The Lady in Question

Andre Morestan is delighted to get called up for jury service, determined to take the job seriously he is very upset when he is merely put on the reserve list. However one of the other jurors falls ill and Andre grasps the opportunity with gusto and honour, the case is a tricky one, a pretty woman named Natalie Roguin is accused of murdering her partner. Andre asks some probing questions and manages to sway the outcome to earn Natalie an acquittal, this in spite of the other jurors not being totally convinced as regards Natalie's reputation. taking things further, Andre gives Natalie a job at his bicycle shop. Andre's son, Pierre is quite taken with Natalie, and this coupled with the nagging doubt over her innocence from other quarters puts a major strain on the Morestan household.

This is a remake of the French film Gibouille, it's an interesting piece that never quite gets out of first gear. Rita Hayworth looks lovely and plays off well with Glen Ford's Pierre, whilst Brian Aherne is very entertaining as Andre, but one never gets any sense of feeling with the characters. In a film that purports to be a comedy drama, you find that the picture is caught between both genres, the comedy is sporadically interesting but the drama then comes across as staid. I personally haven't seen the French original but i wouldn't be at all surprised if Gibouille is a bit more daring and close to the knuckle with its execution?. This is a decent picture and one that certainly has a watch-ability factor for cast and outcome of story, it just really should have been so much more one feels. 5.2/10

Greatly enjoyed this film which is full of drama and plenty of laughs along with a great cast of new stars who would become very famous and successful on the Silver Screen in Hollywood for many years. Charles Vidor produced this film and that is living proof this is a great 1940 extra special film. Brian Aheme, (Andre Moestan) is a bicycle shop owner who desperately wants to become a juror in a court case and gets himself deeply involved with the trial of Natalie Roguin played by Rita Hayworth and Andre Moestan feels great compassion for Natalie and manages to sway the jury into setting her free. Andre gives her a job in his bicycle shop and lets her live with his family above the shop. Glenn Ford plays the role as Pierre Moestan, the son of Andre and he falls madly in love with Natalie. Evelyn Keyes, (Francois Morestan) gave a great supporting role as the daughter of Andre Moestan who wants to get married in the worst way and is simply boy crazy about all men and full of the devil. It is great seeing such great super stars so very young and just starting out in their Hollywood careers. Enjoy this film. I must also mention that Evelyn Keys had just given a great performance in "Gone With The Wind", 1939 and played a great role in this film and went on to become a great Pin Up Girl for our Fighting Troops during World War II.

Interesting that Columbia teamed GLENN FORD and RITA HAYWORTH six years before GILDA made them such a hot romantic combination, in a rather tepid courtroom tale that's an uneven mix of comedy and drama and barely allowed the sparks to fly between Ford and Hayworth.

Actually, it's BRIAN AHERNE who gets top billing as the Parisian shop owner who sits in on a murder trial and finds himself falling for "the lady in question". Aherne plays the man as a naively foolish individual who looks forward with childish glee to jury duty--and then manages to convince the others that Rita is not guilty of murder.

EVELYN KEYES plays his equally flighty daughter and IRENE RICH is his sensible wife. GLENN FORD is his attractive and reasonably sensible son.

It soon becomes apparent that all of the courtroom scenes are going to be played for comedy rather than drama. LLOYD CORRIGAN and GEORGE COULOURIS play opposing lawyers with comic skill and CURT BOIS does an amusing job as a fellow juror who takes an instant dislike to Aherne when he's accidentally splashed with water and then becomes his amusing adversary for the rest of the story.

But the spotlight is mainly on BRIAN AHERNE and he easily walks off with the film as the bumbling shop owner who begins to think that perhaps he shouldn't have talked the other jurors into freeing Rita, after she has an affair with his son whom he finds has stolen some money in order to leave with her. Aherne had a flair for comedy that is really given the spotlight here.

There's a clever plot twist at the end in which Aherne realizes how wrong he's been about everything.

RITA HAYWORTH shows promise in a rather uninteresting role that doesn't allow her to do more than look like a decorative leading lady and GLENN FORD is clearly not yet the movie star he would become. Both have relatively minor roles compared to Aherne.

Summing up: Interesting oddity is strange mixture of comedy and drama.

This is the sort of dramatic comedy the French knew how to do superbly, but Hollywood was unable to carry off in 1940. Blame it on censorship. The original 1937 French film starred the great tragic comic actor, Raimu, famous for his work in Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles comedies. Brian Aherne, a fine actor, is still too much of the English matinee idol, too young too thin to play pater familias roles, although he tries. This was a role for an older man. Edward G. Robinson might have gotten in right. Rita Hayward is as always lovely and believable. Glenn Ford is only the juvenile in this one. A few years later both would have their great successes together. Harry Cohn took a chance on this one.

The Lady in Question is noted in cinema history as the first film to feature both Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. However it's not their film, both are second and third billed respectively below Brian Aherne.

Columbia Pictures remade the French film Gibouille which had been done the year earlier with Raimu and Michele Morgan in the roles that Aherne and Rita had. In fact Gibouille was what launched Michele Morgan's career in French cinema.

Knowing that I think a lot of the film's humor and innuendo probably got lost on the transatlantic voyage. Aherne is a bicycle shop owner who has been picked for jury duty and is determined to take his responsibilities quite seriously. He gets on a case with Rita as a defendant who is accused of murdering her fiancé. Aherne's questions to her and his forceful advocacy of her, earn Rita an acquittal.

But Brian's not finished. He offers to give her any kind of help she needs because while she has a legal acquittal, she's got a reputation like O.J.'s. Aherne takes her in which causes all kinds of complications with his wife, Irene Rich, son Glenn Ford, daughter Evelyn Keyes, and her fiancé Edward Norris.

The Lady in Question is probably done in by the infamous Code firmly in place in Hollywood. Stuff that the French cinema could and did do, were forbidden here. Columbia also had to keep it in the French setting because of the differences between their jury system and our's.

Still Rita and Glenn do shine together, although no one I'm sure would ever have predicted their mega-hit Gilda six years later. Actually Edward Norris has the nicest performance as the no good rat of a fiancé that Keyes has, who tries to put the make on Rita.

It's a pleasant enough film, but I'm betting the original French version must be infinitely better.