The Great Man's Lady (1942)

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

W.L. River (screenplay)
Adela Rogers St. Johns (original story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

15 April 1942 (Portugal)

Genre:

Drama | Western | Romance

Tagline:

The unforgettable story of the woman behind the men who built an empire.

Plot:

A 100-year-old pioneer woman tells her story in flashbacks.

Plot Keywords:

Flashback | Pioneer | Biographer | Statue | Founder

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Hannah Sempler Hoyt
Joel McCrea	...	Ethan Hoyt
Brian Donlevy	...	Steely Edwards
K.T. Stevens	...	Girl Biographer (as Katharine Stevens)
Thurston Hall	...	Mr. Sempler
Lloyd Corrigan	...	Mr. Cadwallader
Etta McDaniel	...	Delilah
Frank M. Thomas	...	Frisbee
William B. Davidson	...	Sen. Knobs
Lillian Yarbo	...	Mandy
Helen Lynd	...	Bettina
Mary Treen	...	Persis
Lucien Littlefield	...	City Editor
John Hamilton	...	Sen. Grant
Fred 'Snowflake' Toones	...	Pogey
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Irving Bacon	...	Parson (uncredited)
Hank Bell	...	Man #1, Hoyt City (uncredited)
Monte Blue	...	Man #2, Hoyt City (uncredited)
Horace B. Carpenter	...	Man in Saloon (uncredited)
George Chandler	...	Forbes (uncredited)
David Clyde	...	Bartender (uncredited)
Tex Cooper	...	Wagon Train Man (uncredited)
Fern Emmett	...	City Editor's Secretary (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Politician on Dais (uncredited)
G.P. Huntley	...	Quentin (uncredited)
George Irving	...	Dr. Adams (uncredited)
Charles Lane	...	Pierce (uncredited)
Larry Lawson	...	Man #3, Hoyt City (uncredited)
Buck Mack	...	Bartender (uncredited)
Lee Moore	...	Gambler (uncredited)
Ottola Nesmith	...	Mrs. Frisbee (uncredited)
Anna Q. Nilsson	...	Paula Wales (uncredited)
Damian O'Flynn	...	Burns (uncredited)
Pat O'Malley	...	Officer Murphy (uncredited)
Milton Parsons	...	Foreman (uncredited)
Bob Perry	...	Miner (uncredited)
Lee Phelps	...	Chairman (uncredited)
Eleanor Stewart	...	Miss Frisbee (uncredited)
Theodore von Eltz	...	Hank Allen (uncredited)
Charles Williams	...	Assayer (uncredited)

Directed by
William A. Wellman

Writing credits
W.L. River		(screenplay)
Adela Rogers St. Johns		(original story) &
Seena Owen		(original story)
Viña Delmar		(short story)

Produced by
William A. Wellman	....	producer

Original Music by
Victor Young

Cinematography by
William C. Mellor

Film Editing by
Thomas Scott

Art Direction by
Hans Dreier
A. Earl Hedrick		(as Earl Hedrick)

Costume Design by
Edith Head

Makeup Department
Robert Ewing	....	makeup artist
Wally Westmore	....	makeup artist
Charles Gemora	....	special makeup (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joseph C. Youngerman	....	assistant director (as Joseph Youngerman)

Art Department
Jack Colconda	....	props (uncredited)

Sound Department
Harry D. Mills	....	sound recordist
Walter Oberst	....	sound recordist

Visual Effects by
Gordon Jennings	....	special photographic effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Darrell Turnmire	....	grip (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Eugene Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Music Department
George Parrish	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leo Shuken	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Sidney Street	....	business manager (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1942) (USA) (theatrical)
• MCA/Universal Pictures (1958) (USA) (TV)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1995) (USA) (VHS) (For MCA Home Video)
• Universal Studios Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (The Barbara Stanwyck Collection)

Other Companies

• Deluxe Digital Studios  DVD transfer

Also Known As:

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

To practice for her role as a woman of 107, Barbara Stanwyck visited several retirement homes and interacted with the elderly women to emulate their mannerisms.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Hoyts stand at the sight of their future city, they're at the foot of a hill, but moments later they're on top of a hill.

Quotes:

Hannah Sempler:Men were different in those days. Men like Ethan. A drink in one hand and luck in the other.

Soundtrack:

Unfinished Symphony

This film needs defending

Such undeserved condescension on the part of most of your reviewers! I thought it was an absorbing romantic drama in which Stanwyck was at her very best. As she turned from youthful sparkly-eyed amused flirt in her first scenes with McCrea into the mature more gray-haired woman seriously urging him to do his political best for those whom he represented, her virtuosity as an actress of transformations came greatly to the fore. It was a pleasure to respond to her in her various moods of youthful love, a stunned mother's loss of her two babies, her vigorous denunciation of her father in his unconscionable request of her, and finally the resignation of old age in which she at last destroys the long-lived marriage certificate she's been carrying around through most of the story.

McCrea was also very good, especially in the scene in which he confesses himself guilty of the same kind of corruption so rife in the American West at that railroad-building time.

The story seemed to echo the true events of The Ballad of Baby Doe (opera) in its background of silver mining and marital troubles; and it certainly resembled Edna Ferber-Abby Mann's Cimarron in retelling the story of a marriage in which the husband spends years on the road away from his wife.

The 19th-century flooding in Sacramento was certainly up to date given the similar events happening in that city in our own times as well.

A great movie. Pay no attention to those detractors.