A Lady's Profession

Prohibition era, society comedy starring the irrepressible Allison Skipworth!

I saw this years ago at a film festival and it was fun, not great but a good time killer. Allison Skipworth was a character actor that reminds me of a female W.C. Fields. Not that she drank but instead she believably made witty observations on society and usually won in the end no matter what the plot contrivances or misunderstandings.

Skipworth is the grand dame of a titled European family down on their luck. Roland Young is bumbling and stuttering father, Sari Maritza is pretty daughter who loves rich and handsome boyfriend Kent Taylor whose blowhard American father George Barbier does not trust anyone.

In the subplot we have conman Roscoe Karns talking fast and double dealing, Warren Hymer as a strong armed bootlegger, Billy Bletcher as a whittling sidekick and bully Dewey Robinson trying to avoid the coppers.

It is light weight but has it's own charm and is better with an audience of classic film fans than watching it by yourself. But as I always say, it's best to see a film any way you can than to wait until you can see a mint print on the big screen! A friend sent me a DVD from a company called Vintage Film Buff, I guess you can find them on the web. It was watchable and reminded me how much I liked it at the film festival… almost always the best way to discover these early films—in a dark room filled with like minded buffs!

I wanted to see "A Lady's Profession" for Alison Skipworth, and she didn't disappoint. She was such a welcome addition to "Night After Night," and she carried "Madame Racketeer," that I had to see her again.

In "A Lady's Profession" Alison Skipworth played Beulah Bonnell, a lady of title and wealth in England until she found out that her family was bankrupt. What would she and her brother Lord Reginald Withers (Roland Young) do to earn money and save face? They knew nothing about working and finances so they were surely to be in trouble.

They decided to go to America with Reginald's daughter Cecily (Sari Maritza). There they could start over and they could avoid their associates in England who'd, no doubt, gossip about their calamity.

The main story was Beulah and Reginald trying to disentangle themselves from a failing speakeasy Reginald was suckered into buying. Tangentially there was a love story between Cecily and Dick Garfield (Kent Taylor), a wealthy American.

"A Lady's Profession" was a blast and unexpectedly hilarious. There was one scene I found myself laughing a little too hard at.

Beulah had just found Reginald in his speakeasy that was a converted horse stable. He was trying to explain what it was and that he owned it when she said, "You! Running a pub?"

He said, "A speakeasy."

She scoffed, "I am speaking as quietly as my emotions will permit!"

Classic!

Free on YouTube.

Aristocratic Roland Young is broke, so he sails off to America to make a fortune. A few months later, he sends for his sister, Alison Skipworth, and daughter, Sari Maritza. When they arrive, they discover he's the proprietor of a failing speakeasy; with Repeal about to take place, bootlegger Dewey Robinson bemoans the fact that cut-throat politicians are about to destroy America's second largest industry and orders his cohort to cut prices and clear out inventories; they'll dispose of the Tommy-guns at their leisure.

It's a rollicking lot of nonsense under the direction of Norman McLeod, with Young at his vaguest, and George Barbier as the wealthy father of Kent Taylor, whom Miss Maritza keeps refusing, at his most bullfrog-like. With Roscoe Karns, Warren Hymer and Billy Bletcher as a bootlegger who whittles every wooden object into chains.