Lil Dagover stars with Walter Huston and Warren William in The Woman from Monte Carlo, a 1932 film - actually a remake of a silent film and also a French film starring Annabella.
The story concerns a woman, Lottie (Dagover) whose husband (Huston) commands a ship and is away for long periods of time. When the ship arrives in port, she is escorted to the ship by his lieutenant D'Artelles (Warren William) who is in love with her.
Lottie is devastated when her husband tells her that because of danger, she cannot stay on the ship overnight and must go home. When d'Artelles informs her of this, she is very upset and talks about how she can never see him, and is alone, has to live like a nun...
The ship is torpedoed while she is still with d'Artelles, and though his associate is able to get her home, the fact that she was there becomes critical when her husband is arrested - the boat sinks, and most of the crew is lost. He is accused of bringing the ship too near the enemy; however, the signal he received was the code of a friendly ship. But the only person who knows this, besides Lottie, is a real snake who wants something from Lottie in return for his testimony.
It's a shame Dagover only made one film in the U.S., because of all the foreign imports brought over to rival Garbo and Dietrich, she was perhaps the strongest, certainly stronger than Anna Sten and others. She was an excellent actress, her appearance was somewhat similar to Garbo's, and she had great legs. Her accent was a little thick, but in time that would have lessened.
She was a huge star in Germany during the Wehrmacht era and was one of Hitler's favorite actresses. She continued to work under the Hitler regime but the films she did were apolitical, musicals and comedies. She also entertained the troops. She worked in Germany until retiring in 1976; she died at the age of 92. A six-decade career, and we got to see her in one movie.
Warren William, as others have said, was miscast, and Huston was on the stiff side. That, I think, was how the role was written.
All in all, nothing special but it's a good opportunity -- and probably your only one -- to see Lil Dagover.
