Lady by Choice

She is the basic motif for see this lovely film, nice, sweet, charming. because Carole Lombard has her ordinary job and Walter Connolly has the status of glue of a so familiar story about love, money, succes and values. May Robson does more than an inspired character but she has the gift to translate the spirit of a great way to discover the world . and this is the gift of this film who has the virtue to be a trip in past. sure, a film more as slice from the spirit of a time than a great artistic work. but good opportunity for fair smile and comfortable atmosphere. and this is one of real good points of a movie who propose the flavor of a lost period.

Carole Lombard plays a fan dancer (working under the moniker "Alabam, the Human Heat Wave") who hooks up with a haggardly, dice rolling, beer guzzler named Patsy when she adopts her out of the "old ladies home" as her new mother, a publicity stunt for Mother's Day. Moving in with Alabam into her swanky apartment, the two women soon bond over shots of straight whiskey, Alabam buys the old lady a new wardrobe, then both try to reform the other of their bad ways. And yes indeed, there is a male love interest for Lombard, a character who fits somewhat loosely into this whole plot.

Interesting film, the first half better than the second, I thought, but I do like the interaction between Carole Lombard and May Robson who plays Patsy - they come across as pretty chummy, which works well for this story. Lombard appears in a number of gorgeous outfits here, everything from glamorous, fur-sleeved dress to satin rompers (how 'bout that ragged old hat with the dead bird hanging off it that Patsy wears in the beginning?!). Worth seeing.

Fan dancer Carole Lombard is retired by order of judge Walter Connolly. When publicity man Raymond Walburn comes up with the idea that she adopt a mother, she chooses May Robson, a rowdy drunk she met in Connolly's court. It as if Apple Annie were adopted by Sally Rand. But Robson takes her duties as a mother seriously.

The first half of this movie is an unrelieved delight, with Robson basically doing the role she had performed a month earlier for Capra, and which would gain her an Oscar nomination. Miss Lombard is hilarious and crude and sexy, and the comedy is nicely balanced with sentiment as the two women take to each other. However, in the second half, when te efforts to fix Miss Lombard fail, the money runs out, and a marriage with Roger Pryor becomes the main plot, everything falls apart. The humor vanishes, people change their minds to suit the exigencies of the plot, and I lost interest. Everyone continues to offer fine performances. These are all seasoned professionals. But the story telling collapses, as does the efforts at comedy.

Carole Lombard plays a Sally Rand type fan dancer and May Robson does her Apple Annie role again in Lady By Choice, a nice comedy from Columbia with overtones of Frank Capra in the making. At Columbia seeing Frank had come up with a winning formula, Harry Cohn was looking to copy it wherever he could. Who knows he might have put Capra's name on it for the foreign market like he did with If You Only Could Cook and Capra never found out.

In Lady By Choice, Lombard's press agent, Raymond Walburn, gets an idea for Mother's Day for Lombard to adopt a little old lady. So she goes to a senior citizens home and picks out May Robson, a gin guzzling old woman in the tradition of Apple Annie. Robson comes not only with her gin, but with a young attorney from a wealthy family, Roger Pryor who's been charged by his late father to serve as some kind of guardian angel for her when she gets tanked up and rowdy. Robson's in need of a lawyer especially when she's in court in front of Judge Walter Connolly.

It's not Lombard's greatest role, but she does well with it. May Robson is merely starting where she left off in her Academy Award nominated Lady For A Day that was directed by Frank Capra. The only weakness in the film is Roger Pryor who's a rather insipid type in a role that called for someone like Joel McCrea. A nice choice by TCM to run for Mother's Day.

This movie was a sequel of sorts to Capra's "Lady for a Day" and in it May Robson reprises her Apple Annie character. Indeed May Robson steals the show and gives by far the best performance. This film would be Carole Lombard's last with Columbia pictures. As with her film, "Brief Moment" her director at Columbia was David Burton and the character actor Arthur Hohl is on board again as costar, here playing her crooked manager.

Carole Lombard's performance is fair. She is trying hard and keeps herself animated, but seems to come up just short. She seems to suffer from a bad case of "over-acting". However, since she is playing a "bad" actress from the wrong side of town, I can't say this is too troubling. The story is complex and on the whole the acting is fine, so overall the viewing experience is pleasing and worth repeating. The ending does tug at your heart-strings and the resolution is well thought out. The characters examine their own faults and are able to take advantage of opportunities to grow...with a little help along the way.