A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

William A. Seiter

Writers:

Robert Ardrey (screenplay)
Jo Swerling (story)

Release Date:

19 August 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Western

Tagline:

IT'S SCREWY...And So Funny! IT'S RIOTOUS...And Romantic! (1950 reissue title)

Plot:

A city girl on a bus tour of the West encounters a handsome rodeo cowboy who helps her forget her simpy city suitors. |

Plot Keywords:

Rodeo | Horse | Beautiful Woman | Repetition In Title

Cast

Jean Arthur	...	Molly J. Truesdale
John Wayne	...	Duke Hudkins
Charles Winninger	...	Waco
Phil Silvers	...	Smiley Lambert (bus tour director)
Mary Field	...	Florrie Bendix
Don Costello	...	Drunk
John Philliber	...	Storekeeper
Grady Sutton	...	Malcolm Scott
Jean Stevens	...	'Jitterbug' (as Peggy Carroll)
Grant Withers	...	Bob Hastings
Hans Conried	...	Gregg Stone
Ariel Heath	...	Flossie
Sugar Geise	...	Linda Belle (bargirl)
Joan Blair	...	Lilly
Tom Fadden	...	Mullen

Also Known As:

The Cowboy and the Girl

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:6 (nf) | Sweden:15

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Quotes:

Waco: Remember what you told me? "Women is like socks... you gotta change 'em regular."

End of the Screwball era

The wonderful series of screwball comedies that sparkled from 1934 through 1943 came an end with this witless, unfunny movie. Jean Arthur had been in several of the classic films and had just finished the wonderful "The More The Merrier." Somebody came up with the idea of putting screwball in a western setting, and who better to hire than veteran actor John Wayne. The concept might have jelled if the script had been adequate. Instead, it left Arthur to carry the full load and depend upon sight gags to get laughs. Wayne drinks, smokes, grunts, and gets into a bar fight. Arthur is reduced to copying the hitch-hiking scene from "It Happened One Night" and running about in the western wilds with makeup fully intact and her clothes unruffled, speaking lines worthy of Monogram pictures. Several scenes are simply embarrassing, including the crowded bus bit at the beginning (with Phil Silvers) and a campfire gag that seems to go on for half an hour without a laugh. Charles Wenniger is reduced to playing Gabby Hayes. In short, this film is a flop and heartily deserves its obscurity.