The Law and the Lady

It looks as though MGM didn't go to much expense to make THE LAW AND THE LADY, a re-working of an earlier vehicle that once starred Norma Shearer in a first version and then Joan Crawford.

The main trouble is not the script, which has some fairly good lines and situations, but the miscasting of ladylike GREER GARSON in the central role. She has so much class and sophistication that it's impossible to believe she's anything less than an aristocrat from head to toe. In fact, the revelation that she's really a working class girl comes as a shock of disbelief. This is similar to Audrey Hepburn being more believable as Liza the lady in MY FAIR LADY than Liza the gutter snipe.

Handsome FERNANDO LANZA isn't asked to do too much but he does it very well and MICHAEL WILDING appears to be enjoying himself pretending to be Garson's valet. But the comic presence of MARJORIE MAIN as a rich, tough talking widow who keeps her jewels in a wall safe saves the film from becoming static as it weaves its way through the slight story of two jewel thieves (Garson and Wilding) going about their business as partners in crime--until the law finally catches up with them.

It passes the time pleasantly enough but amounts to little more than a trifle.

Greer Garson is the lady in question in "The Law and the Lady," a 1951 film also starring Michael Wilding, Marjorie Main and Fernando Lamas. It's a loose remake of "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney." Here, Garson plays a former British household maid at the end of the 19th Century who hooks up with the brother of her ex-employer. They sort of fall into a con game and decide to keep going with it. After being asked to leave several countries when they're discovered cheating at gambling, they travel to America and San Francisco high society. They set their sights on a wealthy woman (Main) and her necklace. Complications arise.

This is a good movie with some very funny dialogue, especially in the beginning - when the lady of the house informs Garson she won't get a reference, she replies, "I won't be needing one. I intend to become a lady, and there are no character references necessary for that." Garson plays her role in a very cool, offhanded manner that is very effective. Wilding is amusing as her partner in crime, and Main is a riot as a tough old rich widow.

All in all, a very charming movie and worth seeing.

In turn of the century London, Nigel Duxbury (Michael Wilding) steals a pair of earrings from his sister-in-law Lady Sybil Minden who immediately accuses her maid Jane Hoskins (Greer Garson). Nigel casually returns the earrings and Jane demands an apology. She quits and aspires to be a Lady herself. Nigel is completely taken with her. The two of them start coning the upper class. Eventually, she falls for Juan Dinas (Fernando Lamas) and abandons her partnership with Nigel.

I really like the start and the initial chemistry of the thieving duo. It should turn into a caper where they steal from some snotty rich folks. It would help if the high society people are actually evil. The con jobs are not that fun and the couple chemistry stagnates. I don't like the Juan detour and the return trip ending is oddly upbeat. It's a small loss after a promising start.

This poor knock-off, starring a past-her-prime Greer Garson looks like what it is: a conflation of all the MGM contract players squeezed into roles they weren't necessarily congruent with. Garson, unfortunately, for the time, was not well accepted in coquettish female roles because of her age. Her heyday came and went with the stirring Mrs. Miniver when she was head of a family. Now, she needed a family to mother and MGM has thrown her out to be a jewel thief. MGM, in fact, did her much injustice during the 1950s as they miscast her over and over again in search for that second Mrs. Miniver, which was never to come.

Other actors, like Myrna Loy, got out of their contracts with the studio and negotiated independently for roles. Loy smartly chose motherly roles as she grew older and did not try to hold on to her youth: "The Best Years of Our Lives", "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", the sixth and final "Thin Man" and "Cheaper by the Dozen" (a big box office hit in 1950 that is not owned by TCM and is subsequently never aired).

Garson remained with MGM and they kept the movies coming. Someone in management must have really liked her.

THE LAW AND THE LADY (1951) is the third MGM adaptation of the play "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" (previously filmed with Norma Shearer in 1929 and Joan Crawford in 1937).

While the Shearer and Crawford versions are very similar, THE LAW AND THE LADY branches out from the play's story, changing the names of the characters and expanding the backstory between the would-be jewel thief (a brunette Greer Garson) and the phony butler (Michael Wilding). This version is more romantic than its predecessors.

Here Garson is a former housemaid with gold-digging aspirations who falls in with Wilding, the no-good brother of her last employer, a wealthy English nobleman. With Garson posing as a widowed aristocrat ("Lady Loverly"), the two hop across the globe conning wealthy men at casinos before setting their sights on San Francisco society widow Marjorie Main and her one-of-a-kind diamond necklace.

That's where the "Mrs. Cheyney" plot starts kicking in, with Garson infiltrating Main's house as a weekend guest and Wilding securing a position as Main's butler (after a glowing recommendation from Lady Loverly). Over the weekend Garson meets the dashing and Hispanic Fernando Lamas, whose romantic overtures annoy Wilding, who's grown rather fond of his partner-in-crime. All this romantic tension complicates the jewel heist scheme.

While nothing substantial, this movie is enjoyable as a light romance with a criminal twist. And Greer Garson's beauty outshines any shortcomings the film may have (although some plot points don't seem fully developed). Having seen the two previous MGM versions of "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney", it's refreshing in a way to see a remake that feels like its own movie, telling its own story in its own way. A charming film, especially for Greer Garson devotees.