Gallant Lady

Ann Harding is on good form here in this drama about a mother trying to reclaim her son. Tragically unwed and broke, and with the help of the dipso ex-con doctor "Dan" (Clive Brooks), she had to put her young lad "Deedy" (Dickie Moore) up for adoption. Many years later when she learns that the adoptive mother has passed away, she is much more successful and senses that now might be the time to try and ingratiate herself with "Phillip" (Otto Kruger) and the young boy - and see if she can't get more firmly established in both of their lives. She won't have an easy ride, though, but gets off to a decent start as they meet on the Queen Mary travelling to Europe. On that trip, she also meets "Count Carniri" (Tullio Carminati) who takes a shine to her and might just prove a fly in her ointment when it comes to getting her son back. Faced with choices that may not be her first, she makes some decisions that might reunite her with her child, but at what price her own happiness? The plot is standard melodrama stuff, but Harding really does stand out with one of her more convincing performances. The scenes with the young lad work well, are quite emotional and do support the almost addictive maternal feeling that underpins most of this story. Brooks is also quite effective as the drunken physician, but there's just a bit too much dialogue and the support elements (except the young Moore) don't really make much impact. It stays the right side of sentimentality once we are up and running, and there's some feisty humour here too.

Gregory LaCava's "Gallant Lady is probably not a movie that most people nowadays would recognize, but it deserves acknowledgement. Ann Harding plays a widow forced to give her son up for adoption. Some years later, she starts looking for a way to get back into her son's life.

I'd say that the movie's strength is the focus on tragedy, as the protagonist watches her husband's death and sees her once ideal life collapse. I guess that in later years, this could've expanded into a look at trying to make her own way in the world, or investigating her finances to make sure that her husband hadn't mismanaged their money (which was the focus of the 2000 comedy "Saving Grace"). I guess that our society wasn't quite ready to see a woman do that back then.

I understand that Ann Harding frequently cast as self-sacrificing women, some might say typecast. This is the first time that I've seen one of her roles, so I wouldn't know. The movie apparently got remade as "Always Goodbye" with Barbara Stanwyck. Since that came about during the Hays Code, I wonder what the changes were. Either way, this is definitely a movie that I recommend. Check it out if you can find it.

Though the plotline is pure melodramatic slush (there were a lot of unwed mother stories in the pre-Code period: Constance Bennett seemed to have the patent on the roles), what Gregory La Cava did with the material is almost miraculous. He introduced characters (played by Clive Brook and Janet Beecher) who always seem to have a wisecrack, a withering aside, or a snide remark on hand when things were getting too heavy-handed. Their characters (as well as Tullio Carmanati) help to lighten the load, and before you know it, the movie is transformed from a weepie to a comedy. Of course, the (very rushed) ending brings the movie back to its melodramatic roots, but it's still very engaging most of the way through. And Ann Harding's verbal jousts with Brook and Beecher remind the viewer that she had been a top comedienne early in her career, as the prime interpreter of Phillip Barry (HOLIDAY, ANIMAL KINGDOM, PARIS BOUND).

Ann Harding stars in this story of loves gone wrong and the bond between mother and child.

Unwed mother (Harding) is despondent after giving up her baby and is being hassled by police in a public park when a stranger (Clive Brook) comes by and pretends she was waiting for him. They become friends and share stories. She the unwed mother, and he a one-time doctor whose patient died due to his negligence. Both are lost in the world but find new anchors in their friendship. He falls in love with her (not returned) and finds her a job in an interior design firm run by an old friend (Janet Beecher) who is in love with him.

Years pass and Harding is a great success; Brook continues to battle his demons and alcohol. Their paths cross again, and at the last minute, Harding replaces Beecher on a European buying trip after she finally realizes Brook is in love with her.

On the trip, she runs into her little boy (Dickie Moore) and his adopted father (Otto Kruger). His wife has died. Harding becomes friends with the boy. In Italy she captivates an Italian count (Tullio Carminati) and he follows her home.

Things get even more complicated when Harding accepts the job to design Kruger's house for his acidic fiancée (Betty Lawford). She has no use for the boy, so Harding decides to steal Kruger away from her and marry him although she does not love him.

The trail of unrequited love runs long and winding through this story, but all the actors are splendid. Harding is terrific and is simply gorgeous. A major star of her day, she had a solid film career in the 1930s. She should be better remembered.

One of the toughest decisions prospective mother's in bad predicaments have to make is whether or not to keep their child. Sally Wyndham (Ann Harding) found herself having to make that choice. She was pregnant and jobless, AND she hadn't married the father of her child before he died in a fiery plane crash. That left her with few options. I thought she would marry the first nice guy she met; that has happened in a few movies. She decided to give her baby boy up for adoption rather than face the wrath of her family or try to raise the child alone with little resources.

Unlike many women in 1930's cinema who were tortured by having to make a decision between two men, Sally was legitimately tortured by having to make the decision of giving up her child. To help her make the decision was a disgraced doctor named Dan Pritchard (Clive Brook). He gave the distinct impression that he'd assisted in the suicide of a terminally ill patient, hence his license was taken away and he was thrown in prison. He wasn't a bad person, he just had a difference of opinion with the medical and state laws.

If Sally wasn't tortured enough already, she'd be tortured again when she happened to encounter her son Deedy (Dickie Moore) while she was on holiday in France. She wanted back into his life, but how would that be fair to her, fair to him, or fair to his adopted father Phillip Lawrence (Otto Kruger) (the adopted mother passed away)?

I thought the movie was pretty good. It was a bit different and it presented a real quandary. I was surprised to see Gilbert Emery as a co-writer for this film. I'm so used to seeing him on screen, I didn't know he had some behind the camera credits as well.

I can't end this review without mentioning one particularly galling character: Count Mario Carniri (Tullio Carminati).

He saw Sally while she was visiting Italy. He began to serenade her and pursue her heavily. She kindly rebuffed his advances while he audibly made wedding arrangements for the two of them. He followed her to France and even back to the U. S., trying so desperately to win her over. He never succeeded, and Sally never got stern with him which, apparently, was the only way to make a man understand that no means no.

His unrequited pursuit was annoying, yes, but worse than that was his eventual annoyance with Sally. At one point he criticized the fact that all she did was work and didn't play. His attitude had me dumbfounded and upset. This guy had been a constant bugaboo and took it upon himself to follow Sally to another country, so for him to act like a petulant child because she wasn't giving him attention only showed how entitled he was.

It was really telling that he had such an attitude with her. Here it is, he chased her around the globe and she's done nothing but give him the air, yet he felt some kind of ownership. It's almost as if he believed that he was owed some sort of affection for the work he'd put in.

He'd been a nice guy.

He serenaded her.

He pursued her.

He poured out his heart to her.

Wasn't he owed something?

It was a weird dynamic back then, and I've seen it in a few movies. Any nice man who kept up a pursuit deserved the woman he was pursuing, and sometimes it didn't matter if she was already in a relationship. If she giggled, smiled, or humored him in some way--even while rejecting him--it was encouragement for him to continue his pursuit. If she didn't outright shut him down with a stern and resounding rejection, it was a signal that he just needed to be (more) persistent.

As a result, Count Mario was all the way in America being a sourpuss because Sally hadn't given in to him yet.

Strange times.

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