Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

Lena Rivers AKA The Sin Of Lena Rivers (1932)

Director: Phil Rosen

Cast: Charlotte Henry, Morgan Galloway, Beryl Mercer, James Kirkwood, John St Polis, Betty Blythe, Joyce Compton, Russell Simpson, Clarence Muse, The Kentucky Singers

67 min

Lena Rivers, aka The Sin of Lena Rivers, is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Phil Rosen based on the 1856 novel by Mary Jane Holmes. Filmed on several occasions throughout the silent era.^[1]

Plot

Lena Rivers’ mother dies in childbirth, and the child is left to be reared by her grandparents. Years later, her grandfather is reported lost at sea, and Lena and her grandmother go to live in Canterville, Kentucky with John Nichols, Lena’s uncle, despite the objections of John’s wife Mathilda and his daughter Caroline, who think that Lena is illegitimate.

Henry R. Graham, the owner of the plantation next to the Nichols’, seems bothered when he meets Lena. One day, Lena plays with a bunny on the Graham property, and she is horrified when Graham’s ward, Durrie Belmont, shoots it. Although she calls him a murderer, Durrie, who is courting Caroline, becomes attracted to Lena.

Graham takes a personal interest in Lena because she reminds him of a woman with whom he was in love, but who died while he was away, believing he had deserted her. When Lena shows a gift for calming the excitable horse Brimstone, Graham gives her the horse. After Graham introduces her to Durrie, the boy promises never to shoot another bunny and walks her home. Graham throws a party at his manor, but Lena does not come because she does not have a fancy dress, so Durrie goes to her house.

They take a walk, and he kisses her before she goes in. Caroline sees them together and calls Lena an “ungrateful sneak,” then says she takes after her mother, who never married. Lana slaps her and runs crying to her grandmother, who assures her that her mother was married, but that her father left her to die. Graham enters Brimstone in the races for Lena because she has made astonishing progress with the previously unmanageable horse.

When Lena’s grandmother has an attack, Graham, worried about the effect her possible death might have on Lena, mentions to Durrie that he would like to adopt her. Durrie’s jealousy is aroused, as Caroline had earlier implied that Graham and Lena were having an illicit affair. In reality, Graham is Lena’s father. He had married her mother in secret because of his tyrant father, using his middle name “Rivers” as their surname.

His father “shanghaied” Graham to Europe, and when he returned, he learned that his wife had died. Until Lena recently appeared, he had been unaware that he had a daughter. Brimstone wins the race, and Lena is awarded $5,000, but Durrie discovers that Graham told the jockey of his competing horse to let Brimstone win.

Still unaware of Graham’s real relationship to Lena, Durrie, jealous, angry and drunk, proposes to Caroline, who agrees to marry him. Lena’s grandmother dies after realizing that Lena now has enough money to support herself. Shaken by the death, Lena learns about Durrie and Caroline’s elopement and leaves town to make a new life for herself elsewhere after forgiving Graham, who has revealed his secret to her.

Meanwhile, Durrie drives recklessly and his car goes over an embankment. When Graham finds out that Durrie and Caroline are in the hospital, he sends for Lena. While Caroline flirts with a doctor, Durrie learns that Graham is Lena’s father and leaves the hospital to find her and marry her. He gets into a car to find Lena inside, and they hug and kiss.

Cast

Charlotte Henry – Lena Rivers
Morgan Galloway – Durrie Belmont
Beryl Mercer – Grandmother Nichols
James Kirkwood – Henry R. Graham
John St. Polis – John Nichols
Betty Blythe – Mrs. Mathilda Nichols
Joyce Compton – Caroline Nichols
Russell Simpson – Grandfather Nichols
Clarence Muse – Curfew
John Larkin – Lucifer ‘Lucy’ Jones
The Kentucky Singers – Choir Singers (*Kentucky Jubilee Singers)

References

Jump up^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:..Lena Rivers

Lena Rivers 4

Lena Rivers 3

Film Collectors Corner

Watch Lena Rivers Now – Amazon Instant Video

Blu Ray

Not released on Blu Ray

DVD

Plot

When Julie Ferris, a wealthy young woman searching for excitement, goes slumming at Joe’s Roadside Inn, she notices a group of shady men and follows them in her car. After trailing them for a distance, Julie crashes into their car as they are hijacking two trucks carrying tires. In the ensuing scuffle, the thieves shoot one of the trucks’ drivers, Red Miller, and threaten Julie. Ken McKay, the other driver, protects and rescues Julie, and she immediately falls in love with him. Although her sister Helen and rich brother-in-law George disapprove, Julie marries Ken and moves to Brooklyn.

While determined to make the marriage work, Julie is nonetheless unprepared for her new neighbors, the boorish, nosy Greens. After the Greens crash Julie’s birthday dinner, Herbert Green, who is Ken’s boss at the auto parts store, is told by his overbearing wife that Julie’s snobbish family insulted him. As revenge, Herbert lies to his district manager that Ken has been tipping off the still active hijackers.

Fired, Ken has no luck in finding another job and contemplates making the now pregnant but devoted Julie return to her family when Red Miller, who has opened his own tire store, hires him. In cahoots with the hijackers, Red forces an unsuspecting Ken to help him steal more tire shipments, but Herbert, on a tip from Julie, figures out the plan and calls the police. In the end, the thieves are caught, and a repentant Herbert promises Ken a new job. Thus saved, the newlyweds reaffirm their belief that money means nothing.