Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Lady for a Day Blu-ray Movie Review

Fairy Tales Can Come True and Classics Can Be Rescued

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 2, 2012

Director Frank Capra so much appreciated the Damon Runyon short story "Madame La Gimp" that he filmed it twice, once in 1933 under the title Lady for a Day and again for the 1961 release called Pocketful of Miracles. Both films received multiple Oscar nominations, winning none, and both suffered the same critical slings and arrows aimed at Capra throughout his career (improbable plotting, too much sentiment). But Lady for a Day was better received in its time, probably because the Depression era in which it was released was closer to Runyon's time and certainly more receptive (even welcoming) to an escapist fairy tale about a hard-drinking peddler of apples transformed overnight into a society queen.

Capra always said he preferred the later version, but they're very different movies. Lady for a Day runs a taut 96 minutes, has a snappy pace and overlapping dialogue that has kept it sounding contemporary, and retains the distinctive fizz of Runyon's penny-ante underworld. Pocketful of Miracles extends the running time by 40 minutes, adds new characters and explores backstories for others, and takes forever to reach its miraculous conclusion. The first time you see it, it's fun, but on repeat viewings, you may find yourself checking your watch.

Still, it's Pocketful of Miracles that remains better known today. For one thing, it's in color,while Lady is in black-and-white. Even after years of broadcasts by Turner Classic Movies and discussion on internet forums, the prejudice against "old" films remains. Also, Pocketful has famous stars whose faces people recognize: Ford, Davis, a very young Ann-Margret and, in an early role, Columbo himself, the late Peter Falk, who received one of the film's Oscar nominations and was widely thought to have stolen the picture. By contrast, Capra made Lady for a Day at the newly founded Columbia Pictures (hey, every company was new once), and all the big stars were under contract elsewhere; he cast great actors, but they weren't familiar faces then, and they're forgotten now.

But there's yet another reason why Lady for a Day has faded from memory, and it's one this Blu-ray is going to change. The film has been an orphan on home video, because its original negative was lost in the early Fifties. For years, all that existed was Capra's personal print, from which he made a negative for archival purposes in 1977. In 2001, these materials, now held by Frank Capra, Jr., became the basis for a DVD of Lady for a Day released by Image Entertainment, which represented, for the time, the best that could be made from the source materials. Viewers were underwhelmed, as the comments at Amazon reflect. Now a new entrant in film preservation, B2MP, Inc., has worked with restoration technicians to bring Lady for a Day back to life. The results may not be the equal of what an OCN might supply, but especially at Blu-ray's resolution, they are superb.

The "lady" of the title is Apple Annie (May Robson), a tough, gin-swilling peddler of—what else?—apples among the beggars and petty crooks of New York's Times Square, which, even in the Thirties, was already a den of iniquity. Two things are special about Annie. She's the good luck charm of Dave the Dude (Warren William), one of New York's premiere gangsters, who won't place a bet, pull a job or do a deal without first buying an apple from Annie, to the eternal frustration of underlings and cohorts like Happy McGuire (Ned Sparks), who are always kept cooling their heels while someone finds the old broad for Dave.

The second thing is a secret: Annie has a daughter, Louise (Jean Parker), whom she long ago sent away to Europe to be educated. (How she's paid for this selling apples is a question best not considered too closely.) Louise thinks her mother is a rich society lady, because for years Annie has been swiping stationery from the swanky Hotel Marberry and writing her daughter as "Mrs. E. Worthington Manville", having invented an entire life filled with receptions, teas and formal functions. A porter at the hotel smuggles out Louise's replies, and the deception works perfectly until one day Louise writes that she's en route to New York with her fine Spanish fiancé, Carlos (Barry Norton), and his father, Count Romero (Walter Connolly), who want to meet Louise's mother.

When Annie's friends miss her on the street, they seek out Dave the Dude, who finds Annie in her apartment, drunk and despairing. Before he knows what's hit him, Dave has agreed to help Annie fake being the lady her daughter expects. Like many things that sound simple when you say them fast, this task quickly gets complicated. There's the apartment at the Hotel Marberry to obtain; the appropriate-sounding husband to dig up (a smooth-talking pool shark named "Judge" Henry G. Blake, played to perfection by Guy Kibbee); Annie's physical transformation, overseen by Dave's sometime girlfriend, club owner Missouri Martin (Glenda Farrell) and a small army of beauty professionals; society reporters to fend off and, when they won't be dissuaded, kidnapped and held incommunicado for the duration of Louise's visit; and the biggest challenge of all, a reception to organize, when Count Romero tires of being driven around New York sightseeing and wants to meet some of "Mrs. E. Worthington Manville's" society clan. The scenes in which the Judge, Missouri and Dave's loyal lieutenant, Shakespeare (Nat Pendleton), try to teach a bunch of "mugs" and show girls how to masquerade as upper crust stiffs are among the film's comic highlights.

But the cops are watching. The newspapers want to know what became of their society reporters, and someone makes the connection with the odd assortment of characters who met the ship bearing Louise, Carlos and the Count. It isn't long before New York's Finest have zeroed in on Dave the Dude, and he gets picked up just as he's supposed to be leading the "guests" to the big society bash at the Worthington Manville home. But this is a Frank Capra film, which means there has to be a happy ending. The alert viewer should see it coming, but you won't hear it from me.

Lady for a Day is a fantasy, an escapist fiction borne aloft by Runyon's colorful characters and the witty dialogue penned by screenwriter Robert Riskin (another Oscar nominee) and usually delivered at breakneck speed. The key moments where the delivery slows down are when May Robson, as Annie, pours out her heart to her daughter, either on paper or in person, expressing all the tender emotions that Annie keeps tightly under wraps during the long hours she spends shoving her way through the tough environs of Times Square. Robson, who came from the stage, dialed down her performance to a camera-friendly murmur under Capra's direction, and she makes you believe that this woman really could pull off the impersonation that Annie undertakes, because she so desperately wants to do what's necessary for her daughter's happiness. Twenty-eight years later, Bette Davis would give a fine performance in the same role, but you're always aware that it's Bette Davis playing Apple Annie. With Robson, you just see Annie.

Lady for a Day Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

To fully appreciate the video quality on B2MP's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Lady for a Day (released through Inception Media), one must view the "before" and "after" comparison in the supplements. I've included a few screenshots from the supplements, but they don't begin to convey the extent of the improvement. Dust, scratches, sprocket hole marks and other print damage have been removed, and in some instances entire frames have been recreated and interpellated where the originals were either damaged or missing. Indeed, this edition adds approximately 4:30 of restored footage that could not be included in the previous DVD release, including the crucial scene in which Dave, the Judge and Happy McGuire strategize how to create a reception for Louise, Carlos and the Count.

But repairing damage is only the beginning. The restoration has dramatically improved black levels, so that blacks now appear truly black. This immediately provides a better sensation of depth, because the delineations between planes of light and dark are essential to the illusion of dimensionality in B&W photography, and previous versions of Lady for a Day blurred these lines by fudging what should be sharp distinctions into indiscriminate shades of gray. The perception of detail is also increased, but without the use of boosted contrast (which gives a false impression of detail). The effect is analogous to cleaning a layer of dust off your TV screen.

It would be a mistake to judge this restoration against such exceptional Blu-rays as, e.g., Casablanca or Citizen Kane. Leaving aside the difference in age, the quality of source materials in those instances permitted a different degree of image harvesting than will ever be possible for Lady for a Day. Still, given the available materials, the results are little short of miraculous, yielding a smooth film-like image with natural grain patterns and no telltale signs of digital manipulation, despite the massive amount of restoration work needed to bring Lady for a Day back to life. It can now be enjoyed again without the distractions of a worn and fractured image, for the first time in over half a century.

Lady for a Day Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's original mono soundtrack is presented as PCM 2.0, which, when played through a typical home theater system, should collapse to the center channel. It's a solid presentation of a typical track for the period. The dialogue is remarkably clear, despite the unusual demands that Capra placed on his sound technicians (described in the commentary by Frank Capra, Jr.). The limitations of the dynamic range are revealed during Missouri Martin's musical number and also during the sequence when Annie plays her records while writing to her daughter, and her neighbors gather outside to listen. However, the track has been handled carefully to avoid any shrillness or brittleness at the high end. It may not show off your home theater system, but it tells the story effectively.

Lady for a Day Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction by Frank Capra, Jr. (HD, 1080i, 1.33:1; 0:57): This introduction can be optionally selected to play before the film. It appeared on the 2001 Image DVD, so that the "restoration" of which Capra, Jr. speaks is that of the earlier edition.


• Commentary by Frank Capra, Jr.: Again, this commentary comes from the Image DVD, and there are pauses, notably because of the additional scenes (app. 4:30) not present on that disc. The commentary is exceptionally informative on the history of the project, the casting, Capra's directing style, the film's reception and, to a lesser extent, the remake. An interviewer (identified to me as Nathaniel Thompson) can be heard in the background occasionally prompting Capra, Jr. with questions.


• Restoration Before and After (HD, 1080p, 1.78:1; 4:40): Seeing is believing. Examples from scenes throughout the film demonstrate the extent of the restoration work. I have included a few screenshots, but the image has to be seen in motion to appreciate the full impact of the work performed by the restoration artists.


• Still Gallery (1080p, various): Most of these are publicity stills and what appear to be lobby cards.


• Essay by Scott Eyman: Eyman is a film critic and historian. His lively essay about the film appears on an insert in the Blu-ray case accompanied by photographs and a reproduction of the one-sheet.

Lady for a Day Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A year after Lady for a Day, Capra would sweep the Oscars with It Happened One Night, at long last fulfilling his ambition of putting the upstart Columbia Pictures on the Hollywood map. But it was Lady for a Day that helped get both Capra and the studio taken seriously, and the film remains a buoyant souffle that, like any good fairy tale, creates its own self-contained world. Capra remains one of America's greatest filmmakers, and the durability of his popular touch is proven every year when It's a Wonderful Life plays on TV at Christmas. Now that Lady for a Day is back, let's hope it has an equally long life. Highly recommended.