The Law and the Lady

Greer Garson is a maid to Phyllis Stanley. When jewelry goes missing, Miss Stanley accuses Miss Garson. It turns out her scapegrace brother-in-law, Michael Wilding took them. Miss Garson is released with a character and two hundred pounds. She and Wilding go into partnership fleecing wealthy men from Monte Carlo to Hong Kong in a perfectly respectable way. Finally, having been asked to leave everyplace else, they land in San Francisco. While Miss Garson masquerades as member of the peerage, Wilding pretends to be a butler, and they wind up in Marjorie Main's menage.

MGM's third version of THE LAST OF MRS CHENEY suffers from excessive length and the Production Code, which insists that all lawbreakers must be punished. Miss Garson is, as always, very charming. Among her suitors, Fernando Lamas is quite dashing, and Hayden Rorke is a drip. Miss Main steals everything in sight. I was occasionally annoyed by William Gulick & James E. Newcom 's editing. Not only does Carmen Dragon's score tend to mickey-mouse the action, but so does the pace of the cutting!

MGM made its third sound version of The Last Of Mrs. Cheyney now entitled The Law And The Lady and the very British Greer Garson starred in the the last of the last. Retitiled The Law And The Lady her co- stars are the equally British Michael Wilding and the very Argentine Fernando Lamas. I was always amazed how many properties MGM found for both Lamas and Ricardo Montalban during their time at the studio that were not necessarily Hispanic per se.

Unlike the other two versions The Law And The Lady give the origin of the partnership of the two society crooks. Greer is a maid accused of stealing Phyllis Stanley's earrings, but her scapegrace of a brother-in-law Michael Wilding saves her from Scotland Yard. Wilding is a twin brother younger by five minutes. The two team up and go into the fleecing and thieving business.

Which brings them to Marjorie Main in San Francisco where they board and attempt to fleece. But Marjorie's also hosting Fernando Lamas whose got a distant connection to Spanish royalty. So it's a choice between Wilding, Lamas, the con artist life, or jail if Inspector Rhys Williams of Scotland Yard ever catches up with them. Maybe some of more than one choice.

This English comedy of manners is a great example of how MGM fit Lamas into non-Hispanic subjects with a bit of rewriting. Wilding and Garson do their lines well, I can't imagine original author Frederic Lonsdale having any objections or even someone like Oscar Wilde if he ever heard it.

This version holds up well compared to the other two, perhaps we'll see more remakes yet.

Guess the butler got left out of the title, but he was so spot-on with his many graces and polish. That cape in the early segment was quite dashing, along with the top hat and stick. Did not like Ms. Garson's dark hair in this or in "Mrs. Parkington." It just doesn't suit her, but she is still quite lovely. Her voice alone is ample attraction. "When Thieves Fall Out" would be a good title, maybe adding, "… And Make Up." Lots of irony there at the rancho, with everyone's righteous indignation fizzling out when their dirty linen got a genteel airing. Then, just when everything was all smiles again, along comes the extradition agent, all over a measly hundred pounds. What a bore. Oh well, maybe time off for good behavior will come sooner than expected, what with all the repository of charm brought to bear from the respective parties. Then, tally ho, off to the country house, manor house, town house and/or shooting box. This is so changed around, one needn't compare with previous editions. Certainly an interesting group of scenarios. Fun picture.

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.