Customer Reviews

Lady By Choice [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thought it was an adorable movie. Carole Lombard and May Robson are always good. It's a cute plot and worth seeing, especially for Lombard fans.

(3.5 stars)

Lady By Choice is one of those films that start off reasonably well but leave you feeling somewhat dissatisfied even if some people are not surprised or even half-way pleased by the ending. It's one of those 1930s's dramas with a dash of comedy on the side that tries hard to make the film enjoyable. It works with mixed results; I expected more from this film. The plot moves along at a fairly good pace except for the last half-hour most of which goes by too fast. The acting, however, is very convincing; and the cinematography shines along with great choreography.

When the action starts, we quickly meet Patricia 'Patsy' Patterson (May Robson) who is her usual drunken and disheveled self starting a fight in a bar where someone is singing a song that she just doesn't happen to like. She winds up in night court where Judge Daly (Walter Connolly) contacts the guy who looks after her as a favor to his late father, Johnny Mills (Roger Pryor). Johnny Mills has his hands full with Patsy; and eventually Judge Daly sends Patsy to a home for old ladies much to Patsy's chagrin.

However, Patsy was noticed by someone else that night she was in court. Nightclub dancer Georgia "Alabam" Lee (Carole Lombard) is in court on a morals offense (for fan dancing); and her manager Front O'Malley (Raymond Walburn) thinks that for the sake of good publicity Alabam should adopt a mother--and it turns out that Alabam adopts Patsy! At first Front and Alabam's other agent Charlie Kendall (Arthur Hohl) want to send Patsy away; but Patsy outsmarts them and endears herself to Alabam. It isn't long, either, before Patsy exposes Charlie as an agent who has cheated Alabam out of much of her earnings at the club where she was dancing! Patsy wants to be Alabam's new agent; and Alabam decides to take a chance. Alabam accepts Patsy's offer to be her new manager.

About this same time Johnny Mills, checking up on Patsy, meets Alabam and he falls for her at first sight. They start dating---especially when Alabam runs out of money and dates Johnny to tap into his wallet!

Of course, what happens from here is anyone's guess. How does Patsy come into money when Alabam's nightclub work is over? Will Alabam and Johnny continue to date if Johnny finds out that she's after him for his money? Will Alabam ever tell Johnny it's all about the money and their relationship has nothing to do with love? Can they fall in love at all? And what happens to Patsy and Judge Daly through all this? Watch and find out!

Lady By Choice is a fairly good film but as another reviewer notes it has some "holes" in it. There seems to be about 9 minutes missing from the original film; and you can tell at certain points the parts of the surviving print has been spliced together for as seamless a presentation as possible. However, this still doesn't really excuse the fact that the last 30 minutes run too fast with unnecessary plot twists; that's a shame. This film is best suited for Carole Lombard fans who want to have all of her films; and fans of the other actors in this movie may want this one, too. Otherwise, this is strictly a "B" movie production.

May Robson gives a robust performance as the elderly drunk who is selected for 'motherhood' by fan dancer Carole Lombard. Lombard struggles with her role which is paper thin. One has to conclude that the script and planning for this film were 'pre-code' but the production was after. There are several holes in the plot which muddy the character motivation and leave the film short of where it could have been.

Lombard is pursuaded to 'adopt' a mother for publicity. This is in part to sooth over her arrest for a scandalous dance perfomance using only fans. The audience has to wait for most of the film to see this dance only to find an extremely watered down version of the Sally Rand original (see 1934's pre-code film 'Bolero' with Lombard, George Rath, and Sally Rand). A lover from Robson's past has assigned his son to watch over her. The son meets and romances Lombard with predictable results while checking on 'mom'.

This film suffers from censorship and too little effort to repair it after the code had been imposed. Recommended for Lombard fans only.