Lucy Gallant

Jane Wyman plays a refined and educated Eastern woman who arrives in a Texas Oil town to get married. After the wedding is off, she sells her trousseau to get the money to start a dress shop. After 20 years she runs the biggest department store in Texas and socializes with the Texas rich. Charlton Heston waits patiently in the background for her to realize that she can have love and a career. This is one of the few movies from this decade that allowed the leading lady to be something beyond a stereotypical 50's woman.

For many the costumes are the best part of the movie. The fancy department store has fashion shows with great 50's styles styles created by Edith Head and others. I would love for this to come out on DVD. It used to play on TV on Saturday afternoon about 30 years ago and I almost always watched it.

The story begins with Lucy (Jane Wyman) arriving in some oil boom town at just the right time. Suddenly, thanks to the oil, folks have LOTS of disposable income and few places in which to spend it. So Lucy decides to open a clothing store, Gallant's. Soon she's quite the success. However, at the same time, Casey (Charlton Heston) has fallen for her and he wants to marry her...and vice-versa. The problem is that she is a driven career woman and he wants a stay at home wife. Obviously she cannot be both....so for the next fifteen years or so, the pair never manage to tie the not or even become official boyfriend and girlfriend. Is there any hope to ending this impasse?

The film is well acted, very slickly made and is enjoyable. I am sure a few folks watching might hate the sexist bent of the film, but for 1955 it was actually pretty progressive. Well worth seeing, though a bit predictable as well.

Lucy Gallant is one of my all-time favorite movies. I love the story of the strong, driven, successful woman, Lucy Gallant. She so reminds me of the woman I always aspired to be. It was such a perfect match between Jane Wyman and Charlton Heston. They really complimented each other. I originally taped this movie off the TV probably twenty-plus years ago, obviously on VHS. I still have it, but it's an incredibly poor recording, very old and worn from so much playing. I also have to fast-forward through the commercials, that were left in when it was originally taped, though after twenty years or more, they are pretty interesting. It's always been one of my favorite movies to watch over and over. I would love to find a good copy on DVD.

Imagine a New York socialite arriving at a desolate Texas oil town in the 1930s with four suitcases plus a few carry-ons. Poor Lucy Gallant stuck out like a sore thumb! One thing going for her was her ability to adapt to the situation in which is thrown into. She proved she had a head for business when she manages to sell her whole wardrobe to the wives of the new oil barons. These women were ripe for getting whatever fashions they could lay their hands on.

Lucy's success comes with a disappointment. Even though she loves Casey, the man who would end up being a millionaire, she feels she wants to pursue her career as a business woman. After all, she had started out of nothing to build the store of her dreams. Being a woman in that environment also brings her to the reality of seeing what she had built taken away from her during a sneaky maneuver by the man she trusted to help her run the business. In the end, Lucy realizes that being with Casey is a lot more fulfilling than the business she created.

Robert Parrish directed this Paramount release. Jane Wyman was the right choice to play Lucy. She was an intelligent actress who always projected warmth to any role she played. She is the whole reason for watching the film. Charlton Heston plays the awkward Casey Cole with conviction. Others in the cast include the excellent Thelma Ritter, who is a joy to watch in everything she played. Claire Trevor and William Demarest are also seen in pivotal roles.

One of my favorite Saturday Night at the Movies movie from childhood. Even as a ten-year-old though, I hated Casey Cole, Charlton Heston's character - horribly misogynist, manipulative and macho to a degree rarely seen out of other Charlton Heston movies. He makes every effort to pull the smart, beautiful, passionate and ambitious Lucy away from her successful business and into his idea of the perfect little woman - barefoot and pregnant and waiting for the Lord and Master at the front door at the end of the day. Lucy loves him but is determined to be herself and not an empty shell to be filled with just him. I watch it now with happy dread - I have to see again just what a pig Casey Cole is while also seeing the awesome Jane Wyman glow and grow through every minute of her screen time.Absolutely worth the watch. My favorite character actresses Clair Trevor and Thelma Ritter are Casey fans but reliably good as well.