Tonight's Saturday Night Cinema is a delightful rarity, The Lady in Question, starring the supremely divine Rita Hayworth and the hunky, swaggering Glenn Ford. This marks the first pairing of Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford, which is what makes the film worthwhile. The chemistry is obvious. It would be six years before these two blow up the screen in Gilda. Charles Vidor directed this film as well as Gilda.
The film is a showcase for the spectacular Rita. Enjoy.
Without any preliminary fanfare Columbia yesterday presented the Bryant Theatre with one of the season's most delightful entertainments. Once you overcome the manifold implications of a title like "The Lady in Question," you will be rewarded with an hour and twenty minutes of delectable domestic fare that is by turn droll, down-right funny and slightly dramatic, but always irresistibly humorous. Charles Vidor, the director, has managed to keep his characters in situations that are plausible and has imparted to the whole the infectious atmosphere of home and hearth. The screen play by Lewis Meltzer represents an adroit adaptation of the French film by Marcel Achard, which was shown here last year as "Heart of Paris."
Not the least of the film's virtues are its players. Brian Aherne contributes one of his finest characterizations as the blustering, good-natured owner of a Parisian bicycle shop who, upon being called as a juror, is so touched by the pathetic girl accused of murdering her lover that he holds out for her acquittal, then takes her into his family on the pretext that she is the daughter of an old classmate. His efforts to hide the girl's true identity from his wife, to thwart the romance which develops between her and his son, lead to many amusing and touching domestic complications. To attempt to give further details of the plot would be to do the film an injustice, for it springs to life out of situations of a sort which invariably seem frightfully dull in print.
As the lady in question Rita Hayworth reveals a winsome personality and a talent which should soon bring her recognition as one of Hollywood's more capable younger players. Evelyn Keyes gives a spirited performance as an adolescent smitten by Cupid, and Irene Rich draws a sympathetic and understanding portrait as the mother of the Morestan family over which Mr. Aherne presides so humanly. All in all, "The Lady in Question" is an uncommonly good, if not a great, photoplay; a distinct treat for jaded cinematic appetites.
THE LADY IN QUESTION; screen play by Lewis Meltzer; based on a story by Marcel Achard; directed by Charles Vidor; produced by B. B. Kahane for Columbia Pictures.
Andre Morestan . . . . . Brian Aherne
Natalie Roguin . . . . . Rita Hayworth
Pierre Morestan . . . . . Glenn Ford
Michele Morestan . . . . . Irene Rich
Defense Attorney . . . . . George Coulouris
Prosecuting Attorney . . . . . Lloyd Corrigan
Francois Morestan . . . . . Evelyn Keyes
Robert LaCoste . . . . . Edward Norris
Henri Lurette . . . . . Curt Bois
President . . . . . Frank Reicher
Fat Boy . . . . . Sumner Getchell
Nicholas Farkas . . . . . Nicholas Bella
