A Lady Fights Back (1944) User Reviews

forgotten headline story

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 5 June 2021]

It's the story of the French luxury liner Normandie. This short starts with her arrival in peacetime NYC. She is confiscated by the Navy for the war effort and is wrecked by a fire. The most compelling footage comes from the fire and her being refloated after capsizing.

In the end, the ship was scrapped which comes after this short was made. It's an anti-climax and makes this title a lie. The lady never fought during the war. She never sailed under the American flag. It's an interesting news reel of a forgotten headline story.

This is the story of the ill-fated boondoggle . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 8/10 · 8 June 2021]

. . . called "The Normandie," which broke the fiscal record of Cleopatra's bejeweled scow to become History's most expensive barge. Deviously titled A LADY FIGHTS BACK to strike fear into the Fuhrer amid World War Two, the narrator here becomes a Master of Misinformation when he valiantly attempts to turn a silk purse into a sow's ear. As this thoroughly useless barge is being towed out of New York Harbor at the close of this 1944 propaganda film, the voiceover dude breathlessly assures viewers that this tub of lead--refurbished at a cost to U. S. taxpayers and War Bond buyers of $1.9 billion adjusted for inflation--will somehow give the Blitzkrieg Boys even more nightmares than it gave its handful of paying customers during its brief service as a mostly empty ocean liner in the late 1930's. The sad reality is that this unwanted white elephant was cut up for scrap the minute WWII ended, and NEVER made any tangible contribution to the War Effort. "And now you know the rest of the story" behind A LADY FIGHTS BACK.

Great for History Buffs

[Michael_Elliott · 10 August 2009]

Lady Fights Back, A (1944)

*** (out of 4)

The 50th entry in MGM's Passing Parade short isn't like many in the series, which usually told people stories from the past that they might have forgotten or didn't know at all. This entry tells us the story of the French ship Normandie and how it started out as a luxury liner before the war when it was nearly destroyed due to a major fire. This film really doesn't work too well as part of John Nesbitt's series but it does work as a part of history. There's a lot of stock footage of various voyages of the ship as well as a lot of footage from the eventual fire, which took place on the shores of Manhattan. Seeing this footage is certainly a big treat especially for fans of history and I'm sure it's history buffs who will get the majority of entertainment out of this. I really enjoyed hearing the brief story of this ship and it was interesting to see some of the items on board the ship including the rather amazing wine cellar. It's also worth noting, as the film does, that the rich folks dogs got better food than most humans were eating at the time of the war.

The Implications

[boblipton · 5/10 · 5 June 2021]

This episode of John Nesbitt's log-running MGM series, THE PASSING PARADE, covers the S. S. Normandie, one of the premiere luxury liners of the 1930s. Following the declaration of war by the U. S., it was seized in New York harbor by American authorities, and was being converted into a troop carrier under the name of Lafayette, when it caught fire and sank. It was eventually raised, but the damage to it was too great and it was towed out of site and scrapped in 1946.

At the time there was a belief that it had been due to sabotage, and if you look at Hitchcock's SABOTEUR, you can see shots of the ship sinking..... and the saboteur smiling. Investigations blamed accident: a steelworker's torch had set off the stuffing of life jackets.