Forfaiture (1937)

Denise Moret goes to Mongolia to join her husband Pierre, who is working as a civil engineer on a construction site. One evening, she loses a great deal of money gambling (100,000 francs in 1937) and borrows some from Prince Lee-Lang. He refuses to let her repay him, but makes advances toward her, which she rebuffs. The prince first takes revenge by having Pierre’s work sabotaged. When Moret goes to see him to make him stop undermining him with the company, he picks up the revolver with which Lee-Lang has just been killed, and the scheming Valfar denounces him. Brought before the assize court, Pierre proclaims his innocence, and the prosecution’s case collapses when the defense proves that the revolver was not his but Lee-Lang’s. Valfar takes advantage of a recess to slip him his wife’s hair clip, which Lee-Lang had been holding when he died: Valfar knew she was guilty. As he had expected, Moret confesses to committing the crime to save her. Denise then asks to be heard by the court. She admits her gambling debt and explains that she went to see Lee-Lang to make him leave her husband alone. The encounter turns dramatic: Lee-Lang tries to rape her and brands her with a red-hot iron. Devastated, Denise kills him, and when the prosecutor demands proof, she bares her shoulder, marked by the brand. Pierre is acquitted, and the false witness Valfar is roughed up by the crowd.