This is my entry in the Jean Arthur Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema
A Lady Takes a Chance (1943):
So the movie begins with a rather fairy-tale-ish opening crawl:
Once upon a time.
It was so long ago that people drove sixty miles an hour {horrors!} And skidded their tires {I imagine so...} And ate big gobs of butter (no wonder they drove so fast and skidded tires!} And drank three cups of coffee all at once {ditto} And there were more fellows around than there were girls { yeesh!} And everybody was having a good time without knowing it (well, maybe the girls...} That's when our story happened. Away back then in 1938. And here's hoping that "once upon a time" goes on again some quick tomorrow (that last was an added reference to the then ongoing WWII. This being a 1943 movie}
First a comment. The movie starts out with our heroine Molly (Jean Arthur) beginning a vacation on a 14 day trip across the United States on a tour bus. I don't know if you've ever had the "pleasure" of riding a bus cross country but at least in the late '80's it was no "tour". I once rode from south Texas to Washington D.C. It was the worst time of my life (even though the destination was pleasurable). It took 64 hours, including the interminable exchanges and I bet I got all of 2 hours sleep. And here she is taking a 14 day round trip. And apparently they were expected to sleep on the bus!
Anyway, apparently Molly is a popular girl. She has three, count 'em three beaus show up to see her off. All of them are anxious to have her return and maybe break down and finally be a wife. Malcolm (Grady Sutton), Bob (Grant Withers) and Gregg (Hans Conreid) all try to one-up the other with going away presents and goodbye kisses, much to the astonishment of her ailse mate Flossie (Mary Field) who wonders why she is going away in the first place with such exhibits of manliness waiting.
The first few days are filled with the excitement of picture taking as well as the obviously uncomfortable rigors of trying to find comfortable sleeping positions on a bus. But when she gets to the west all things go the way these romantic comedies go. While at a rodeo she has rodeo star Duke (John Wayne) fall head over heels for her (literally, he flies off his bucking horse and lands on top of her). With such mild first encounters blossoms love. At least it does for Molly. Duke, on the other hand, is just being courteous by showing her a good time, unaware of the effect he is having on her.
Eventually Duke makes the wrong move on Molly and she becomes disgusted with him. Especially after she finds out his watch is broken and she has missed catching up with her tour bus. Stranded she has to stay the night, but when Duke tries to take a few liberties she is offended and dismisses him. Unfortunately she also dismisses her opportunity to tag along to the next rodeo where the tour bus will be making a stop after it starts on its return journey to New York.
Molly's on and off again infatuation with Duke causes several problems along the way, including her causing poor Duke's prized horse to become sick. Of course it all works out in the end for the horse (it is a romantic comedy, after all) but will things work out between Molly and Duke? Ah, there's the real question.
I have to admit this is not one of the better John Wayne movies. He;s a bumbling fool, nothing like the he-man idol that attracted me to his movies. I have never seen Jean Arthur before (at least not that I can recall). But she comports herself well in the role of the lovesick female. I guess it all depends on what your opinion of this type of movie is. Myself I've never really been a fan of romantic comedies.
But all in all, I guess its not really all that bad. The comedy relief supplied by Charles Winninger as Duke's sidekick Waco, as well as a brief appearance by Phil Silvers as a tour bus emcee are pretty good. And other than the bad memories sparked by those scenes on the tour bus, I enjoyed myself.
Well folks I'm headed back to the old homestead (fortunately in my car..) Drive safely.
Quiggy
Haha your little comments in parenthesis in the first paragraph really made me laugh. I agree with you that this film is not a masterpiece but it's good enough and I loved reading your interesting thoughts about it. If you want to see more of Jean's films, I would recommend her work with Frank Capra (especially Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town), but also Easy Living, The More the Merrier, etc. Thank you so much for taking part in the blogathon!
ReplyDeleteI have watched and even reviewed Mr. Smith, so I guess this isn't the only movie I've seen with her in it after all. Thanks for reading.
DeleteBTW I cringed when I reread this entry. So many typos. But I got them all corrected now... :-D
I can commiserate with you about the bus thing, although my trip was in the 90s and I was on the bus for two and a half months, more or less (I was a member of the Continental Singers). We went as far east as Wisconsin and our bus had no AC. It was definitely memorable.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyway, this movie sounds cute. I might have to seek it out just for nostalgia's sake. :-)