Amnesia on Film: Journal of a Crime (1934)

This pre-Code film deploys amnesia in a manner that is bizarre and possibly unique. Paul, a playwright, is conducting a no ambiguity, no euphemism affair with the actress Odette. His wife Francoise is jealous, so much so that she shoots and kills her rival. And gets away with it. However, she is overcome with guilt and falls into a profound depression, which the actress Ruth Chatterton portrays convincingly, perhaps because her face lacks expression even when she is jubilant. It appears for a while as though Francoise is going to succumb to guilt. However, she is seriously injured in an automobile accident. She is hospitalized but recovers, losing only her memory. But no memory, no guilt, and in the end Francoise has recovered her husband and her health and happily sips martinis on the Riviera. It's a rare case of therapeutic amnesia. Loss of memory doesn't create a problem; it solves it. And why is Paul content to re-unite with his wife the murderess? Because he is convinced that it is all God's will -- a mighty shallow expedient. So God too is complicit in the murder and its aftermath.

This was 1934; they couldn't have made it that way in 1935, when adultery and crime were required to be punished.

Here's Ruth Chatterton, famous in her day but now almost forgotten: 

 

Comments

[Fred Foy]

I noticed this amnesia movie in TCM's listings - then sure enough, I forgot to watch it!