022 - Come Back a Star - East Lynne

Early in the 20th century, the joke was that theaters would put on a play adaptation of East Lynne whenever they had just produced a flop. The story was just that well known and loved. When motion pictures came along, the novel was adapted for film SEVERAL times before this 1931 talkie. This adaptation keeps the principle characters' names the same, but otherwise re-writes decent portions of the story. The result is a more modern story that lacks some of the melodramatic absurdity of the original. Sadly the last twelve minutes of the film are missing. The big question is, will the changes made to this height of melodrama be enough to make us care about the missing footage.