... or How Some Adaptations Just Don't Work in the Production Code Era. For a thorough plot synopsis of Hedy Lamarr's Lady of the Tropics here's a link to Classic Film Guide's plot summary of it. It deals with sexual taboos, race and national differences, all topics recently mentioned here on Cinema Styles. Written by the great Ben Hecht and based on the 18th century novel Manon Lescaut, the movie was, as they say, lost in the translation. The adaptation got tepid responses and today plays more for unintentional laughs.
You owe it to yourself to click on the poster to enlarge it so you can read some of the nuggets of dialogue printed on the poster. My personal favorite: "Half-caste or not -- I want you."
Poor Ben. Everybody stumbles at some point, I suppose.
