Summary
A velvet-gloved dinner party in suburban splendor becomes the proscenium for a slow-motion marital autopsy when Leila Templeton—equal parts siren and social piranha—threads her gaze through Harleth Crossey’s armor of respectability. One tipsy midnight spin later, the marriage’s ligaments snap audibly; Marcia’s humiliation calcifies into granite silence while Harleth’s apologies drip like water off marble—cold, useless, instantly evaporated. Switchboard lies, chauffeur threats, and a secretary’s casual phone call detonate the remaining scraps of trust, sending Marcia storming toward divorce court and Harleth straight into Leila’s permissive embrace. Two years of ostensible freedom later, the same rhetoric of “personal liberty” boomerangs: Leila flirts, Harleth snarls, Otis Vale—half martyr, half time-bomb—kidnaps the coquette and drives them both over a craggy cliff in a fiery consummation of obsession. When the telegram reads “Mrs. Crossey,” Harleth’s grief-stricken scramble ends at the doorstep of the first Mrs. Crossey, whose quiet recognition of their enduring, intangible tether dissolves acrimony into reconciliation without a single spoken vow.
Synopsis
Seductress Leila Templeton flirts with Harleth Crossey at his wife Marcia's dinner party. After the intoxicated Harleth takes a midnight drive with Leila, his next-day apologies fail to assuage Marcia's humiliation. Later, Harleth's secretary calls Marcia to say that he will not be home for dinner. When the maid warns Marcia that the chauffeur is crazily threatening to shoot her unless she marries him, Marcia tries to contact Harleth, but is told by a lying switchboard operator that he is with Leila. Harleth's subsequent tirade expressing a need for "personal liberty" drives Marcia to seek a divorce. Two years later, Harleth marries Leila. After she responds to his complaints about her flirting by asserting her "personal liberty," Otis Vale, whom Leila has driven nearly insane with her teasing, abducts her. His frenzied condition causes their automobile to tumble over a cliff, killing them both. When Harleth learns that "Mrs. Crossey" has died, he imagines it to be Marcia, and rushes to her. The relief he shows convinces her that their "invisible bond" is intact, and they reconcile.
Review Excerpt
"
Picture the Jazz-Age drawing room: chandeliers dripping like honey, laughter fizzing like over-charged champagne, and a string quartet sawing away at something that sounds suspiciously like tomorrow’s heartbreak. Into this brittle paradise glides Leila Templeton—played by Irene Castle with the languid menace of a panther who has already mentally counted the exit routes—her cigarette holder tilting at the precise angle to suggest both invitation and indictment. Across the room, Harleth Crossey (..."
