Urvantsov - Bernstein - Woodward ... MGM?

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues:

Can any expert out there confirm whether a tenuous but real connection goes
all the way back from 1939 Hollywood to 1915 Moscow stage theatre?

1.  In '39 the glamorous MGM studio made a long-forgotten drama entitled 
"Stronger Than Desire," starring Virginia Bruce as the now-loyal wife of a judge, 
being blackmailed by a former lover who threatens to give the wife's 
compromising letters to the unsuspecting husband, unless the wife pays a lot of 
money to the blackmailer.  Confrontation between wife and blackmailer leads to 
shooting -- and  blackmailer falls dead;  Wife flees, another woman ( completely 
innocent but logically motivated to kill blackmailer ) is accused of killing, and 
goes on trial before a judge -- who turns out to be unsuspecting husband!  
Etcetera.  High drama.  MGM credited the literary source of this film to a novel by 
a minor American writer, William E "Bill" Woodward (1874-1950).

2.  Turns out, the '39 film was a remake of a 1934 film from the same MGM,
entitled "Evelyn Prentice," starring Myrna Loy and William Powell.  Again, the 
literary source is credited to Woodward's same novel, "Evelyn Prentice" (published 
by Alfred Knopf in 1933).

3.  In 1929 a totally different Hollywood studio, Pathe, produced "Her Private 
Affair,"  starring Ann Harding as Vera, the guilt-stricken wife of the unsuspecting 
jurist. Same story line, except that the arrested (but innocent) suspect who goes 
on trial is male rather than female.  But in 1929, Pathe credited the literary 
source to a 1926 NY stage play, "The Right to Kill," supposedly written and 
adapted by Herman Bernstein (Russian-born translator and journalist, 1876-
1935)  from a Russian original by "Leo Urvantzov."

4.  In 1926 indeed "Right to Kill" was staged on Broadway, directed by Charles 
Bryant [former husband of Alla Nazimova] and Leonid Snegoff-Snegov.
Again, the literary source was credited to "Urvantzov."  Jurist's wife was played by 
"Anna Zasock" [?}.

5.  I find references to a 1915 Moscow stage presentation of a play by Lev 
Nikolaevich Urvantsov (1865-1929), a play suppsedly entitled "Vera Mirtseva" but 
also known as "Ugolovnoe delo."  I have not yet found full details or confirmation 
of this "Mirtseva" text.

QUESTION FOR THE EXPERTS.  Does it seem that Urvantsov's 1915 play 
could have been credited as one of the underlying literary sources of #1 and #2 
above?  And that William Woodward could have been more forthcoming about 
where he got the plot-line (siuzhet) for his 1933 novel, "Evelyn Prentice"...?

Best wishes to all,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
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