The Lady and the Mob

Technically speaking, "The Lady and the Mob" is a B-movie...though probably not in the way you think. Today, many people think that a B-movie is a bad movie--sort of like the Troma movies like "The Toxic Avenger". Well, originally the term wasn't a pejorative one--it simply meant the lesser film at a double-feature--which were common in the 1930s-50s. The A-picture was the more expensive of the two and usually ran at least 70-90 minutes. The B, on the other hand, ran between 50-70 minutes (never longer) and cost considerably less and had lesser known stars. In this sense, "The Lady and the Mob" is clearly a B--albeit a very good one.

When the film starts, a young couple (Lee Bowman and Ida Lupino) are talking about getting married but the guy says he needs his mother to approve of his choice. Now this isn't at all where the film ends up going...it's a plot line that is soon abandoned. Instead, what happens AFTER the lady meets the mother....that's the real plot.

What happens is this. The mother (Fay Bainter) learns that her dry cleaner is being shaken down by criminals offering 'protection'. So, she decides to fight fire with fire and sends in a goon (Warren Hymer) to beat up the mobster...but he gets beaten up instead. Clearly, she's going to need reinforcements. So, she arranges to have a group of criminals on probation to be sent to her....and she'll help them reform AND they'll help her beat the pulp out of the mobsters. But it's not exactly THAT easy....see the film and see what I mean.

The film has a very unusual plot and is helped by all the nice supporting actors and a well written script. All in all, a delightful little comedy that is far better than you might expect from a lowly B. And, Miss Bainter is terrific in this one!

This tidy, short little comedy starts with a romantic comedy premise: beautiful and young Ida Lupino (at the beginning of her career) has to visit her prospective mother-in-law from Hell, strong-willed Fay Bainter (at the height of her career and fame), who had broken all of her son's previous engagements. Bainter immediately begins treating Lupino as a secretary. But when Bainter learns that her dry cleaner, Henry Armetta, is being shaken down by a mob protective association, Bainter becomes determined to break the mob herself, and recruits her own mob to fight them. It's fast and funny, and has a delightful cast of character actors playing their tough-guy roles with their tongues firmly in their cheeks; its tone is captured in the telegraph Young sends to her fiancée, Lee Bowman, "Is there insanity in your family? Return at once."

Lady and the Mob, The (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Slight but mildly entertaining comedy about an elderly woman (Fay Bainter) who grows sick and tired of the gangsters taking over her city so she forms her own gang to run them out of town. This film runs just 65-minutes and for the most part it moves along pretty good, although the ending gets dragged out longer than it should have. Bainter is good in her role but a young Ida Lupino seems out of place and fails at all of her comedy scenes. Seeing as when this film was released, there's some big speeches about standing up for your country, taking down dictators and other things to that nature. Joe Sawyer plays one of the woman's gang members. Another interesting tidbit is that this Columbia picture also shows off another one of their films, You Can't Take It With You, during one scene.

A movie like this with its broad humor is mainly a matter of taste. A refined, uptown lady (Bainter) organizes her own mock mob in order to rid the city of a real mob of extortionists. Bainter's gang is made up of 'deeze' and 'doze' Runyonesque characters like Warren Hymer and Joe Sawyer. The laughs are supposed to come from their silly shenanigans, plus the unlikelihood of an uptown old lady leading a bunch of uncouth characters. Throw in Bowman and Lupino (before her drama queen days) as the required love interest and the format is complete. The movie does have its moments, particularly the castor oil treatment, while the aging Bainter does well in a very demanding role. The movie's pretty much a one-note comedic set-up, so you should know within the first 10-minutes whether to stay with it or not.

"There's never been a run on this bank !" -- Hattie Leonard.

That's one of the tasty little nuggets of comedy which gets tossed about, seemingly in a most haphazard manner, in this excellent and user-friendly "gangster comedy," from 1939. In a very real sense, the writers and the director of this film were seeking to do something that is always difficult and sometimes impossible ... which is ... to make a social satire that has more laughs than bites.

Consider that "The Lady and the Mob" is a window on a time before our times, before the cruelties and barbarities of World War Two, the Cold War, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War and the never-ending Gulf War, burned away all pretense of innocence from what was once called "the American Dream." Consider that Faye Bainter's character, Hattie -- and she is delightful in the goofiest possible ways -- lampoons the stuffy, hypocritical matrons so often created in the posh comedies of the 1930s.

To call this a feminist film would be entirely wrong, and yet the strength of the satire, and the plot, lies entirely in the hands of Faye Bainter and Ida Lupino. Indeed, Ms. Ida Lupino gets a plum in this second billing, a role as juicy and sweet as her character is tart with her tongue ! Wealthy Hattie Leonard owns a bank and has a conscience, something most average people who lived during the 1930s and those Depression years probably could not believe -- unless they saw it in a motion picture !

One only has to see "Stagecoach" with John Wayne, Claire Trevor and John Ford directing, to understand how deeply-felt the animosity of "regular folks" was, towards bankers. Both of these films were released in the early part of 1939 and they both tell a tale of truthfulness about how badly damaged people can become decent again, and what it means to be "a True American".

Since there is every prospect that Turner Classic Movies will run this fine, funny, film again soon, it would be spoiling things to give away much of the satirical plot of this comedy. Faye Bainter's classic looks and poise are a salute to all that's ever been the best about the actresses of the United States, and Ida Lupino plays her role cleverly. It is a definite mark of natural ability, as Ms. Lupino -- who is quite gorgeous at twenty-five -- darts in and out of the scenes with Bainter and "her Mob". The character actors selected to play Hattie's "stumble bums" are simply hilarious -- unless the viewer happens to know absolutely nothing about the 1930s and American slang.

Even then, their comedic posturing works really well and is simply visually entertaining. This is a great little gem of a movie and while it does not quite carry the social and satirical "punch" of Frank Capra's "Lady for a Day," from 1933, it is well worth viewing, and for capturing on the digital video recorder to have on a lazy, rainy afternoon. Eight stars for comedy, satire, and snappy jokes.