The Lady Says No

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.

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.

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.

David Niven is quite good and seems very natural in a comedic role in "The Lady Says No." But, that's about the only good thing about this movie. Niven plays Bill Shelby, a roving photographer who works for "Life" magazine. "Life" was the premier general interest magazine published in the U.S. in the 20th century. It was especially noted for its superb photography-news, feature, portrait and artistic.

Here, Shelby is taking photos in northern California. He lives out of a small house trailer that he pulls with his car. It doubles as a darkroom for developing and printing his photos. He has one specific assignment - to interview and photograph Dorinda Hatch who has written a book, the same title as this film. It turns out that Hatch, played by Joan Caulfield, is a young woman who is generally naive about the opposite sex, love and sex. She's not a psychologist or educator, but she's written a book that is a best seller.

The book is advice about something - apparently women just avoiding and having nothing to do with men. Hatch seems to have come up with the idea while growing up with her Aunt Alice and Uncle Matthew. Frances Bavier plays Aunt Alice and James Robertson Justice plays Uncle Mathew. They fought at times, but most of the time he was away from home - apparently for months or years at a time.

So, that's the setting for this comedy that is portrayed as a battle of the sexes. In the early part it has some good lines and a couple of funny scenes. But the plot quickly gets into a rut with a screenplay that runs all over the place yet goes nowhere. Hatch and Shelby have one encounter after another with various soldiers, a wife and girlfriends from nearby Fort Ord. Peggy Maley plays Midge who's a soda jerk at the Fort Ord PX. Lenore Lonergan plays Goldie who's married to Potsy (Henry Jones), an Army staff sergeant.

Hatch lives in Carmel - one can't image where her small house was located that overlooks the ocean. Shelby parks his trailer on a roadside pullout along the coast. These two are back and forth from her home, to the beach, to Shelby's trailer, to the Wharf Rat bar in Monterey, and to Fort Ord. The script by this time is devoid of any funny or clever dialog. Caulfield's frenzied movements and strange behavior are humorless. She has a dream sequence that's droll at best. She just doesn't have a spark for comedy - not in this film anyway. That could be due mostly to a read dud of a screenplay. But, even in her close-ups, she just can't emote humor.

This film quickly becomes boring - by halfway through. So, it's agonizing to watch it to the end, hoping for anything funny or something different to lift it out of the doldrums. My four stars may be generous. But Niven's character has just enough spark and humor to keep one watching. And the scenes on the Monterey coast and around the former Fort Ord add a little historic touch to boost the film a little. Still, this isn't a film worth buying a dvd or paying to rent at any cost, even for David Niven fans.

Here's the single line one might find somewhat funny. Dorinda Hatch, "Women do wear hats. Especially if they write books like mine." Bill Shelby, "Well, the way I see it, you wrote the book with your brain, and your brain is normally in your head, so let's take a look at your head, huh?" Dorinda, "That's logical."

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.