a long and lingering death, your relatives would have curses tattooed on their faces, and the bones of your ancestors would be exhumed and scattered to the winds, no kidding. The moral is: don't do it unless you feel really strongly about it.As it turns out, Hayward is accidentally instrumental in causing his father's death when in a panic he overturns the canoe running the rapids. I don't want to bother looking it up, but it seems to me the shots of the canoes and the rapids are from an old John Ford movie. It's exactly what Lamarr wants. Lockhart is out of the way and the wretched Hayward is somehow responsible, so she kicks him out and turns her attention to George Sanders. Hayward, ridden with guilt, turns into a drunk.Situation report: Lamarr has become the doyen of Bangor, Maine. She has done so by seducing Gene Lockhart, Louis Hayward, and George Sanders, by seeing to it that Lockhart has met his death, by prompting the despairing Hawyard to hang himself, and by stealing away the beau of her best friend, Hillary Brooke. She's now "the richest woman in New England." Little does she know, tragedy lies just around the corner..

bkoganbing The Strange Woman is an interesting piece of experimentation by Hedy Lamarr. Though her Viennese accent is hardly suggestive of down home Maine, the idea was to cast a woman that men are just drooling over. Half the population of 1820s Bangor, Maine certainly was. Her accent is also a hindrance in that Dennis Hoey is supposed to be her father. She sure didn't learn to talk the way she does from him.Watching this film ought to make people realize that the newly admitted state of Maine was as much a frontier as the west was. It was part of Massachusetts until it was split off and admitted as its own state in 1821. Those scenes of the drunken loggers and sailors are very much like Dodge City when the Texas cattlemen are in town and on a tear. And there was no Wyatt Earp to keep them in line.There's a prologue where we see the characters of Hedy Lamarr and Louis Hayward as children. This is one pretty girl who later becomes a beautiful woman, but is as ruthless and evil in getting what she wants.What she wants is to get out of Hoey's home and influence so she sets her cap for rich logging merchant Gene Lockhart. Hayward is his weakling son who wants her bad. He does anything for her and it destroys him in the end.After Lockhart dies she decides she wants George Sanders as her second husband. Sanders is the manager of the logging camp and he and Hillary Brooke are an item. Never mind that, Sanders is putty in her hands as Hayward was. Hayward is an actor waiting to be rediscovered. That man could and did play all kinds of roles and was never afraid of being a villain.Except for an incredibly contrived cop out ending which ruined the film, The Strange Woman will make for some interesting viewing.

Alex da Silva Jenny (Heddy Lamarr) marries the local wealthy businessman Isaiah (Gene Lockhart) purely for money and a position of power. She plots his downfall, his son Ephraim's (Louis Hayward) downfall and that of her friend Meg (Hillary Brooke) by stealing her boyfriend John (George Sanders). She is bad news. No-one wins in this story.The cast do a good job in this film which starts well. However, the pace slows down before picking up again with the introduction of John just over half-way through. Geeorge Sanders just about gets away with portraying a tough lumberjack type despite his accent, and Hedy Lamarr's accent strikes an occasional odd chord. However, she is good in the lead role and is both funny and convincing as a wicked woman, eg, the scene where she arrives at Isaiah's house after getting a beating from her father which she seems to have enjoyed. Watch how she pulls down the back of her dress to reveal her bruising to the housekeeper whilst looking seductively over her bare shoulder at Isaiah in order to gain his interest sexually.The film has some stand-out funny moments that centre around Jenny's behaviour but I felt let-down by the ending. It's too convenient. Still, the film is worth keeping on to despite the occasional slow sections.