A young and beautiful woman, Larita Filton, is married to an alcoholic and is cheating him with a young artist. Her young lover can´t take the feelings and the immoral attitude of his beloved and commits suicide. Then the marriage of the Filtons is divorced. Larita flees to France where she continues her immoral life without any remorse. She marries again and leaves her husband also from spurious reasons. Hitchcock shows Larita as a woman without any decency and morality.
Hitchcock’s favorite theme of crime and punishment, true or morally guilty individuals is in this film’s central theme. The main character Larita is presented as a completely morally depraved woman living outside the society. In this Movie it is the first time the figure of the possessive, manipulative and ruthless destructive mother appears. Hitchcock had placed it in many of his other movies again and again. In 2009 by Stephan Elliott did a new version of the story.
The film has different names in various countries. The original title is “Easy Virtue”. In France the film is known as “Le passé ne meurt pas”, in Italy the name of the movie is “Fragile virtù”, in Hungary it’s “Könnyed erkölcsök”, in Finland it’s “Kevytkenkäinen”, in Sweden it’s “Olovlig kärlek”, in Brazil it’s “Mulher Pública” and in Argentina the move is known as “Virtud fácil”.