Summary
A shimmering Alpine sanatorium for the bored elite becomes the stage where class masquerade bleeds into erotic vertigo: Daryl Sutherland—petite mannequin disguised as satin heiress—glides through the chandeliers like a secret chord, her every syllable calibrated to mimic old-money languor. She collides with John Lockwood, a painter whose palette still smells of turpentine and revolt; between them sparks a rapport stitched from half-truths, the kind that makes onlookers recall Sappho in gloves. Mrs. Ramsey—patroness, collector, carnivorous orchid—sniffs competition and rips the lace curtain off Daryl’s pedigree, hurling the words “cloak model” like a rusted javelin. In the ensuing scandal, Daryl shields the older woman from a husband bristling with cuckolded fury by swearing that Lockwood is already her spouse; the lie detonates through drawing-rooms, rearranging desire’s furniture. Later, a telegram wrapped in black border hints that Daryl’s consumptive sister carried more than tuberculosis from Lockwood’s garret—guilt metastasizes, suspicion coils. Avalanche, moonlit sleigh chase, pistol dropped in powder-snow: the film hurtles toward absolution, revealing the real seducer as a mustachioed banker already linked to <a href="/movies/the-merry-go-round">The Merry-Go-Round</a>’s stock-market hymn. Fog lifts; two silhouettes embrace against glacier-blue, the lie that saved a marriage now the truth that seals their own.
Synopsis
Daryl Sutherland, in the guise of a society belle, makes the acquaintance of young artist John Lockwood at an exclusive mountain resort. Their friendship drifts into mutual attraction until Mrs. Ramsey, a devotee of the artist, determines to win his attentions and exposes Daryl as a cloak model. Daryl manages to protect Mrs. Ramsey from her irate husband by claiming that Lockwood is her husband. Later, Daryl suspects that he is the seducer of her dying sister; but following a series of dramatic incidents, Lockwood is exonerated and a happy reunion results.
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