By Frank Miller
Her Private Affair
Brief Synopsis
A judge's wife gets mixed up with a blackmailing gigolo.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Paul Stein
Director
Ann Harding
Vera Kessler
Harry Bannister
Judge Kessler
John Loder
Carl Weild
Kay Hammond
Julia Sturm
Arthur Hoyt
Michael Sturm
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Crime
Release Date
Sep
28,
1929
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Pathé Exchange, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Her Private Affair by Leo Urvantzov (a play, publication undetermined).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 11m
Sound
Mono (RCA Photophone System) (talking sequences)
Color
Black and White
Film Length
6,440ft
(7 reels)
Synopsis
Judge Kessler, a distinguished judge in Vienna, and his wife, Vera, separate for a while after a brief misunderstanding but then reunite. During their separation Vera writes Arnold Hartmann some incriminating letters with which he later blackmails her. She pays Hartmann in his apartment, but he forces unwanted advances on her, and she picks up a revolver which accidentally goes off and kills him. Grimm, the butler, is charged with the murder, though acquitted, but guilt and blood are so much on Vera's mind that she leaves her husband. On New Year's Eve, she meets Grimm, who begs her to prevent his insanity by telling him that he did not commit the murder. She admits to the action; and her husband, overhearing her confession, comes to her and they fall into each other's arms.
Director
Paul Stein
Director
Cast
Ann Harding
Vera Kessler
Harry Bannister
Judge Kessler
John Loder
Carl Weild
Kay Hammond
Julia Sturm
Arthur Hoyt
Michael Sturm
William Orlamond
Dr. Zeigler
Lawford Davidson
Arnold Hartmann
Elmer Ballard
Grimm
Frank Reicher
State's attorney
Crew
David Abel
Director of Photography
E. J. Babille
Assistant Director
Herman Bernstein
Adaptation
Norbert Brodine
Director of Photography
W. C. Brown
Recording Engineer
D. A. Cutler
Recording Engineer
Francis E. Faragoh
Scen
Francis E. Faragoh
Adaptation
Francis E. Faragoh
Dial
Rollo Lloyd
Dialogue Director
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Crime
Release Date
Sep
28,
1929
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Pathé Exchange, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Her Private Affair by Leo Urvantzov (a play, publication undetermined).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 11m
Sound
Mono (RCA Photophone System) (talking sequences)
Color
Black and White
Film Length
6,440ft
(7 reels)
Articles
Her Private Affair
By only her second film, Ann Harding was drawing a solid fan following attracted to her cool blonde beauty and patrician bearing. That bearing was put to the test in this adaptation of a failed Broadway play about a respectable married woman blackmailed by a man with whom she had flirted during a brief separation from her husband. When she goes to collect some incriminating letters, the blackmailer tries to get her into bed, only to end up shot in self-defense. Fearing scandal, Harding flees the scene, but later convinces a family friend to defend the butler unjustly accused of the crime.
The film showcases Harding's beauty from the first shot, showing her reflected in an ornate mirror as she prepares for a night at the opera (Carmen, the perfect entertainment for an almost fallen woman). Audiences loved the way her beauty survived the near loss of her honor and her growing guilt.
Harding was one of several stage actors lured to Hollywood at the dawn of sound. Executives at Pathé were so impressed with her husky line deliveries that they even signed her husband, Harry Bannister, to a contract and made him the leading man opposite her. They would reteam a year later for The Girl of the Golden West (1930), by which time his habit of telling directors what to do soured his relationship with the studio and his wife.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
Her Private Affair
By only her second film, Ann Harding was drawing a solid fan following attracted to her cool blonde beauty and patrician bearing. That bearing was put to the test in this adaptation of a failed Broadway play about a respectable married woman blackmailed by a man with whom she had flirted during a brief separation from her husband. When she goes to collect some incriminating letters, the blackmailer tries to get her into bed, only to end up shot in self-defense. Fearing scandal, Harding flees the scene, but later convinces a family friend to defend the butler unjustly accused of the crime.
The film showcases Harding's beauty from the first shot, showing her reflected in an ornate mirror as she prepares for a night at the opera (Carmen, the perfect entertainment for an almost fallen woman). Audiences loved the way her beauty survived the near loss of her honor and her growing guilt.
Harding was one of several stage actors lured to Hollywood at the dawn of sound. Executives at Pathé were so impressed with her husky line deliveries that they even signed her husband, Harry Bannister, to a contract and made him the leading man opposite her. They would reteam a year later for The Girl of the Golden West (1930), by which time his habit of telling directors what to do soured his relationship with the studio and his wife.
By Frank Miller
