Cynara Reviews

Ronald Colman is a London lawyer, a solid citizen who is conservative in every aspect of his life: his business, his marriage, and his personal ethics. He has been happily, if sleepily, married to Kay Francis for seven years. Then the itch settles in and Colman finds himself having an affair with a shopgirl, Phyllis Barry, while his wife is away on a trip. It begins casually enough but gets much more passionate. When Colman tells Barry that he must end the affair as he wants to make his marriage work, Barry commits suicide. A scandal erupts and Colman must testify in court, an action that ruins his good name. He will not sully the dead girl's reputation even though she was known to have been free with her favors. Rather than face the shame in London, he chooses exile in South Africa. Realizing that Colman is a man of integrity, Francis rushes to the ship as it's leaving so they can begin a new life together. Based on a novel and a play, CYNARA is taken from a poetic phrase "I have always been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion." The odd title and the image of gentleman-scholar Colman as a philanderer--he was unhappy with this part--may have been what served to make the film a flop at the turnstiles.