After Michael Carter’s wealthy family sabotages his marriage to Mary White, a stenographer, and she commits suicide, Michael angrily drives across the country vowing vengeance. He crashes his car and ends up in a saloon, where he buys drinks for Pete, an Indian. Pete becomes irrational and pulling out his gun, accidentally shoots Michael. Pete’s girl friend, Tonita Storm Cloud, wants to keep Pete out of jail and falls in love with Michael while treating his injury. After her Indian tribe excommunicates her for staying alone with a white man, Michael proposes marriage to her, seeing this as a way to get even with his prejudiced, status-seeking family. He apprises them of his marriage via a telegram to New York, in which he states that they will approve of her because she is from one of America’s “first families.” Michael does not consummate his marriage with Tonita, who is confused by his abstention and lack of affection. On their arrival in New York, he insists she wear her customary Indian garb, and his family is horrified by her appearance. The press and society have great fun mocking the Carters for their new family member, and seeking to save face, Diana Curzon, Michael’s sister, convinces the family to have a coming-out party for Tonita, for which Diana will have her immaculately dressed in “modern” clothes. Although the guests are all ready to humiliate Tonita, she overcomes their prejudice and reveals their pettiness, becomes a big hit at the party. Michael is furious, however, for even in this, he feels, his family has won. Tonita finally becomes aware of the reason that Michael married her, and in defiance, she leaves with Bob Prentice, a notorious home wrecker. At his apartment, Bob is about to seduce Tonita, when Diana, with whom he has been having an affair, rushes in and says she has left her husband for him. She shoots him when he refuses to reconcile with her. Tonita takes the blame for the murder, believing she no longer has a life worth living, and also that this is an excellent way to revenge herself on Michael. While the police investigate Bob’s apartment, Michael hides in the closet, having come to find Tonita. He overhears the discussion about Tonita’s arrest and allows himself to be arrested instead to save his wife, whom he now realizes he loves. At the police station, Michael is allowed a few moments alone with Tonita, during which she confesses that his sister really killed Bob. The police listen in on their conversation, and the true killer revealed, Michael and Tonita are free to pursue their love without further familial interference. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Behold My Wife! (1934)
