Week Sixty-Nine
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"The Scarlet Letter" 1934 Tommy (center) |
MOVIE NAME: THE SCARLET LETTER
STUDIO: MAJESTIC PRODUCING CORP.
PRODUCER: LARRY DARMOUR
DIRECTOR: ROBERT G. VIGNOLA
DATE: 1934
TYPE: HISTORICAL DRAMA
CAST:
COLLEEN MOORE as Hester Prynne, HARDIE ALBRIGHT as BeReverend Dimmesdale, HENRY B. WALTHALL as Dr. Roger Prynne, CORA SUE COLLINS as Pearl Prynne , ALAN HALE as Bartholomew Hockings, VIRGINIA HOWELL as Abigail Crakstone, WILLIAM T. KENT as Sampson Goodfellow , WILLIAM FARNUM AS Governor Bellingham , BETTY BLYTHE as Innkeepper , AL C. HENDERSON AS Master Crakstone , TOMMY BUPP, as a marching child
SOURCE: A F I, Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1940
STORY: In 1642, Hester Prynne stands before a hostile Puritan crowd in the town square of Boston, accused of adultery. When she refuses to reveal her daughter Pearl's father's name, she is sentenced to wear a scarlet "A" on her chest, branding her as an adulterer for the rest of her life. Later that day, Reverend Artur Dimmesdale, the handsome young minister with a spotless reputation comes to visit her. He is Pearl's father and begs Hester to allow him to expose his "sin," but she insists that he stay silent and continue to serve his congregation. Dr. Roger Prynne, Hester's husband, who had left America two years before and was presumed to be drowned at sea, has just returned to Boston and witnessed her public humiliation. Using an alias (Dr. Chillingworth) he moves in with the minister and reveals himself to his wife. He swears vengeance on the baby's father and makes her promise not to reveal his identity. Eventually, Roger deduced that Arthur is the father and starts to practice a form of mental torture on him, using his guilt to drive him to physical collapse. Hester's worthiness as a mother is questioned and she is ordered to take her child to the minister for regular catechism lessons. Hester begs Roger to stop his revenge. Angry that he will not stop, Hester tells Arthur about Rogers's identity and asks him to sail away together the next day. As Arthur is about to preside over a wedding, he sees Roger in the crowd and overcome, rips off his shirt to reveal a self-inflicted "A" branded on his chest. Finally freed from his shame Arthur collapses, kisses his daughter and dies.
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