Lady for a Day
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Movie Reviews of Lady for a Day
Movie Review: Warren William Appreciation Thread
Summary: 4 Stars
Not a good transfer but the price is still affordable, and I don't think the white streaks made the film totally unwatchable. Wonder how something like that happens and how it could be restored?
Warren William, the leading character actor, is dapper and sophisticated, funny and downright hot. Underrated for many years, Warren William's films are undergoing a revival in film circles today, coinciding with a renewed interest in so-called "Pre Code" films, of which he was just about the biggest star in the world, for a brief time. This picture is just one of five he starred in that were released in 1933, and the actor stayed pretty busy, even as the quality of his movies went downhill, until his too early death in 1948. What he had to offer was a combination of assets, a particular alchemy he shared with someone like Clark Gable. Where Gable was straight up, however, Warren William was sort of shifty, you didn't really know where you were with him. If both Gable and William offered Depression audiences slightly competing versions of optimism, William was also far more capable than Gable of showing life's bleaker side. He was one man whom the heroine actually might not be able to make over into her bourgeois hero.
Capra captures William's anarchic, slightly dangerous spirit well as Dave the Dude in LADY FOR A DAY. His interactions with Glenda Farrell, who plays Missouri the Texas Guinan-style nightclub hostess with the mostest, are clever studies in sex appeal and a knowing, sort of alcoholic ease with each other. And his compulsion for the apples that May Robson provides (they bring him luck in his gambling ventures) is just that sort of obsessive twist that Warren William could really go to town on.
I like the remake too, with Glenn Ford and Hope Lange, but let's face it, Glenn Ford just didn't have the (only slightly hidden) nuttiness Dave the Dude's just got to have.
Movie Review: All For One
Summary: 4 Stars
Lady For a Day is about a woman named Apple Annie (May Robson). She has an illigitimate daughter who lives overseas; her daughter believes she is wealthy and married, which is okay because she will never find out. However, Annie's daughter wants to get married to a high-class man from Spain whose family wants to meet hers before they are wed. Annie is in a terrible spot and plans to fake her own death until she is able to win the support of several in her community to impersonate her wealthy alter ego.
Robson is great in her part, a sympathetic and dynamic character whose emotions ring absolutely true throughout. Guy Kibbee plays a unique role as an intelligent man who displays class and wit, unlike his standard drunken parts. Warren William also plays against type as a charitable man. Glenda Farrell has a small, forgettable part, but she looks more beautiful than ever.
This film displays the uplifting spirit that Capra's films became known for, a symbol of a by-gone era, one that many will not let themselves forget.
Movie Review: The Dude
Summary: 4 Stars
I know it's a stretch, but I can't help but think that the Coen Bros. knew this film well, when they wrote, "The Big Lebowski".
Both "dudes" share a disdain for the establishment, and yet are well respected by their peers. Both men attempt a good deed, but not without the prospect of a payout at it's completion. Both appear to be the most astute within their respective circles, and seem to be drawn into a larger episode against their will.
It seems that the constuction of "The Big Lebowski" in it's relationship to "Lady for a Day", is similar to the construction of "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou", in it's relationship to "The Odyssey". There is a basic premise from which a very enjoyable romp ensues.
Jeff Zolitor
Movie Review: a too rarely seen depression-era goody
Summary: 4 Stars
this is the original version of frank capras better-remembered "pocketful of miracles", about a bag lady who has been sending her child to convent school in europe and is now faced with the prospect of her grown daughter coming to visit her supposedly grande dame mother in new york. the latter movie filled in alot of detail, but softened the sting of the depression-era original. i like both, but this is the better one.Movie Review: Good Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
I seen this on TCM and thought i would buy it. I got to say that when i seen it on TV it looked better then it did from the DVD. Not a very high qualty dvd it is more like a dvd disk for your cpu.