The Lady Says No (1951) User Reviews

Say 'no' to The Niv?

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 20 February 2018]

You're going to need some serious suspension of disbelief to watch this one. I mean, who would say "no" to David Niven?

Joan Caufield plays a best-selling authoress, whose claim to fame is a book that warns unsuspecting women about the greatest horror known as Man. Men are filthy, nasty beasts, and women would do well to always say "no"! David Niven works for a popular magazine, and he's assigned to do a featurette on Joan. He hates her book and her message, and as soon as they meet, they're at each other's throats-and not in a good way. But, since it is David Niven, she just might be charmed long enough to listen to what he has to say.

Yes, it's pretty silly, and enormously dated, but if you like silly and dated, you won't go wrong by renting The Lady Says No on a rainy afternoon. David Niven is absolutely adorable and charming, and since I love him anyway, it's easy to root for him in this funny 50s romp. My advice: watch the opening credits. If you start laughing during the song, you're in the right mindset to enjoy the rest of the movie. I find it hilarious.

Inconsequential but painless battle-of-the-sexes comedy

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 5 October 2011]

Have you heard this one before? A man and a woman meet for the first time, initially they are diametrically opposite to each other, but they meet half way (or, more accurately and in keeping with the times, 3/4 of the way closer to the man's starting position, but let's not overanalyze things here) and they fall in love. "The Lady Says No" is a thin and veeeeery predictable comedy, but at least it's never boring, and sometimes it gets funny. The not-too-well-known today Joan Caulfield gives an appealing performance, while David Niven coasts along in his customary style. The film's one notable step out of the ordinary is a bizarre dream sequence. ** out of 4.

'Am I going to get it?'—'How bad you want it?'

[Cristi_Ciopron · 6/10 · 19 October 2009]

Joan Caulfield and the cocksure, conceited Niven made the funny snappy screwball LADY SAYS NO, directed by Frank Ross; Niven is a photographer, Shelby, attracted to a young feminist authoress who turns into a willful woman and husband—snatcher—and then, the transformation of this babe as she opens herself to love. The womanizer Shelby sets himself up to conquering the blonde writer. The comic is often very unsubtle, but after seeing ETERNALLY YOURS—with the same Niven--, LADY SAYS NO looked like a marvel of fun (--that was a romance while this is a malicious sex comedy--). Basically well—paced, LADY SAYS NO is a watchable screwball and an anti—feminist satire, though quite witless ; it's better directed than written, the blonde does an average role. Niven, a meager but funnier Rathbone, has some brio as the sardonic seducer; but, even for himself, he looks awfully old and ugly, and with a rather constipated humor. The leading actress could be a bit uninspiring.

Not more than 6/10.

Well enough made and played to be worth a watch

[Charlot47 · 14 July 2010]

Slight romcom set in around 1950s Carmel, California, where suave bachelor globe-trotting photographer David Niven is assigned to shoot a best-selling feminist author, who turns out to be the virginal, cool and very smartly turned out blonde Joan Caulfield.

At his first tired ploy of getting her to remove more and more clothes, she ends the shoot by walking out. Each further advance on his part is met by more rebuffs, following which she allures him into yet more humiliation. Even her dreams show attraction competing with repulsion. Restless, she starts interfering in the romances and marriages of his blue-collar friends as well. It has to end, as we know it will, with her growing up. The little girl who keeps saying no must become a woman and learn to say yes.

Good support from, among others, James Robertson Justice as her errant Irish uncle, Henry Jones as an amazingly unwarlike army sergeant and Lenore Lonergan as his battleaxe wife.

A lousy script, repetition and weak lead role sink this would-be comedy

[SimonJack · 4/10 · 4 March 2019]

David Niven is quite good and seems very natural in a comedic role in "The Lady Says No." But, that's about the only good thing about this movie. Niven plays Bill Shelby, a roving photographer who works for "Life" magazine. "Life" was the premier general interest magazine published in the U.S. in the 20th century. It was especially noted for its superb photography-news, feature, portrait and artistic.

Here, Shelby is taking photos in northern California. He lives out of a small house trailer that he pulls with his car. It doubles as a darkroom for developing and printing his photos. He has one specific assignment - to interview and photograph Dorinda Hatch who has written a book, the same title as this film. It turns out that Hatch, played by Joan Caulfield, is a young woman who is generally naive about the opposite sex, love and sex. She's not a psychologist or educator, but she's written a book that is a best seller.

The book is advice about something - apparently women just avoiding and having nothing to do with men. Hatch seems to have come up with the idea while growing up with her Aunt Alice and Uncle Matthew. Frances Bavier plays Aunt Alice and James Robertson Justice plays Uncle Mathew. They fought at times, but most of the time he was away from home - apparently for months or years at a time.

So, that's the setting for this comedy that is portrayed as a battle of the sexes. In the early part it has some good lines and a couple of funny scenes. But the plot quickly gets into a rut with a screenplay that runs all over the place yet goes nowhere. Hatch and Shelby have one encounter after another with various soldiers, a wife and girlfriends from nearby Fort Ord. Peggy Maley plays Midge who's a soda jerk at the Fort Ord PX. Lenore Lonergan plays Goldie who's married to Potsy (Henry Jones), an Army staff sergeant.

Hatch lives in Carmel - one can't image where her small house was located that overlooks the ocean. Shelby parks his trailer on a roadside pullout along the coast. These two are back and forth from her home, to the beach, to Shelby's trailer, to the Wharf Rat bar in Monterey, and to Fort Ord. The script by this time is devoid of any funny or clever dialog. Caulfield's frenzied movements and strange behavior are humorless. She has a dream sequence that's droll at best. She just doesn't have a spark for comedy - not in this film anyway. That could be due mostly to a read dud of a screenplay. But, even in her close-ups, she just can't emote humor.

This film quickly becomes boring - by halfway through. So, it's agonizing to watch it to the end, hoping for anything funny or something different to lift it out of the doldrums. My four stars may be generous. But Niven's character has just enough spark and humor to keep one watching. And the scenes on the Monterey coast and around the former Fort Ord add a little historic touch to boost the film a little. Still, this isn't a film worth buying a dvd or paying to rent at any cost, even for David Niven fans.

Here's the single line one might find somewhat funny. Dorinda Hatch, "Women do wear hats. Especially if they write books like mine." Bill Shelby, "Well, the way I see it, you wrote the book with your brain, and your brain is normally in your head, so let's take a look at your head, huh?" Dorinda, "That's logical."

Wow,,,this film tries way too hard and a good cast is wasted.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 7 May 2011]

Wow...this movie was so bad that I couldn't even finish it! That's amazing, as I have an ALMOST limitless ability to watch crappy films. I think the reasons I couldn't stick with this one were because it totally wasted a good cast, it tried WAY too hard to be cute and the film was also a sexist mess. So, despite having said I'd watch almost anything with David Niven in it, I'll put this with a few of his films that are simply unwatchable messes--such as "Casino Royale" (1967) and the final Pink Panther film in which he appeared (he was so sick that his lines had to be dubbed by another actor and Peter Sellers wasn't even in the film except for scenes with stock footage).

The film begins with a photographer (Niven) from a magazine is on his way to interview a lady who wrote a book called "The Lady Says No". When he meets her (Joan Caulfield) and her aunt (Frances Bavier) he assumes the older lady wrote the book. After all, he reasons, only an old biddy would write such a dumb book about men and women and relationships!!! He even goes on to SAY this--proving he's a sexist jerk. As for the rest of the film I could stand watching, you see Niven repeatedly act like a boorish sexist--and he seems half asleep in the film. Perhaps he was just too embarrassed by the craptitude of the script. Caulfield seemed to take it a bit more seriously, but even her attempts to make this film watchable were in vain. Overall, it's clichéd, badly written and annoying...and those are only its GOOD points. I can EASILY understand why the studio allowed this movie to pass into the public domain!!

Ho-hum romantic comedy...

[keith-73 · 5/10 · 13 February 2008]

Short on laughs, sometimes even embarrassing to watch, it makes me wonder what this film would have been like WITHOUT David Niven. His performance is so wooden and he seems so bored with the whole thing. Joan Caulfield, not a well known name, does a really good job, actually, playing the ying and yang of her character.

Niven seems TOTALLY OUT OF PLACE, a part someone like Tony Randall or Jack Lemmon could have banged out of the park (maybe it was a bit before their time...) Not a bad premise, has been stolen and used repeatedly in movie history, but it seems listless and lifeless when Niven is on screen. Oh, well.

Feminist Author Learns Some New Tricks.

[rsoonsa · 7/10 · 8 March 2005]

Producer Frank Ross makes his only effort at directing with this feathery comedy, a vanity piece for his wife Joan Caulfield, wherein the lovely and customarily demure actress displays a widened working range disparate from her normal personae, playing here as Dorinda Hatch, feminist author of an anti-male best-seller who becomes unsettled when a rakish photographer for Life Magazine, Bill Shelby (David Niven), attempts to woo her through a sly method of blackmail. During a picture taking session for the periodical Dorinda does some mugging designed to put the impudent Shelby in his place, but the latter turns the tables on her by using a daft face made by the writer as the proof for an upcoming Life cover, refusing to give the negative to her unless she allows him to kiss her, an act leading to romantic complications that raise doubts as to the sincerity of Dorinda's feminist beliefs. The work has a simple storyline, with some fatuous scenes of slapstick, but roles are well-performed by all members of the cast, despite a great deal of predictability in the dialogue, Caulfield earning the acting laurels as she and Niven luff toward each other in romantic folly, and there are skillful turns from Henry Jones and Lenore Lonergan as a comedic pair still in love, although not without conflict. The action moves briskly with nary a break and producer/director Ross has assembled top-tier technicians to showcase Caulfield, among them James Wong Howe, cinematographer, and Orry-Kelly, costumer, in addition to production designer Perry Ferguson, and a terrific score is contributed by Arthur Lange to cap off this pleasant and humorous soufflé.

The Viewer Says Woe(ful)

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 23 April 2011]

Frank Ross distinguished himself in various ways - he was married to one great actress (Jean Arthur) and one acting joke (Joan Caulfield), he produced a couple of Sinatra titles (The House I Live In, Kings Go Forth) and a fairly risible pseudo-religious entry (The Robe). Somehow he got the idea he was equipped to direct a film and given that his second wife Caulfield was sorely in need of a vehicle that may remind viewers she had once been in the same film (Blue Skies) as Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, coming a bad nowhere despite co-star billing, he must have seen this as a chance to kill two birds with one stone. Alas ... the teaming of two actors of monumental unequal talent (David Niven and James Robertson Justice) was only eclipsed a couple of years later when Fred Astaire wiped the floor with Jack Buchanan in The Bandwagon and the chemistry between Niven and Caulfield could only have been eclipsed by Garbo and Mr. Bean. One best forgotten.

Will Joan Caulfield Say "I Do"?

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 25 April 2010]

Suave LIFE magazine photographer David Niven (as William "Bill" Shelby) arrives to do a feature on the female writer who made her "The Lady Says No" a feminist bestseller. She surprises him by being shapely blonde Joan Caulfield (as Dorinda Hatch). Mr. Niven attempts to thaw the icy beauty by getting her to wear less for his photo spread, but Ms. Caulfield resists. You can guess the rest.

"The Lady Says No" is predictable to a fault and only pretends to be sophisticated. Don't give up on it too early, lest you miss Caulfield's dream sequence - she ties Niven up after he leads his bikini-topped harem by a collective rope around their pretty necks. Director Frank Ross was Caulfield's husband. Favorite aunt Frances Bavier (as Alice) and Henry Jones (as Potsy) are always fun to see.

**** The Lady Says No (1/6/52) Frank Ross ~ Joan Caulfield, David Niven, Frances Bavier, Henry Jones

Classic Romantic Comedy!!!

[Pumpkin_Man · 10/10 · 12 October 2008]

I thought this was a really good love story! Joan Caulfield and David Niven were awesome and perfect together! A woman named Dorinda Hatch writes a book about her hatred toward men. A photographer named Bill Shelby meets to do a story on her, and he automatically falls in love with her, but the feeling isn't mutual for Dorinda. She embarrasses him in front of other women by showing what would happen if a man whistles to her. After she makes a fool of him, she starts to feel sorry for him and slowly falls in love with him. Her book ruins the marriage of a couple, so Dorinda tries to help make it right. She eventually regrets that she ever wrote the book, and shows the love. If you love classic romantic comedies, you'll love THE LADY SAYS NO!!!

Courtship Antics Go Only One Way

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 19 September 2011]

The Lady Says No casts Joan Caulfield in a part that Katharine Hepburn would have taken one look at and rejected out of hand. Caulfield plays an early advocate of women's liberation and who authors a book where she tells her female readers many different ways to say 'no' to a man and make it stick. The woman is in some real danger of having that work all too well for her readers and herself.

David Niven plays a Life Magazine photographer who's been all around the world and sampled females from many walks of life. He's assigned to do a feature photo story on Caulfield and the two of them start their antics of courtship which you know will only end one way. Back in 1951 it could only end one way with the Code in place.

Speaking of the Code, this independent United Artist Release is the only kind of film the Breen Office might have been sloppy with the censoring. Otherwise no way a line like "with my trusty female native guide, I thrust myself into the interior of Borneo" could have made the cut. It was the biggest laugh in the film for me.

David Niven could barely summon enough interest to be vaguely charming in this film. The Lady Says No was produced and for one time only directed by Frank Ross for his wife Joan Caulfield. Maybe the film might have rated a bit higher had a comedy specialist like Mitchell Leisen or George Marshall did the directing.

In any event it's a dud and a waste of a talented cast.

What a Waste of the Superb David Niven!

[richard.fuller1 · 23 July 2001]

Ever wonder how those Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan films will look in years to come? LIke this empty headed flick. I'm not even sure what it was about!

Niven was a photographer, Joan Caufield was some independent female who had to challenge him about a woman's independence. Huh? A photograph of her crossing her eyes and pulling a lock of her hair across her upper lip like a moustache was supposed to be embarrassing and he put it on the cover of a magazine. Really odd movie and such a waste of David Niven. I have seen him salvage other movies. Alas, this one he could not. The film was a showboat for Caufield, and she couldn't be more uninteresting if she tried.

One very amusing moment was Niven having a dream about Caufield and she is dressed like Sheena of the Jungle in a leopard print one piece swimsuit. Very bohemian! Think of Madonna of '52. The wooden gyrations are laughable to begin with, but just before this scene, we're shown an unamed African American woman who was the towel girl (!) at the restaurant and her dancing to the band's music was priceless. This chick really cut loose! I thought it was tremendously odd that this woman was uncredited and danced so much more better than Caufield, and that her scene would precede Caufield's big dance moment. Avoid this flick at all costs, unless you are an overwhelming David Niven fan, as I am. This was not one of his best.

The Lady Says No - at least at first

[wilvram · 5/10 · 16 May 2020]

There were two things at least I enjoyed about this frivolous romantic comedy about the author of a book attacking men and her involvement with the type of man she despises most, the jaunty and catchy intro music, and the performance from the stunning Joan Caulfield, who managed to extract the maximum from an inconsistent and under-written part. A pity she didn't become a greater star than she did. By contrast her co-star David Niven appeared understandably rather uncomfortable throughout. The first half was fairly amusing, albeit dated, with the dream sequence the highlight, but the attempts at humour become increasingly feeble and finally moribund some time before the inevitable conclusion is reached.

The Battle of the Sexes just gets more and more ridiculous.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 1 April 2013]

A Life Magazine photographer (David Niven) takes on a beautiful but frigid non-fiction author (Joan Caulfield) whose latest book, "The Lady Says No", is obviously anti-male, anti-sex, anti-romance, and definitely anti-marriage obviously anti-researched. She might as well become a member of the now defunct religious sector, the Shakers, as she goes about humiliating Niven in public at a women's meeting by showing the ladies (most of them well beyond the age of romance) how to deal with a masher. That offensive sequence, handled in the most juvenile manner, is followed by Caulfield obviously learning the error of her ways, basically becoming a hypocrite by chasing Niven and trying to reconcile a couple who have separated because the wife is now an obsessed follower of her ideals, having earlier poo-poo'd the whole thing when Niven picked her up as a hitch-hiker.

Ultimately, this extremely unfunny comedy with no wit, little intelligence and zero point, is a waste of dead trees, both with the script and the book utilized on screen. "The Andy Griffith Show's" Frances Bavier (Aunt Bea) has a rare major film role as Caulfield's aunt, a woman whose own husband (James Robertson Justice) ran out on her years ago and has presumably returned just to cash in on the profits. Character actor Henry Jones ("The Bad Seed's" LeRoy and TV's "Phyllis", among many other credits) has a major part as the Army Sergeant whose wife left him. If it wasn't for the cast, this would rate a total bomb. A dream sequence in the movie only stresses the obnoxiousness of the film.

If She Starts With No, It'll be Yes by the End

[view_and_review · 4/10 · 21 February 2024]

I accidentally watched this movie thinking it was "The Girl Said No" (1930). I was too deep into it before I realized it wasn't a movie from 1930 at all.

In this folly a woman named Dorinda Hatch (Joan Caufield) wrote a book titled "The Lady Says No," with the idea being that she is advising other women to say no to men. It's never made clear what she advises women to say no about except the whole idea of being with men.

You know that a movie with the title of "The Lady Says No" means that you're going to have a lady saying yes by the end. Furthermore, you know that she only needs to meet "that" guy and she'd be saying "yes, yes, yes."

The guy in the equation was Bill Shelby (David Niven), a photojournalist for Life magazine. He traveled to Monterey, California to do a spread on Dorinda. After photographing Dorinda he blackmailed her into kissing him. That kiss was all it took and suddenly Dorinda's whole perspective changed. It wasn't that Dorinda was principled, she was just a virgin. If principled virgins were kissed by the right man they'd no longer be principled virgins. It was a paltry premise that didn't deliver.

Free on YouTube.

Me Too

[boblipton · 3/10 · 1 April 2024]

Joan Caulfield has written a best-selling book with the same title as the movie. We are told it proposes entirely new patterns for courtship and marriage. We are never told what those are. David Niven is a photographer from Life magazine who has to photograph and interview her. Of course they dislike each other. Of course they are going to fall in love by the end.

Too bad there's nothing in this movie that seems either real or funny. While Niven performs his comic turn in his usual plodding, unself-aware manner, Miss Caulfield does her comedy turn in a mild Joan Davis sort of way, and they don't strike sparks at all. They also have to deal with other wacky types, like Miss Caulfield's uncle, James Robertson Justice in an Irish accent. The comedy doesn't work, the romance doesn't work, and Frank Ross never worked as a director ever again, which seems wise to me.

While She Says No, I Say Yes...

[Ronzique · 8/10 · 25 February 2017]

The Lady Says No is the type of post World War II film that tackled issues the movies would not focus on. In this case, it's feminism. Beautiful Joan Caulfield (Blue Skies, The Unsuspected) was directed by her husband, Frank Ross, to play a man-hating writer of a book telling women to be cautious of a man's desires. David Niven is a photographer for a magazine who tries to do a story on her, but romance steps in...with complications. He gets embarrassed for whistling at her, she takes the heat for her book causing a marital break-up. But, ultimately, things turn around, as a sergeant reunites with his wife and writer and photographer get back together, as well.

Also in the cast are Francis Bavier (Aunt Bee-The Andy Griffith Show), James Robertson Justice, Henry Jones, Lenore Lonergan, and Peggy Malley, with Bavier and Justice as Caulfield's aunt and uncle, Jones and Lonergan as a military couple, and Malley as a friend of the military couple.

Mostly hilarious and predictable (Caulfield's dream of her fighting off jungle women to get to Niven), but stoic in some areas (Niven's lack of comic response), the film was written as a showpiece for Caulfield, who carried the movie. Wouldn't mind seeing it again. In other words, I would love to see Caulfield flaunt her style in Orry-Kelly fashions, while she defends her position of feminism, while a different actor could have been used as a comic foil, maybe Fred MacMurray. A film slightly ahead of its time.

An Odd Period Piece Albeit Uninspired

[rowenalite · 1 June 2015]

As another reviewer once noted, "The Lady Says No" is "a listless raspberry at feminism circa 1951." This is a good description as far as it goes. The film is uninspired and quite predictable. Pretty Joan Caulfield plays feminist author Dorinda Hatch who has written a book advising women to avoid romances with men. Handsome David Niven plays wolfish Bill Shelby who is attracted to this man-hater and soon has her reluctantly returning his desires.

The film has a lackluster script. Caulfield does the best she can with the part but Niven appears just plain bored as if he has mentally checked out from this trite material.

One thing about it is that it reminds people of how feminism made a strange turn in the 1970s. Giving up on the idea of persuading women en mass to eschew intimate relations with men, feminism adopted legalized abortion as its cause. Obviously, abortion would have little market if it were really possible to get women to "say no."

Although the film isn't terrific, IT SHOULD BE WATCHED! It should be watched to see what people in the 1950s thought a feminist would look like and be like and what feminism would champion. Does anyone in this era think a feminist is a dowdy stout woman in a long dress who stays home and knits? As I've already pointed out, a feminist movement that successfully championed celibacy would not be tied to "abortion rights."

I want to add that I saw this routine programmer because I'm a fan of the relatively little-known Peggy Maley, the blonde beauty cast as Midge. I thought Maley did well with her lively but small part. She certainly looked sexy and bright but she almost always did. Here's to Peggy!