Michael and Mary (1932)

This romance, based on a surprisingly sophisticated story by Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne, teams up Herbert Marshall with his then-wife Edna Best. Best is Mary Price, deserted by her husband when he leaves England to seek his fortune during the Boer War in 1900. Destitute and desperate, she meets aspiring author Michael Rowe (Marshall) at a museum. Rowe offers to share what little money he has with her and soon a romance develops. They agree to marry, in hopes that her husband has disappeared for good. And, as the years pass, it seems like he has. Rowe becomes a successful and respected writer and he and Mary raise a son, David (Frank Lawton). On the night that David becomes engaged to pretty society girl Romo (Elizabeth Allan), however, Price (D.A. Clarke-Smith) reappears, and while the young couple is away, Rowe has a fight with Price, who dies at the scene from a heart attack. Michael and Mary are interrogated, but Scotland Yard never makes the connection between Price and Mary, and the investigators assume that Michael was merely protecting himself from an intruder. While the couple is off the hook legally, they feel it is morally necessary to come clean about their past in front of David and his fiancée. David is more than willing to forgive his parents their sins, and Romo stands by them, too. What could have been a tiresome subject is brought to life by the talent of all involved -- not only the actors, but also writers Angus MacPhail, Robert Stevenson, and Lajos Biro, who brought Milne's story to the screen. Stevenson, incidentally, would become one of Britain's most respected directors, and MacPhail would frequently work with Alfred Hitchcock -- though apparently not on The Man Who Knew Too Much, which gave Best one of her best screen roles. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi