Gallant Lady

This film was such a success and Ann Harding with Clive Brook made such an impression that it took only five years before a remake was made, with Barbara Stanwyck and Herbert Marshall. Clive Brook is better as a drunk than Herbert Marshall as the perfect gentleman, and Ann Harding was a greater star than Barbara in the 30s, but still the Stanwyck version is the better film, with less sentimentality than the Harding version, which in comparison actually is more shallow. Ann Harding is terrific, no one can contradict that, but Barbara did give greater depth to the role, making it more tragic, which Ann Harding as a tragedienne is not quite convincing with all her furs. Stanwyck's version is more down to earth, while Harding stays on a luxury level, if Clive Brook succeeds excellently in linking her closer to reality. They say the original is always better than the remake, but in this case I prefer the remake, although this original version has an even more efficient and shocking start.

The 1930s gave us a lot of films about all-sacrificing mothers, such as "So Big", "Stella Dallas" and "Madame X"...and audiences loved them. "Gallant Lady" is also one of these movies, though the way it ends isn't nearly the same as these other films.

The story begins with a flyer dying on takeoff on some historic flight. His girlfriend is left behind...pregnant. She meets a man who befriends her and he helps her through her pregnancy and when she gives up her child for adoption. As the years pass, Sally (Ann Harding) is able to straighten out her life and make a success of herself but when she takes a cruise something hard to believe occurs....her biological son is on the ship and he and Sally become friends. Later, when Sally is hired by the boy's future step-mother, she sees firsthand how cold and mean she is to the kid...so she vows to take her fiance away and marry him herself...and then she'll be both the boy's biological and step-mother! How does all this work out?

This is a very good film but it does suffer from a few coincidences too many...that the adopted boy's mother would soon die, that Sally is on the same ship as the kid, etcetera. But if you can look past it, it is a fascinating and enjoyable film. Well made.

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.

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.

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.