Lady for a Night

Joan Blondell delivers something of a feisty Stanwyck-style character in her depiction of successful river boat owner "Jenny". Together with her local kingpin co-partner "Jackson" (John Wayne) they make a good living from the great and the good of Tennessee society. The thing is, though, "Jenny" has ambitions to join that society. She craves respectability and when an opportunity to marry into the "Alderson" family presents itself, she doesn't think twice. Her new husband "Alan" (Ray Middleton) is a bit of a drunk, but his family need her money so unwillingly tolerate her. All except, "Julia" (Blanche Yurka) who really does look down her nose at her new in-law. The more "Jenny" tries, the more cleverly antagonistic her nemesis becomes until finally murder ensues and the truth must out... It's a bit of an amalgam of stories this, and the really rather wooden Wayne features too sparingly to make much difference to the rather meandering drama. Hattie Noel has some fun as "Chloe" and there's a bit of toe-tapping mid way through but the rest of this is all just a little procedural with an expected twist right at the denouement. It's a good looking tale of rancour, envy, love and bitterness - but told in fashion you're not really likely to remember.

First off, anyone who watches this film because it's a John Wayne film (like me) may be disappointed because he is really a supporting actor. This is because he'd only been a regular starring actor in small-budget B-Westerns and in larger budget films he was mostly in secondary roles until the mid-to-late 1940s. Second, because the Wayne screen persona was not yet solidified, lovers of the Duke might also be shocked to see that for most of the film he plays a love-sick man who loses his woman to another. Had the later Wayne been in such a situation, he no doubt would have slugged the other suitor and drug off the woman for some lovin'--John Wayne style!! The real star of this film is Joan Blondell. Unlike Wayne, her star was starting to fall, as her prime as a leading lady was definitely the 1930s. Here she is a bit older and heavier, but this is also perfect for her role as a casino owner and singer.

Blondell's ambition is to leave the casino life to Wayne and marry a society man in order to ensure herself a play in polite society. Unfortunately, she's seen as a woman of low virtue and the only man she can find to marry is a drunk from a previously wealthy and well-heeled family.

Her welcome into the new family was not surprisingly rocky, as one of her new sister-in-laws was just plain evil. The longer the film progresses, the more evil and juicy this role becomes--making this a pretty exciting film and characterization. Ultimately, the plot takes a very dramatic twist near the end until it is all wrapped up nicely in the end.

The only serious negative about the film is that the plantation she moves to in Reconstruction-era Memphis is ridiculous and full of racist stereotypes. No, the Blacks do not eat watermelon or act as bad as Stepin Fetchit, but they play out an even more insidious role--happy Blacks who are content with the good treatment by their White "betters". This over-idealistic view of the South is insulting and may raise a few eyebrows. Try to look past this to see that you still have the basis of a very good film.

In this costume comedy-drama set in late 19th century Memphis, gambling hall proprietress Jenny Blake (Joan Blondell) has great wealth but no respect among the snobs in high society. Politician Jackson Morgan (John Wayne) doesn't care about Jenny's reputation, loving her regardless, but his feelings aren't reciprocated, and Jenny marries alcoholic Alan Alderson (Ray Middleton) in order to gain social acceptance, while the Alderson clan want access to Jenny's fortune, having lost theirs in the Civil War. The disapproving Julia (Blanche Yurka) does everything in her power to undermine Jenny's efforts.

The first scenes of the film seem like many other 19th century set pictures where a brash guy tries to romance an equally brassy gal. Things change a bit when Blondell marries and heads to the country estate, where the many similarities to Rebecca begin, with a dark and dour female presence (Blanche Yurka), a deadly secret from the past, and even rumors of ghosts. The movie is hard to take with the drastic shifts in tone from farcical humor to dramatic tension, then on to (a lot) of bad racial jokes and references (Wayne threatens to send a maid "back to Africa" and there are quite a few slurs). It seems like the producers just tried throwing everything into a blender and hoped something potable came out. It sort of did, but you wouldn't want to drink deeply. The movie is saved from failure by the talents of the two leads, Blondell still a sharp cookie even if the waistline was starting to grow, and Wayne was showing much improvement in his acting abilities.

This movie was made in 1942. It is one of several movies that Joan Blondell, a very popular actress of the time, made in that year.

I think when you look at a movie of this type, which was an average, run-of-the-mill movie of the time, what you get out of it is a snapshot of what viewers of the day expected to see in a movie. While this movie is a period piece (looks like it takes place in 1875-1885) it says much about 1942-- what people then would view as acceptable viewpoints for the script to put forth.

I think there are two major themes in this movie that can give today's viewers an historical insight as they are entertained --the attitudes that were allowed to be expressed in that day and time about black Americans, and the Lost Cause mythology. While one character expresses the thought "Abraham Lincoln done emancipated and proclamated me", you can't tell it from this show. A black female leading character (a character actress with a lot of talent) is consistently spoken to with utter disregard for her feelings or human rights. She is threatened with banishment to Africa, is required to be seated in a segregated balcony with other black Americans, and is condescendingly referred to as "Auntie" by a white policeman, a sobriquet to which she responds in a small, frightened voice. An elderly black actor, portraying a coachman and major domo combination, epitomizes the myth of the faithful black retainer, happy to be subservient and defined by white social mores, long after Emancipation. Black residents of the Alderson Plantation are portrayed as lazy do-nothings. This group of people, in the party scene, are forced to enact the sham of being happy, joyful folk singing spirituals and swilling corn liquor on the porches of their shacks. The black actors in this movie mug, roll their eyes, and in general follow the degrading norms set for blacks in the entertainment world of 1942, which was dictated by black-face comedy-- an odious farcial comedy common in the south, which was acted out by white men.

An arresting black character in this movie is Joe, the Conjure man. Joe is an emaciated elderly black soothsayer, who seems frail, yet filled with a power not of his own making, who colors each scene, in which he sings his discordant rhymes, with foreboding. The belief in conjuration, which might be simply defined as the practice of gaining ascendancy over one's adversaries or those one wishes to sway through tricks or spells placed upon them, was brought to American shores from Afica. American authors James Chestnutt and Zora Neale Hurston deal with conjure themes in some of their stories.

The Lost Cause myth forms the framework upon which this story is arranged. The movie Gone with the Wind was released 6 years prior to Lady for a Night. The plantation in ruins, with a formerly noble family now fallen on hard times, eking out lives of genteel poverty due to their Confederate sympathies within its crumbling walls, is a scene familiar to anyone who has viewed Gone With the Wind. The Shadows, the name of the Alderson's ancestral home, is about to fall under the auctioneer's hammer for back taxes, another steal from GWTW. That the South's defeat was the nobler cause was a theme that entered American thought and literature in the early 20th century, as Civil War veterans began to pass away in large numbers, and as their deeds became the stuff of legend. It is interesting to note that this movie was for general release to American audiences, so even the descendants of the soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic were acquiescent to this view of the South.

I always enjoy scenes reminiscent of vaudeville in movies of the 1930's and 1940's. The scenes set in Jenny Blake's gambling barge (these probably did exist, I haven't researched it) would be familiar to those who had attended vaudeville shows-- joke telling, elaborate musical numbers, dancing girls, and barbershop style male singing.

The costumes in this movie are absolutely first rate, and as a seamstress, I enjoy them each time I watch this movie. Dresses of the late 19th century (as indeed, those of the 1930's) frequently had color combinations, styles, and trimmings that today would seem very garish. Even though the movie is in black and white, the costumes give off an aura as though in color. Whoever designed the costumes, particularly those of Jenny Blake, had an eye for period detail, and access to superb seamstresses. The small bustles are correctly made, the elegant trains drape and move perfectly, and the fit is sublime. All the costumes have been exquisitely fitted to enhance the character-- Aunt Julia, the sinister character of the story, has a perfectly devilish black costume. Jenny Blake's costumes had to hold up to a great deal of active movement and yet they always appear graceful and feminine.

I find it interesting that John Wayne's character-- a behind the scenes political wheeler/dealer, manipulated the affairs of his little empire from his position as the owner of a gambling house. In "The Glass Key", a short story by Dashiell Hammet written in the 1920's, the political power behind the throne wheeler/dealer wields his influence from his gambling house/speakeasy. This must be historical.

Well, this has gotten long. I wanted to let other people know why I like this movie. We can get glimpses of what the people of yesterday were like-- what they approved of, how they related to other people, what made them laugh at the theater, through watching old movies.

While I like both Joan Blondell and John Wayne, that wasn't enough for me to give this movie a higher rating. The costumes were gorgeous, and I loved the settings (the late 1860's had a certain visual charm), but the story left a lot to be desired.

The premise was good: casino owner Jenny Blake (Joan) wants to escape her lower class background and gain respectability, so she forsakes her boyfriend, Jack Morgan (John) and marries into the socially prominent but financially deficient Alderson family, trading her money for Alan Alderson's name and social connections. She soon finds out she didn't get the best of the bargain, as Alan's an alcoholic, and his family consists of his snobbish, angry father, his sour faced, domineering Aunt Julia, and his mentally vague (though kindly) Aunt Katherine. Jenny's not welcomed, made to feel like an outcast, and kept away from the very people she wanted to impress. She also senses there's more going on in this peculiar family than anyone will admit, though she gets some cryptic hints from Katherine.

Where the movie fails, is in its inability to make up its mind whether to be a musical (there are several numbers performed on the riverboat casino and at the Alderson mansion), a romance, a mystery or a gothic horror story. By trying to be a little of each, it accomplished even less. I guess you could call this a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none movie.

It has its saving graces. The musical numbers were good, and there was an exciting chase scene, as Jack races to save Jenny, when she loses control of her carriage, unaware of the horses's impaired vision. There were a couple of black servants (Hattie Noel and Lew Payton) who gave the story some comic moments.

Not a bad movie, but it could have been better.