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5.7/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.7/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Transgression remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like movies where people look fabulous while their entire lives fall apart, then yeah, put this on. It’s for the folks who love 1930s melodrama and don’t mind a script that feels like it was written in a fever dream. If you need tight logic or a plot that stays in one lane, skip it. You’ll probably just get annoyed by how fast Elsie ruins her own life. 🍷
Honestly, Kay Francis is the only reason this thing holds together. She’s got this way of looking at a doorway that makes you feel like she’s already mourning her own mistakes. The whole setup—husband in India, wife in Paris—is basically a ticking time bomb. You know exactly what’s going to happen, but you watch anyway.
The pacing is… weird. It jumps from “let’s have a lovely holiday” to “I’ve just ruined my entire future” in about four seconds flat. There’s a scene in a hotel room that lingers on a telephone for so long I started wondering if the prop guy forgot to move it. It felt awkward, but in a way that actually worked for the tension.
It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Saleslady, where the characters act like they’re living on a timer. Everything is urgent, even when they’re just sitting down for tea. It’s exhausting, but hard to look away.
People compare this to stuff like The Scar of Shame for the way it deals with social pressure, but Transgression feels much smaller and meaner. It’s not trying to say anything about the human condition. It’s just trying to see how much one person can screw up before the credits roll.
The ending isn't neat. It doesn't tie up with a bow. It just sort of stops, which is probably the most honest thing about the whole movie. Total chaos. I kind of loved it for that.
IMDb —
1931
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