Une femme extraordinaire

First saw this movie on AMC over a decade ago, taped it, and love it. It's actually a good conglomeration of events during the Texas oil boom. The scenes of the hotels being so full and nothing for people to buy in the boom towns is very accurate. The development of the great department store is really telling the story of famed Texas department stores such as Neiman-Marcus, Joske's, Hemphill-Wells and others that brought world-class shopping to the oil and ranching areas of Texas. Heston's performance is great and he really pegs the personality of many older rancher friends I know. And, any lover of Texas politics will love seeing Governor Shivers play himself. Other folks are right, we need this on a good quality DVD - it just has too much good history of the oil boom and post WWII development in Texas to keep locked away.

Lucy Gallant" stars Jane Wyman as a New York woman who, when passing through a muddy Texas boomtown, recognizes a business opportunity when she sees it.  Costar Charlton Heston plays a rancher who falls for her.  They have trouble agreeing on the terms of a relationship, so she devotes herself to her growing business concern and he plays the love-sick dogie, wishing she would see things his way.

The cast is the best part of this film.  Thelma Ritter, Claire Trevor and William Demarest play colorful characters, solidly performed. Joel Fluellen is uncredited as Summertime, a black man who partners with Lucy in her early success and becomes a trusted employee; the film could have used more of him.

This fish-out-of-water story, like "Giant", chronicles the era when wildcat oil strikes changed the economy, converting cowboys into the nouveau riche. Lucy proves to be an astute businesswoman. She parlays the sudden wealth of fashion-starved women into a local retail triumph.

Casey (Heston) is mystified by Lucy's choices, but still finds her attractive. Is it because of or in spite of the fact she's an enthusiastic go-getter? In many other films of the fifties, women sacrifice their dreams for romance; what will Lucy do?

The story begins with Lucy (Jane Wyman) arriving in some oil boom town at just the right time. Suddenly, thanks to the oil, folks have LOTS of disposable income and few places in which to spend it. So Lucy decides to open a clothing store, Gallant's. Soon she's quite the success. However, at the same time, Casey (Charlton Heston) has fallen for her and he wants to marry her...and vice-versa. The problem is that she is a driven career woman and he wants a stay at home wife. Obviously she cannot be both....so for the next fifteen years or so, the pair never manage to tie the not or even become official boyfriend and girlfriend. Is there any hope to ending this impasse?

The film is well acted, very slickly made and is enjoyable. I am sure a few folks watching might hate the sexist bent of the film, but for 1955 it was actually pretty progressive. Well worth seeing, though a bit predictable as well.

Before the much bigger budgeted Giant came out the following year, Paramount's B picture unit producers William Pine and William Thomas gave us Lucy Gallant a thinly disguised version of the founding of Neiman-Marcus. Jane Wyman plays the title role of a woman who was stuck in a Texas oil boom town in the Thirties and got the idea that the newly oil rich Texans might like some really fashionable clothing. As she is a recently jilted bride left at the altar, Wyman sells off her considerable trousseau and with that money builds the best department store in the state with all the latest fashions from Paris and New York.

Charlton Heston has a nice part as the cattle rancher turns oil millionaire like Rock Hudson in Giant who waits for Wyman. But this is clearly Wyman's film. Her father was accused of embezzlement and committed suicide and she wants to prove as a woman she can start and maintain her own business.

Wyman and Heston got a really good supporting cast from Paramount. The Dollar Bills as Pine and Thomas were called in the industry were getting bigger and bigger budgets to work with from Paramount although nothing like what Warner Brothers did for Giant. They assembled a good supporting cast with folks like William Demarest, Thelma Ritter, Wallace Ford, Gloria Talbott, and Tom Helmore settling in parts you are accustomed to seeing them in.

One I wish had more screen time though was Claire Trevor. She plays a former honky tonk owner who sells her place to Wyman for her original store and becomes a friend and rises to be a queen of Texas society. There's just too little of Trevor in this film.

Lucy Gallant is Texas putting its best foot forward. None of the warts are shown as they are in Giant. Still the film holds up well and Dollar Bills were probably justly proud of this work.

Jane Wyman is "Lucy Gallant," who goes to new territory to set up in business and sell women's clothes - to be her own woman, to stand on her own two feet. But when Charlton Heston set his eyes on her, he fell in love with her and wanted her for himself. By the way, he doesn't like these "independent women." He is both attracted to and dismayed by her being cool to him in the beginning. But he is just as determined as she is. Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, and William Demarest all give good support, but this film belongs to Ms. Wyman, who gives the role both her vulnerability and firm resolve. "Lucy Gallant" is a harder-to-find film of hers than others. And, while it may seen rather predictable and not that much original in concept, its production values and good actors make up for it. Ms. Wyman's likable disposition invites the viewer to spend time with her and we never lose interest in her world as she tries to make a go of it and having to deal with Charlton's passes at her. Will she succumb to his advances? Will she triumph over tragedies that befall her business? You'll only learn, if you enter the world of "Lucy Gallant."