Lady for a Night

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.

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.

Jenny Blake runs the gambling boat Memphis Belle, but she yearns to be accepted by the high society. Casting off her love interest Jack Morgan, Jenny accepts an offer of marriage from non compos mentis plantation owner Alan Aldredge. Naturally the rest of the Aldredge family are not too thrilled to have someone of Jenny's standing in their family, with one of them in particular prepared to do anything to get rid of Jenny.

Serviceable time filler is a phrase that could have been invented for this particular film. It's neither good or bad, and it's competently put together from both sides of the camera. Tho primarily a romantic drama, there is often humour within the script, most often when John Wayne {Jack} and Joan Blondell {Jenny} are sharing the screen together. Tho for sure not during the big finale court room pay off!! Here is the main problem on why Lady for a Night really falls down, it's confused as to what it should be. It's joviality is nice and endearing, but when the theme of class snobbery is coming to the fore, light relief is neither warranted or required. In fact the shift in tone for the rushed final quarter takes all by surprise. We lurch from grinning with mirth one second to a serious drama the next, and it's all a bit off putting at a time when the nastiness of the story deserves our full attention.

The cast are a mixed bunch. Blondell is effervescent and attractive, and Wayne, in a straight uncomplicated role, does what is needed with such minimalistic material. Blanche Yurka does a nice line in evil old bat routine {paging Mrs Danvers, paging Mrs Danvers} and Hattie Noel dons the maid apron and gives it the Hattie McDaniel treatment. The rest are barely worth a mention, with Ray Middleton & Philip Merivale particularly out of their depth. Some nice tunes such as "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-é" and "Has Anybody Seen My Man?" lighten up proceedings {again is this a dark film or not?} and the costume side of production is well worth observation. But it all ends up being a collage of tones, with neither one or the other breaking out to let the good side of the film truly break free of the confusion, shame that. 4/10

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.

OK, it wasn't an Academy Award winner. However, it did have many good elements to it. I'm not going to waste time telling you what it was about, you can read that in other comments. John Wayne was young and good looking, standing straight and tall. John Blondell was young and pretty. I remembered her in later movies after she had gotten older and a little heavier. Old man time sure beats the heck out of all of us.

Some people will raise and eyebrow at the plantation type scenes with the blacks dancing and singing. Did that go on? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised that after hard work in the fields, ANY people would be happy for the party time. Hattie Noel played the maid (Chloe) of Joan Blondell (Jenny). Chloe was funny and did an energetic job. Were these type parts demeaning for Blacks? Sure. But the way to look at it, is that it was the beginning of getting the foot in the door to show what you could do. There was a lot of talent in that singing and dancing. Nothing to be ashamed of, many a White person has played a demeaning part. The main thing is to showcase your talent. Hattie Noel may not have had the good fortune to be in Gone With The Wind, but she would have done quite nicely.

The best acting came from Edith Barrett who played the kinder Alderson sister Katherine. Some might call it overacting but I don't think that to be the case. You could feel her anguish between being torn by family loyalty, fear of her sister and doing the right thing. She gave a terrorized, impassioned performance.

Also enjoyable was John Blondell's singing performances as the part owner of the riverboat. In fact, she was so good that I wondered if a professional singer had dubbed her voice, even though I was aware of her own musical talents.

Blanche Yurka played the evil sister Julia, and how she could ooze evilness, with those eyes boring into anyone who crossed her. She hadn't changed much from her earlier days as Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities.

Leonid Kinskey played John Wayne's bodyguard. Although Mr. Kinskey was always a good character actor (remember him as the funny bartender in Casablanca?), the reason for the part in the movie escapes me. I guess John Wayne needed a sidekick.

The rest of the cast was adequate, but nothing noteworthy that I can remember. Except of course for the can-can girls who really knew how to dance that thing with plenty of spirit.

OK, should you see it? If you have the movie or see it coming on the late show, no reason not to. The story is predicable and acting is adequate with a few who stand out as mentioned above. Don't watch it just to see John Wayne because the Duke was just being the Duke. And although the Duke is almost always fun to watch, this role didn't give him much room to do his thing. His part was overshadowed by larger parts going to Joan Blondell and the Alderson sisters. However, if you have the time, you will be entertained by a movie that is "not too bad" and "fairly enjoyable". There are some good acting parts and the singing and dancing routines are quite good too. I do not think you will be disappointed.