The Scarlet Letter

In 17th century Massachusetts, a young woman named Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter "A" for bearing a child out of wedlock, a punishment meted out to her in a strict Puritan community. Colleen Moore stars as the ill-fated adulteress, Hester Prynne, in this drama and romance based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel. The film, directed by Robert G. Vignola, was the first sound version of the story and was influenced by the Production Code, which emphasized guilt-ridden ordeals as a cautionary tale.