Gallant Lady (1933) User Reviews

The Title Suits Ann to a Tee!!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 16 April 2012]

Even though she is almost forgotten now (I can't believe there is only one other review here for this movie), Ann Harding was a big star in her day, one of the biggest. She was a true aristocrat of the screen with her silvery blonde hair, beautiful eyes and her bewitchingly husky voice. She never played anything but Ladies with a capital L!! but co-workers (Mary Astor in "Holiday") described her as an actress rather than a star and that she disregarded all the special treatment and was no phoney!! In 1933 there was talk that Ann would align herself to Darryl F. Zanuck's new 20th Century Productions just as ex RKO star Constance Bennett had done, so Ann tested the waters by selecting "Gallant Lady" as a test movie. She thought she knew what her public wanted and she was completely perfect in it but it was a very melodramatic affair with, in my opinion, too many players. The film would have been tighter without Tullio Carminati's character. He did sing a couple of Italian arias but, apart from that, what was he in the movie for???

This was a very soapy tale of mother love. When Sally's (Harding) fiancée dies in a freak air accident he leaves her grieving and with child. She is pulled from her despondency by Dan (Clive Brooks) a drunken doctor just released from prison. He not only helps Sally find a couple eager to adopt her baby (she is determined to give the baby up) but gets her a job with his interior designer friend (Janet Beecher). Knowing so much about Dan, he engages the audience's sympathy and you start to feel sorry for him and want to shake Sally!!!

When she realises Dan's feelings are deeper than her own she goes to Italy where - you guessed it, she meets her little boy, Deedy (adorable Dickie Moore) on the boat and there is an instant rapport between them. Part of the problem is Deedy's dad, Phillip Lawrence (Otto Kruger) is such a shadowy, one dimensional character it is hard to understand Sally's strong feelings for him. And Dickie Moore is so engaging, he would put anyone in the shade. Phillip, who is now a widower, is engaged to one of those deadly fiancees (Betty Lawford) who - shock!! horror!! even hits Deedy!! In the meantime Sally is determined to marry Phillip, even though she doesn't love him, all for the sake of being near her son. Of course it doesn't happen like that but there is only about 10 minutes for them both to fall in love with each other. Meanwhile Dan, the only nice chap in the movie, is left to wander alone around the park, trying to cure his drinking addiction!! I call it unfair!!!

Ann Harding losing her son and winning him back

[clanciai · 8/10 · 24 November 2023]

This film was such a success and Ann Harding with Clive Brook made such an impression that it took only five years before a remake was made, with Barbara Stanwyck and Herbert Marshall. Clive Brook is better as a drunk than Herbert Marshall as the perfect gentleman, and Ann Harding was a greater star than Barbara in the 30s, but still the Stanwyck version is the better film, with less sentimentality than the Harding version, which in comparison actually is more shallow. Ann Harding is terrific, no one can contradict that, but Barbara did give greater depth to the role, making it more tragic, which Ann Harding as a tragedienne is not quite convincing with all her furs. Stanwyck's version is more down to earth, while Harding stays on a luxury level, if Clive Brook succeeds excellently in linking her closer to reality. They say the original is always better than the remake, but in this case I prefer the remake, although this original version has an even more efficient and shocking start.

Gallant Lady

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 16 February 2024]

Ann Harding is on good form here in this drama about a mother trying to reclaim her son. Tragically unwed and broke, and with the help of the dipso ex-con doctor "Dan" (Clive Brooks), she had to put her young lad "Deedy" (Dickie Moore) up for adoption. Many years later when she learns that the adoptive mother has passed away, she is much more successful and senses that now might be the time to try and ingratiate herself with "Phillip" (Otto Kruger) and the young boy - and see if she can't get more firmly established in both of their lives. She won't have an easy ride, though, but gets off to a decent start as they meet on the Queen Mary travelling to Europe. On that trip, she also meets "Count Carniri" (Tullio Carminati) who takes a shine to her and might just prove a fly in her ointment when it comes to getting her son back. Faced with choices that may not be her first, she makes some decisions that might reunite her with her child, but at what price her own happiness? The plot is standard melodrama stuff, but Harding really does stand out with one of her more convincing performances. The scenes with the young lad work well, are quite emotional and do support the almost addictive maternal feeling that underpins most of this story. Brooks is also quite effective as the drunken physician, but there's just a bit too much dialogue and the support elements (except the young Moore) don't really make much impact. It stays the right side of sentimentality once we are up and running, and there's some feisty humour here too.

Gallant with the La Cava Touch

[lqualls-dchin · 10/10 · 10 March 2022]

Though the plotline is pure melodramatic slush (there were a lot of unwed mother stories in the pre-Code period: Constance Bennett seemed to have the patent on the roles), what Gregory La Cava did with the material is almost miraculous. He introduced characters (played by Clive Brook and Janet Beecher) who always seem to have a wisecrack, a withering aside, or a snide remark on hand when things were getting too heavy-handed. Their characters (as well as Tullio Carmanati) help to lighten the load, and before you know it, the movie is transformed from a weepie to a comedy. Of course, the (very rushed) ending brings the movie back to its melodramatic roots, but it's still very engaging most of the way through. And Ann Harding's verbal jousts with Brook and Beecher remind the viewer that she had been a top comedienne early in her career, as the prime interpreter of Phillip Barry (HOLIDAY, ANIMAL KINGDOM, PARIS BOUND).

If Ann Harding Suffers, Then Everyone Must Suffer

[boblipton · 5/10 · 22 August 2023]

Ann Harding watches her aviator fiancee crash on takeoff, leaving her pregnant and alone. She wanders in a daze and is almost arrested, but Clive Brook, freshly released form prison for euthanizing a patient -- he's a doctor -- rescues her, and arranges for some friends of his to adopt the baby. Then he disappears while she works with antiques dealer Janet Beecher, with Brook occasionally dropping in to adore her and then get drunk. On a buying trip to Italy, she meets Count Tullio Carminati, who adores her. Then she runs into her son, played variously by Scotty Beckett and Dickie Moore -- my, how they grow! Now her birth son is fathered by an adoring Otto Kruger, who has a witch of a fiancee -- his wife having died -- in Betty Lawford. So Miss Harding decides to make Kruger adore her and marry her so she can be the mother to her own child, and Brook can go and get drunk in peace.

Miss Harding pulls off this piffle in her usual graceful way, although it's hard to believe she didn't wince occasionally at this script. So does everyone do a fine job of acting under the direction of Gregory La Cava as Miss Harding goes through enough changes of emotions that I'm surprised she doesn't have whiplash. She's enchanting when her character is happy and fulfilled in Italy, with Carminati singing at her from Italy to Paris, to shipboard back to the US. Likewise, it's nice to see Otto Kruger playing a nice guy. It's the didoes the script cuts to make sure that there's another twist in the plot that makes it ridiculous.

Ann Harding Is Terrific

[drednm · 19 April 2013]

Ann Harding stars in this story of loves gone wrong and the bond between mother and child.

Unwed mother (Harding) is despondent after giving up her baby and is being hassled by police in a public park when a stranger (Clive Brook) comes by and pretends she was waiting for him. They become friends and share stories. She the unwed mother, and he a one-time doctor whose patient died due to his negligence. Both are lost in the world but find new anchors in their friendship. He falls in love with her (not returned) and finds her a job in an interior design firm run by an old friend (Janet Beecher) who is in love with him.

Years pass and Harding is a great success; Brook continues to battle his demons and alcohol. Their paths cross again, and at the last minute, Harding replaces Beecher on a European buying trip after she finally realizes Brook is in love with her.

On the trip, she runs into her little boy (Dickie Moore) and his adopted father (Otto Kruger). His wife has died. Harding becomes friends with the boy. In Italy she captivates an Italian count (Tullio Carminati) and he follows her home.

Things get even more complicated when Harding accepts the job to design Kruger's house for his acidic fiancée (Betty Lawford). She has no use for the boy, so Harding decides to steal Kruger away from her and marry him although she does not love him.

The trail of unrequited love runs long and winding through this story, but all the actors are splendid. Harding is terrific and is simply gorgeous. A major star of her day, she had a solid film career in the 1930s. She should be better remembered.

Gallant Ann Harding

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 25 April 2022]

Producer Darryl Zanuck made this film a short time after he left Warner Brothers to set up his own banner, 20th Century Pictures. Released thru United Artists, it stars Ann Harding who was borrowed from her home studio RKO as well as Clive Brook, who had previously costarred with Miss Harding in an earlier melodrama. To say their scenes in this picture come off effortlessly would be an understatement.

I think much credit should be given to director Gregory La Cava who keeps things moving along at a brisk pace. Of course, the plot has built-in pauses for introspection and character building, but it never bogs down in any mawkishness.

There is a very good scene at the beginning which sets up the main story. Miss Harding's character is part of a crowd of spectators at an airfield. As she stands along the sidelines, she watches her aviator boyfriend crash his plane. He goes up in flames and so does their future.

A short time later she is wandering aimlessly through a park. She is still in shock about what happened earlier and is acting strangely. She is suspected by a police officer of being a prostitute, which of course she isn't. Just as the cop is about to lead her off, she is "saved" by a man down on his luck (Brook) who pretends to be her friend. He walks her to his apartment and they get to know each other.

The relationship between Harding and Brook remains platonic throughout, but they develop deep personal feelings for each other. In some ways it feels like a story that would have worked best if Brook's character had been gay, was very fond of her and did whatever he could to protect her...but it could never become more than them just being friends. During the friendship scenes that follow, they bare their souls to each other. She learns how he is a disgraced doctor who recently spent time in prison; and he learns that she is pregnant but won't be able to marry the father who is now dead.

In the next sequence, Brook arranges for Harding to put the baby up for adoption, a child she has bonded with but must give away. Brook's magnanimousness doesn't end there, for he soon arranges for Harding to start work as an interior decorator for another female pal (Janet Beecher, in the film's best supporting performance).

It all takes off from there, with a considerable amount of time passing. Then we have Harding reconnecting with her young son (Dickie Moore) a few years later in Europe, and insinuating herself into the life of his new family.

Zanuck would remake this story a few years later, after 20th Century Pictures merged with Fox. In the second version, ALWAYS GOODBYE, the main roles are played by Barbara Stanwyck and Herbert Marshall. As much as I adore Stanwyck in her films, she is not quite as good as Harding is in this picture. Harding seems to capture the role perfectly, balancing the angst with comic relief that keeps things from getting too heavy.

We can believe Harding's sacrificial mother a bit more than Stanwyck's because Harding is etching a real flesh and blood woman. She has occasional remorse and self-pity, but she is also resilient and we know that she will not be defeated.

As for the male leads, I would say that Herbert Marshall is probably a bit better than Clive Brook. And it's a shame that there wasn't a version of this story with Harding and Marshall who had acted together in other films.

It's easy to get absorbed in these kinds of "chick flicks" from the 1930s when the performances are as sincere and genuine as the ones in GALLANT LADY.