The Lady Says No

The team that wrote the classic wartime comedy classic "The More the Marrier" made this innocuous but entertaining early spoof of feminism, starring an offbeat couple: Joan Caulfied and David Niven. It's stood the test of time.

Joan has written the title book, which argues for women to stand up for themselves in a male-dominated society. She's thrown together with a self-assured Life magazine photographer played by Niven, whose innate charm makes his chauvinistic attitudes tolerable, with zero doubt that they will move past detente to become a loving couple by film's end.

Adding quite a bit to the movie's impact is the subsidiary storyline involving Joan's aunt Frances Bavier and her estranged Scots husband James Robertson Justice, a real chauvinist pig. Casting that team seems unlikely, but this pair of opposites are delightful in their bickering, with Justice's comedy flair (staring in many a British comedy of the Fifties) on display.

I've been watching David Niven demonstrating his acting versatility a few years later on "Four Star Playhouse", and his nimble comedy reactions help lift "The Lady Says No". Kudos also to the great James Wong Howe's distinctive camerawork. Watch for some strange little touches by director Frank Ross, including a goofy dream sequence and a "jump and jive" Black girl dancing around in a hallway.

As another reviewer once noted, "The Lady Says No" is "a listless raspberry at feminism circa 1951." This is a good description as far as it goes. The film is uninspired and quite predictable. Pretty Joan Caulfield plays feminist author Dorinda Hatch who has written a book advising women to avoid romances with men. Handsome David Niven plays wolfish Bill Shelby who is attracted to this man-hater and soon has her reluctantly returning his desires.

The film has a lackluster script. Caulfield does the best she can with the part but Niven appears just plain bored as if he has mentally checked out from this trite material.

One thing about it is that it reminds people of how feminism made a strange turn in the 1970s. Giving up on the idea of persuading women en mass to eschew intimate relations with men, feminism adopted legalized abortion as its cause. Obviously, abortion would have little market if it were really possible to get women to "say no."

Although the film isn't terrific, IT SHOULD BE WATCHED! It should be watched to see what people in the 1950s thought a feminist would look like and be like and what feminism would champion. Does anyone in this era think a feminist is a dowdy stout woman in a long dress who stays home and knits? As I've already pointed out, a feminist movement that successfully championed celibacy would not be tied to "abortion rights."

I want to add that I saw this routine programmer because I'm a fan of the relatively little-known Peggy Maley, the blonde beauty cast as Midge. I thought Maley did well with her lively but small part. She certainly looked sexy and bright but she almost always did. Here's to Peggy!

Ever wonder how those Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan films will look in years to come? LIke this empty headed flick. I'm not even sure what it was about!

Niven was a photographer, Joan Caufield was some independent female who had to challenge him about a woman's independence. Huh? A photograph of her crossing her eyes and pulling a lock of her hair across her upper lip like a moustache was supposed to be embarrassing and he put it on the cover of a magazine. Really odd movie and such a waste of David Niven. I have seen him salvage other movies. Alas, this one he could not. The film was a showboat for Caufield, and she couldn't be more uninteresting if she tried.

One very amusing moment was Niven having a dream about Caufield and she is dressed like Sheena of the Jungle in a leopard print one piece swimsuit. Very bohemian! Think of Madonna of '52. The wooden gyrations are laughable to begin with, but just before this scene, we're shown an unamed African American woman who was the towel girl (!) at the restaurant and her dancing to the band's music was priceless. This chick really cut loose! I thought it was tremendously odd that this woman was uncredited and danced so much more better than Caufield, and that her scene would precede Caufield's big dance moment. Avoid this flick at all costs, unless you are an overwhelming David Niven fan, as I am. This was not one of his best.

The Lady Says No is the type of post World War II film that tackled issues the movies would not focus on. In this case, it's feminism. Beautiful Joan Caulfield (Blue Skies, The Unsuspected) was directed by her husband, Frank Ross, to play a man-hating writer of a book telling women to be cautious of a man's desires. David Niven is a photographer for a magazine who tries to do a story on her, but romance steps in...with complications. He gets embarrassed for whistling at her, she takes the heat for her book causing a marital break-up. But, ultimately, things turn around, as a sergeant reunites with his wife and writer and photographer get back together, as well.

Also in the cast are Francis Bavier (Aunt Bee-The Andy Griffith Show), James Robertson Justice, Henry Jones, Lenore Lonergan, and Peggy Malley, with Bavier and Justice as Caulfield's aunt and uncle, Jones and Lonergan as a military couple, and Malley as a friend of the military couple.

Mostly hilarious and predictable (Caulfield's dream of her fighting off jungle women to get to Niven), but stoic in some areas (Niven's lack of comic response), the film was written as a showpiece for Caulfield, who carried the movie. Wouldn't mind seeing it again. In other words, I would love to see Caulfield flaunt her style in Orry-Kelly fashions, while she defends her position of feminism, while a different actor could have been used as a comic foil, maybe Fred MacMurray. A film slightly ahead of its time.

Short on laughs, sometimes even embarrassing to watch, it makes me wonder what this film would have been like WITHOUT David Niven. His performance is so wooden and he seems so bored with the whole thing. Joan Caulfield, not a well known name, does a really good job, actually, playing the ying and yang of her character.

Niven seems TOTALLY OUT OF PLACE, a part someone like Tony Randall or Jack Lemmon could have banged out of the park (maybe it was a bit before their time...) Not a bad premise, has been stolen and used repeatedly in movie history, but it seems listless and lifeless when Niven is on screen. Oh, well.