A farmer falls in love with a woman from the big city. She encourages him to murder his wife, after which he can sell the farm and live in the city with her. She figures out how he can do it, by faking a boating accident in which the wife drowns. He takes his wife out into the middle of the lake, starts to kill her, but finds he cannot do it. However, his wife saw the murderous intent in his eyes and flees from him as soon as they reach the other side of the lake. He keeps catching up with her, and she keeps trying to get away. Little by little, they reconcile, and she forgives him.
Now, we all know that in a lot of old movies, a woman is expected to forgive her husband's indiscretions, and if she does not, she is regarded as foolish and wrongheaded, such as in "The Women" (1939) or "The Philadelphia Story" (1940). But it is one thing for a wife to forgive adultery, and it is quite another thing for her to forgive his almost carrying out a plan to murder her. And yet this movie would not only have us believe that a wife could forgive such a husband, which is preposterous, but it also would have us regard her forgiving him as an expression of the purity of her heart, which is outrageous. No woman should forgive that, and any who did is a fool.
The man and his wife essentially renew their vows by watching another couple's wedding, and then carry on like a couple of newlyweds on their honeymoon. Finally, it is time to go home, and they get back on their little boat and head across the lake. A storm suddenly appears, capsizes the boat, and he believes that she has drowned. So, in a manner reminiscent of "An American Tragedy," the accident that he was planning to fake actually happens.
When the woman from the big city comes looking for him, thinking that he pulled it off, he becomes furious and starts strangling her. The idea is that she is the villain of the piece. In other words, it was really her fault that he almost murdered his wife. So while his wife forgave him, he does not forgive this woman. And just as the movie would have us approve of the wife's forgiving the husband, it would also approve of the woman's being strangled, giving her what she deserved.
At the last minute, it turns out his wife has been rescued. He stops strangling the woman and returns home to be with his wife and child. The sun rises, presumably symbolic of the couple's fresh start in having a happy marriage.
The patriarchal attitude of this movie, that a woman should forgive her husband of his sins because it is some other woman who is really to blame, is all the more stunning in that the men who produced this movie and held these views apparently did so without the slightest sense of just how self-serving those views really are.
Now, we all know that in a lot of old movies, a woman is expected to forgive her husband's indiscretions, and if she does not, she is regarded as foolish and wrongheaded, such as in "The Women" (1939) or "The Philadelphia Story" (1940). But it is one thing for a wife to forgive adultery, and it is quite another thing for her to forgive his almost carrying out a plan to murder her. And yet this movie would not only have us believe that a wife could forgive such a husband, which is preposterous, but it also would have us regard her forgiving him as an expression of the purity of her heart, which is outrageous. No woman should forgive that, and any who did is a fool.
The man and his wife essentially renew their vows by watching another couple's wedding, and then carry on like a couple of newlyweds on their honeymoon. Finally, it is time to go home, and they get back on their little boat and head across the lake. A storm suddenly appears, capsizes the boat, and he believes that she has drowned. So, in a manner reminiscent of "An American Tragedy," the accident that he was planning to fake actually happens.
When the woman from the big city comes looking for him, thinking that he pulled it off, he becomes furious and starts strangling her. The idea is that she is the villain of the piece. In other words, it was really her fault that he almost murdered his wife. So while his wife forgave him, he does not forgive this woman. And just as the movie would have us approve of the wife's forgiving the husband, it would also approve of the woman's being strangled, giving her what she deserved.
At the last minute, it turns out his wife has been rescued. He stops strangling the woman and returns home to be with his wife and child. The sun rises, presumably symbolic of the couple's fresh start in having a happy marriage.
The patriarchal attitude of this movie, that a woman should forgive her husband of his sins because it is some other woman who is really to blame, is all the more stunning in that the men who produced this movie and held these views apparently did so without the slightest sense of just how self-serving those views really are.