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.

The prior review was excellent. But the movie is set in Memphis not New Orleans, even though the Mardi Gras opening would belie that. And Joan Blondell's character is the one who proposes the marriage, not the other way around. All in all, it's very entertaining movie which deserves a better reputation.

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

Lady for a Night is a Joan Blondell film with John Wayne as her leading man. It is not a John Wayne picture, I repeat not a John Wayne picture. If you're looking for fights, or shootouts, this ain't the film for you to see.

The Duke plays a part that would normally go to an actor like Ray Milland. He's the political boss of Memphis and the old Southern gentry of the town, tow his line. John Wayne even has a bodyguard, Leonid Kinsky. Who'd have ever thunk that.

Wayne and Blondell are partners in a riverboat gambling ship. Wayne would like to make it a matrimonial partnership. But Blondell, who's a girl from the wrong side of the tracks wants some respectability as well as money. When Ray Middleton gambles away the title to the old Alderson family estate, Blondell offers to marry him to save the good gentry from being thrown out on their duffs. It's a marriage she has soon cause to regret.

Blondell sings a nice number entitled Up In a Balloon on the riverboat stage and I bet she was looking around for Busby Berkeley. Kind of strange to see her singing without the splashy Warner Brothers production around her. But her performance was effective, the best in the film.

What struck me so curious was that they seem to have grabbed off characters from other films and tossed them here. Hattie Noel plays Blondell's black maid and it's a total ripoff of Hattie McDaniel from Gone With the Wind. Edith Barrett and Blanche Yurka play Middleton's aunts, Barrett good, Yurka evil. Edith Barrett copied Patricia Collinge as Birdie Bagtry Hubbard from The Little Foxes and Yurka is another Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca.

Still it does mix well and while it's not a great film, Lady for a Night is a passably decent one, though it's far from the usual Duke.

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.