Evelyn Prentice (Myrna Loy) adores her husband John (William Powell), but John is an attorney and often has to work long hours and travel for work. Lately, he’s been hard at work defending Mrs. Harrison (Rosalind Russell) and Evelyn really misses spending time with her husband. One night, she goes to a nightclub with her friend Amy (Una Merkel) and meets a man named Lawrence Kennard (Harvey Stephens), who claims to know her from somewhere.
Lawrence doesn’t actually know Evelyn, but he knows she’s married to a prominent attorney and plans to trap her in a scandal and blackmail her. The next day, he sends Evelyn a book of his poetry and invites her to tea. Evelyn isn’t at all impressed by Lawrence, but she’s feeling lonely with John out of town so when Amy accepts his invitation on her behalf, she meets with him. She continues seeing him while John is away, but after John returns, she begins to suspect that he has been having an affair with Mrs. Harrison. A heartbroken Evelyn goes to see Lawrence again, but ultimately decides to stay true to John and tries to end things off with Lawrence.
Lawrence isn’t about to let Evelyn get off that easily, though. He reminds her of some letters she had written to him and demands $15,000 for them. During the dispute, Evelyn shoots Lawrence with his own gun and leaves. The next day, news of his murder is all over the front page, but nobody suspects Evelyn. However, Lawrence’s other girlfriend Judith (Isabel Jewell) is considered the top suspect. John agrees to defend Judith and during the trial, Evelyn’s guilt eats away at her. Near the end of the trial, Evelyn tries to come clean about the whole thing. But fortunately for them, John has a plan to get both Evelyn and Judith off the hook.
Movies with William Powell and Myrna Loy are always a hit with me. Although it’s much more fun to watch them playing happily married couples in more lighthearted movies, Evelyn Prentice is still a darn good movie. It’s very smartly written and well acted. Myrna Loy did an excellent job of conveying the guilt Evelyn was feeling and Isabel Jewell and Una Merkel were both great in their supporting roles. It’s another one of those wonderful underrated gems that I just love finding.
