Seduzione

I never thought I'd see the movie that would endear me to Rita Hayworth. I'm notorious for criticizing her, but not only did I not hate her in The Lady in Question, but I willingly admit she gave a fine performance. This isn't her usual role; there's no shade of Gilda in it.

An unrecognizable Brian Aherne stars as a peasant patriarch who owns a bicycle shop. He's too soft in his business and gets hassled by his wife, Irene Rich. His daughter Evelyn Keyes is young, foolish, and in love with the boy next door, but Brian doesn't want to see her grown up so soon. His son Glenn Ford (who looks adorable in his young curls) has a passion for astronomy. Brian has just been called to jury duty, and his excitement is adorable. He's waited 27 years to sit on a jury, and he won't let anything stop him. He's insulted when he's relegated to an alternate, but when a juror keels over, he literally snatches the seat out from under while others are attending to the man's health. The case is a murder trial, and Rita Hayworth is fighting for her life. Brian takes his duties incredibly seriously, and his enthusiasm is infectious. It's hard to believe this is the same Errol Flynn lookalike who sculpted a nude Marlene Dietrich in Song of Songs, when he's so convincing as a middle-aged, paunchy, stubborn, not-too-bright, peasant. If you liked him in My Son, My Son, you've got to see him in this.

The script is very funny, even though the subject matter lends it more to a drama. Brian's tongue is faster than his brain, and he often talks himself into a corner with no way out. While trying to end a conversation with an irritating pal, he accuses him of winking at his wife in church. At the dinner table, he tries to distract everyone from the topic at hand by praising his wife's soup. When that doesn't work, he asks for salt, insisting that she never puts enough in the soup. When that doesn't work, he spits the soup out and leaves the table, claiming she always puts in too much salt and he can't stand to eat it. With a mixture of quick comedy, dramatic plot points, and great acting, you'll have a very enjoyable evening when you rent The Lady in Question.

This is the sort of dramatic comedy the French knew how to do superbly, but Hollywood was unable to carry off in 1940. Blame it on censorship. The original 1937 French film starred the great tragic comic actor, Raimu, famous for his work in Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles comedies. Brian Aherne, a fine actor, is still too much of the English matinee idol, too young too thin to play pater familias roles, although he tries. This was a role for an older man. Edward G. Robinson might have gotten in right. Rita Hayward is as always lovely and believable. Glenn Ford is only the juvenile in this one. A few years later both would have their great successes together. Harry Cohn took a chance on this one.

The Lady in Question is noted in cinema history as the first film to feature both Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. However it's not their film, both are second and third billed respectively below Brian Aherne.

Columbia Pictures remade the French film Gibouille which had been done the year earlier with Raimu and Michele Morgan in the roles that Aherne and Rita had. In fact Gibouille was what launched Michele Morgan's career in French cinema.

Knowing that I think a lot of the film's humor and innuendo probably got lost on the transatlantic voyage. Aherne is a bicycle shop owner who has been picked for jury duty and is determined to take his responsibilities quite seriously. He gets on a case with Rita as a defendant who is accused of murdering her fiancé. Aherne's questions to her and his forceful advocacy of her, earn Rita an acquittal.

But Brian's not finished. He offers to give her any kind of help she needs because while she has a legal acquittal, she's got a reputation like O.J.'s. Aherne takes her in which causes all kinds of complications with his wife, Irene Rich, son Glenn Ford, daughter Evelyn Keyes, and her fiancé Edward Norris.

The Lady in Question is probably done in by the infamous Code firmly in place in Hollywood. Stuff that the French cinema could and did do, were forbidden here. Columbia also had to keep it in the French setting because of the differences between their jury system and our's.

Still Rita and Glenn do shine together, although no one I'm sure would ever have predicted their mega-hit Gilda six years later. Actually Edward Norris has the nicest performance as the no good rat of a fiancé that Keyes has, who tries to put the make on Rita.

It's a pleasant enough film, but I'm betting the original French version must be infinitely better.

Interesting that Columbia teamed GLENN FORD and RITA HAYWORTH six years before GILDA made them such a hot romantic combination, in a rather tepid courtroom tale that's an uneven mix of comedy and drama and barely allowed the sparks to fly between Ford and Hayworth.

Actually, it's BRIAN AHERNE who gets top billing as the Parisian shop owner who sits in on a murder trial and finds himself falling for "the lady in question". Aherne plays the man as a naively foolish individual who looks forward with childish glee to jury duty--and then manages to convince the others that Rita is not guilty of murder.

EVELYN KEYES plays his equally flighty daughter and IRENE RICH is his sensible wife. GLENN FORD is his attractive and reasonably sensible son.

It soon becomes apparent that all of the courtroom scenes are going to be played for comedy rather than drama. LLOYD CORRIGAN and GEORGE COULOURIS play opposing lawyers with comic skill and CURT BOIS does an amusing job as a fellow juror who takes an instant dislike to Aherne when he's accidentally splashed with water and then becomes his amusing adversary for the rest of the story.

But the spotlight is mainly on BRIAN AHERNE and he easily walks off with the film as the bumbling shop owner who begins to think that perhaps he shouldn't have talked the other jurors into freeing Rita, after she has an affair with his son whom he finds has stolen some money in order to leave with her. Aherne had a flair for comedy that is really given the spotlight here.

There's a clever plot twist at the end in which Aherne realizes how wrong he's been about everything.

RITA HAYWORTH shows promise in a rather uninteresting role that doesn't allow her to do more than look like a decorative leading lady and GLENN FORD is clearly not yet the movie star he would become. Both have relatively minor roles compared to Aherne.

Summing up: Interesting oddity is strange mixture of comedy and drama.

Having read all of the posts about "The Lady in Question", I can understand how disappointed some people would be, expecting either a Rita Hayworth-Glenn Ford vehicle, a la "Gilda" or a faithful replica of it's source: the French film, "Gibouille". This doesn't take away that "The Lady in Question" is an entertaining film with an odd, curious yet sweet charm that comes upon one quietly and lingers long after the film is over.

Two of the posters regarded "The Lady in Question" as a pallid remake of "Gibouille". Having seen some pre-WWII French films, they were not greatly more explicit than Hollywood was, at the time, in dealing with sex and crime. "The Lady in Question" is a mild comedy-drama made by a studio that was well-equipped to handle such material, Columbia Pictures. Director Charles Vidor, a Frenchman himself, nicely, subtly, and lingeringly establishes time and place. It greatly allows for the suspension of disbelief of hearing perfect English accents on French characters.

This film showcases Brian Aherne, who all too rarely was showcased at all, let alone in a comedy that he carried. He plays Morestan, the bicycle shopkeeper, admirably and almost succeeds in making one believe he was a middle-aged shopkeeper. He has just the right light tone to unify what is a mild plot and a minor-A film. Yes, studios didn't always make big-budget films with their stars. Many of their films, including "A" pictures, were "programmers", films that showcased stars and promising contract players. This, "The Lady in Question" did.

The players do shine, even though this film is an early entry for future stars Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, and Evelyn Keyes. In what could've been a merely decorative role, Hayworth truly has that "lady of mystery" quality that not only holds your attention but, momentarily, keeps one guessing as to whether or not she was guilty. Glenn Ford plays what would've been a callow juvenile with earnestness, a convincing portrait of young lust/love, and just enough vulnerability to make his love/suspicion relationship with Hayworth's character believable. Everyone acquits (pun intended)themselves very well in this film. Since the American film industry doesn't put out "programmers" anymore and we, as a public, are conditioned to see most star vehicles as big-budget affairs, it's a lost art but a beautiful one to sit, savor, and merely enjoy a well-crafted, entertaining film that isn't about anything special but delivers.