Lady for a Night Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Lady for a Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Not—repeat not—a sequel to ‘Lady for a Day’.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 6, 2013

Wow. Did John Wayne really just threaten to “ship [a black servant] back to Africa” in this odd little film? That might be one of the first jaw dropping moments some viewers will experience in the little remembered 1942 film Lady for a Night, but it won’t be the only one. In fact even before that “priceless” piece of politically incorrect dialogue, we’ve already been subject to a bevy of shuffling, seemingly moronic, other black characters that seem to have been ripped whole cloth out of some Antebellum minstrel show. Were things really that horrifically insensitive as recently as 1942? The ironic thing about all of this is that in a way Lady for a Night deals with prejudice and bigotry, though in a completely different context than what is displayed (no doubt unintentionally) on the screen. Joan Blondell plays blowsy river boat operator Jenny Blake who in the film’s opening sequence is named Queen of Memphis’ Mardi Gras celebration courtesy of some backstage arm twisting by her boyfriend and business partner, political boss Jackson Morgan (John Wayne). Jackson isn’t being especially altruistic in his successful attempts to get Jenny some recognition, for what he really hopes to prove to the low born woman is that high society will never accept her, no matter what her “title”. And of course that’s exactly what happens—Memphis society matrons are shocked—shocked—to find Jenny underneath the Queen’s mask at the huge announcement celebration (the kind of fête that only takes place in films), and walk out en masse as a jilted Jenny berates them all for their hypocrisy from the stage. Jenny is out to crash the upper echelons of the rich and cultured by hook or by crook, and Jackson’s warnings that she’s chasing a false idol are nothing she wants to hear.

To say that Lady for a Night is not exactly subtle is perhaps akin to saying the Titanic ran into a little trouble in the North Atlantic—this is a film that oozes a hyperbolic ambience from virtually the opening moment. Aside from the truly incredible depictions of the black people in the film (we actually get a “hootenanny” featuring the slaves, with Blondell looking on admiringly and misty eyed), there’s some patently ridiculous depictions of the white folks as well, so at least in that regard, Lady for a Night is an equal opportunity offender (in every sense of that word). Good and evil aren’t just hinted at in this film, they’re virtually emblazoned with veritable labels across various characters, chief among them two spinster Aunts of a drunkard whom Jenny decides to marry because she is certain it will improve her social standing.

We meet this drunkard, one Alan Alderson (Ray Middleton), in the film’s opening sequence and we are of course instantly aware that he is a wastrel, a good for nothing lush who has whittled away his family fortunes in liquor (and, one assumes, women and song). (Middleton bears a really striking resemblance to Will Ferrell, and some may feel that his performance here is intentionally comedic, though that probably wasn’t the intention.) Jenny is none too pleased when she is shunned at the Mardi Gras Queen crowning ceremony, and she’s especially shocked to find out Jackson not only rigged her “ascent”, but knew it would be a disaster, so when she finds out the Alderson estate is about to sink into a swamp due to neglect, she trades her considerable river boat wealth for a once prestigious surname and the hope of a hoity toity social circle.

It’s here that Lady for a Night goes completely over the top, with the evil Aunt Julia (Blanche Yurka) and the kindly Aunt Katherine (Edith Barrett) either plotting against or for Jenny, depending on their own motivations. Julia’s machinations are especially comical (she ends up giving Jenny a blind horse for a “present”, which leads to near disastrous results). Later, Julia’s scheming does lead to disastrous results when Jenny is put on trial for supposedly murdering her husband. Through it all, Jackson is standing steadfastly in the background, obviously nursing some serious romantic feelings for Jenny.

While Lady for a Night is probably more than likely to cause serious eye rolling if not outright disbelief in many viewers, it’s actually a rather opulent picture, especially for that fledgling “little studio that could”, Republic Pictures. While the film has a kind of low rent B-movie ethos written all over it, for a Republic film, it’s surprisingly handsomely mounted, with a couple of rather large production numbers which were obviously meant to showcase Blondell. This is in no way, shape or form a typical John Wayne picture, and in fact Wayne seems kind of uncomfortable at times, with an almost detached quality to a lot of his line readings, as if he couldn’t wait to get the hell out of this particular Dodge and back to the Dodge of his Westerns.

One of the most interesting things about Lady for a Night is how it almost—almost—presages the then burgeoning film noir movement once the murder scenario starts unspooling. Director Leigh Jason and cinematographer Norbert Brodine nicely utilize the interplay between light and shadow in a number of well mounted scenes, bringing a kind of mysteriously spooky quality to what is otherwise a kind of laughable and distinctly odd entry in the filmographies of both Joan Blondell and (especially) John Wayne.

Lady for a Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lady for a Night is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.35:1. The elements used for this high definition presentation are in remarkably good shape overall. While there are some transitory contrast issues that crop up occasionally, generally speaking things look unexpectedly problem free for a film of this era, especially since it has never been especially well thought of and so has no doubt not been especially well curated through the years. The image boasts well above average sharpness in close-ups, though midrange and wide shots tend to be on the fuzzy side. There's some very minor warping and/or shrinkage issues in evidence (most notably in some of the matte shots that are used to establish The Shadows, the Alderson estate), but otherwise this is a largely nice looking release that continues Olive's tradition of not digitally tweaking the source elements in any readily noticeable way.

Lady for a Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lady for a Night features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that sounds about what you would expect from a relatively obscure film from the early forties. The typical boxy sounding midrange is most evident in the musical numbers, where the orchestra especially tends to sound thin and not especially lifelike. Vocals sound a good deal better. Dialogue is rendered very well, and the track, while littered with the expected amount of hiss and clipping in the highest registers, offers decent enough fidelity if approached with appropriate expectations.

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

No supplements are included on this Blu-ray disc.

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

Should Lady for a Night be considered pure camp and simply enjoyed on those perhaps dubious merits? Well, there's certainly a case to made for that argument, but the film is so peculiar at times that even "camp" doesn't seem to be an adequate description for what goes on. It's hard to believe that even in the relative "Dark Ages" of the early forties that some people didn't object to the portrayal of the blacks in this film, but even putting that aspect aside, Lady for a Night is an often bizarre combination of turgid melodrama, musical sequences and even (believe it or not) some passing light comedy. This is probably going to be a curiosity piece for erstwhile John Wayne fans more than anything, but Wayne is largely sidelined here, though he shares star billing with Blondell. Anyone expecting to see the typical rootin' tootin' Wayne had best look elsewhere. In that regard, this film is strangely reminiscent of one of Cary Grant's oddest films (and one of the few, if not the only, where he didn't get star billing), 1937's The Toast of New York. Both Grant and Wayne were "personalities" as much as they were actors, and Lady for a Night unfortunately proves that there were some roles for which Wayne was spectacularly ill suited.