The Lady in Question (1940)
- General info
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- Synopsis:
"The Lady in Question" is a remake of the French Gribouille, a Raimu vehicle from 1939. Brian Aherne plays Andre Morestan, the seeming contently paterfamilias of a bourgeois Parisian family. Summoned for jury duty, Morestan at first believes that accused murderess Natalie Rougin (Rita Hayworth) is guilty, but eventually takes pity on the homeless girl and invites her to live with his family after her acquittal. Things get pretty dicey when Morestan's impressionable young son Pierre (Glenn Ford) falls in love with the enigmatic Natalie and begins committing petty crimes to finance their elopement-leading to a situation not unlike the one that got the girl arrested in the first place! In the original Gribouille, it was abundantly clear that both father and son had a yen for their pretty guest, but this menage a trois has been toned down in the Hollywood version, with Morestan remaining more or less faithful to his long-suffering wife Michelle (Irene Rich). - Actors:
- Brian Aherne, Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, Irene Rich, George Coulouris, Lloyd Corrigan, Evelyn Keyes, Edward Norris, Curt Bois, Frank Reicher, Sumner Getchell, Nicholas Bela, Louis Adlon, Ronald Alexander, Leon Belasco, Mary Bovard, Dorothy Burgess, George Calliga, James B. Carson, William Castle
- Directors:
- Charles Vidor
- Producers:
- B.B. Kahane
- Writers:
- Lewis Meltzer, Marcel Achard, Jan Lustig
- Aka:
- Gribouille / Hearts of Paris / It Happened in Paris
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance
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Reviews (1) of The Lady in Question
Interesting Programmer - The Lady in Question review by Steve
Routine comedy-drama which is of interest today for the pre-fame appearances of the two big Columbia stars of the '40s, Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Brian Aherne is actually the lead, as a bumptious family man called to do jury service, who employs the murder suspect (Rita) when she is acquitted.
And then she falls for his teenage son (Ford). It's a sitcom with much of the comedy derived from the pompous old dad falling out with his wife (Irene Rich) and long suffering adolescent children. As a bonus we get a young, exuberant Evelyn Keyes as the scatterbrained daughter.
Hayworth is the closest to arrival as a star. She has that low voice and passive demeanour which she would employ in her noir roles. But there is no spark yet. Ford is just a skinny, puppyish kid with a lopsided grin. When the US joined WWII he volunteered for the Marines.
After his return, Charles Vidor directed them again in Gilda, and made Hollywood history. Ford, and Hayworth- who was the biggest name in pictures by then- burned up the set with their sexy innuendo. And Keyes? Well she married Vidor, for a year! This though, is just a slight diversion kept buoyant by its energetic cast.