ONE MORE RIVER. Universal, 1934. Colin Clive, Diana Wynyard, Jane Wyatt, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, James Lawton, Henry Stephenson, C. Aubrey Smith, Henry Daniell, E. E. Clive, Snub Pollard. Script: R.C. Sherriff, from the novel by John Galsworthy. Director: James Whale.

   When Diana Wynyard leaves her caddish, sadistic husband, sneeringly played by Colin Clive, to establish an independent existence, private detectives report her every move (in particular, a compromising night in the country in a disabled car with friend and would-be lover James Lawton) to Clive, who sues her for divorce on grounds of adultery, naming Lawton as co-respondent.

   Apart from the casting of his Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) and the usual impeccable direction of a fine and varied cast, the materials of this absorbing melodrama seem somewhat remote from Whale’s imaginative masterpieces: The Old Dark House; The Invisible Man; and Bride of Frankenstein.

   However, three brief sequences are reminiscent of those stylish films:

    ● Wynyard pulls her hair up into a striking semblance of the Bride’s electrified coiffure.

    ● A low-angle shot catches E. E Clive looking superciliously toward the bottom of the frame with Dr. Praetorius’s prissy, pursed lips (Bride).

    ● And most moving of all, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, slowly climbing an ornate, moodily lighted staircase (not unlike the staircase in the great hall of Baron Frankenstein’ s castle), spectrally intones Lady Macbeth’s exit line, “What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed,” in a cameo scene that sums up unforgettably Whale’s unique feel for the extravagantly theatrical and sardonic, self-conscious mockery.

   The courtroom scene is splendidly acted and paced and the unlikely team of E.E. Clive and Snub Pollard, playing comic sleuths, is a delight. Finally, Diana Wynyard gives an effortless, understated performance that seems spontaneous and lends credibility to this contemporary story of a rebellion against a class and its taboos, a subject always of great interest to Whale.