classicsoncall Review of The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve (1941)

"There's as fine a specimen of the sucker sapiens as I've have ever seen."

[8/10 · 22 January 2019]

For a film made during the first decade of the Production Code being in effect, I was shocked out of complacency when Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) said to Charlie Pike (Henry Fonda) - "Don't you think we ought to go to bed?" That didn't really leave anything up to the imagination, did it? And that was before The Lady Eve (also Stanwyck) came on the scene. I don't know, I had to really register a substantial suspension of belief to accept Stanwyck's transition into the niece of Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith (Eric Blore) in order to put the jinx on Charlie. That was a nice attempt by Sir Alfred/Pearlie to spin the connection between Jean and Eve, but it didn't work for me or Muggsy (William Demarest). For his part, Charlie was a bit much more of a bonehead than I expected him to be, coming from such a wealthy family. Tripping over himself repeatedly during the reception for Sir Alfred and The Lady Eve was somewhat unconvincing, even if his social skills weren't as well polished as they could have been. But overall this is a fun kind of movie, with a talented cast of secondary players led by the irascible Charles Coburn in the role of Colonel Harrington, and I thought Eric Blore was outrageous as the glib con man Pearlie. This was almost like a caper movie if you think about it, with Jean/Eve winning the prize she was after even if it took a second try. One thing that was never resolved though, do you think the Colonel ever cashed that check for thirty two grand?