Lady für einen Tag

Glenn Ford and Betty Davis in color fall short competing with the BW original version with lesser known but more convincing actors. Lets face facts. Glenn Ford never played a convincing bad guy/bad boy. On the other hand little known Warren William had to convince the viewers that he wasn't a bad guy all the time. Dave the Dude is basically a bad guy with a touch of good. Even his act of kindness to Annie is self serving. This movie is a perfect example that technical advances don't make a better story, lesser known actors can play the role better, and age can define whether any work of art can stand up to the ultimate critic - Time. Different audiences, tastes, standards and means of portraying the play, are the ultimate judge regarding the worth of the production.

This sublime, charming fairy tale, about an old apple seller (the lovely May Robson) who is helped by a gangster named Dave the Dude (Warren William) and his buddies in order to make her rich and respectable for her returning daughter and in-law from Spain, is conceivably Capra's freshest, most underrated classic, perhaps with the exception of "The Bitter Tea of General Yen", which was also released in 1933. While "Bitter Tea" was a commercial flop, "Lady For a Day" proved to be Capra's first big success with the Depression-era audiences and a sign of things to come. A must-see!

Almost 70 years on, this film is as fresh as ever, with brilliant performances, great dialogue, and an irresistible story, even if you don't believe in fairy tales. Watch out for the butler's line, addressing Happy MacGuire, who talks in the not-so-grammatically-correct mob-lingo of the 1930s: "If I had a choice of weapon with you, Sir, I'd choose grammar." Definitely a must see!

This movie must have played very well to depression-era audiences. The story of an apple seller who has been lying to her daughter who has done well for herself in Europe is sweet, heart touching and funny.

Great, quotable lines in the script, well written. The outdoors night photography is luminous, everything seems to glow, a scene in an outdoor garden with the daughter and her fiancee kissing behind a glass water fountain is beautiful to this day.

The ideas of friends and strangers coming to a needy person's aid prefigures such later Capra classics as "It's A Wonderful Life". In fact, they would make an excellent double feature together.

In our cynical times, movies like this can be seen as hokey, in fact the name Capra was frequently turned into Capra-corn, even in his day. But the fact that his movies are still treasured and enjoyed today shows that goodness is still an enduring quality and that being drawn to goodness and fairy tales like this gives us hope that those feelings are still in us.

Recommended highly.

Others have said it all! However, check out the beautiful love scene photographed through a glass fountain. Absolutely GORGEOUS! Solid performances from the stars right down to the supporting actors. I think we hardly ever see great supporting actors like these any more.

Frank Capra wrote about this movie in his autobiography, apparently one of his first hits, using the recipe of lesser-known actors, a great scriptwriter, and a low budget. He relies heavily on the great supporting actors available to him and gave them all a Runyon-esquire quality which never fails to please. They are all just great! Check this movie out! It gets better every time I see it!