Vivacious Lady (1938) – full review!
Vivacious Lady (1938) – full review!
Produced & directed by George Stevens with a screenplay by P.J. Wolfson & Ernest Pagano that was based on I.A.R. Wylie’s story this uneven romantic comedy features Ginger Rogers in the title role and James Stewart. Watching this film I found myself both laughing out loud AND waiting for certain tired scenes to end (like the endless whistling at Rogers). Plus I don’t usually find the cliched circumstance of a character deciding to get drunk (as Stewart’s does) in order to solve a problem amusing. Still there are some absolutely hilarious delightful scenes which make this one worth the 90 minutes it takes to watch it despite the fact that there is little chemistry between its two leads (which may be the reason that this was their only film together). Like most films of this genre "suspension of disbelief" is required to enjoy it at all. The cast also includes James Ellison Beulah Bondi (whose scenes with Rogers are some of the best sequences) Charles Coburn and little known Frances Mercer (in her first film; she made less than 10 films in the 1930’s) in addition to several recognizable supporting actors: Franklin Pangborn Grady Sutton as a befuddled teaching assistant Jack Carson as a nightclub waiter (!) and Willie Best as an emoting train porter (in the slowest sequence near the end). Hattie McDaniel also appears uncredited as a maid. Cinematographer Robert De Grasse and Sound technician James Wilkinson earned their only Oscar nominations for their work on this film.
While retrieving his cousin Keith (Ellison) from a drunken binge in New York Peter Morgan Jr. (Stewart) falls in love and weds a nightclub singer named Francey (Rogers) who had been the object of Keith’s obsession before Peter arrived. Their "meeting to marriage" happens within 24 hours. The three return home by train to the Morgans’ small college town of Old Sharon where Peter is a botany professor at the university; his staunch father is its president. Peter Morgan Sr.’s (Coburn) father had been president as well and expects nothing less than his proper son to follow this tradition in his footsteps. When Peter sees that his rather intimidating father is waiting at the station with Helen (Mercer) who was supposedly his fiancée Peter tells Francey that he needs time to break the news of their nuptials to Helen his conservative father and his weak hearted mother (Bondi). Naturally Keith jumps right in and volunteers to pretend that Francey is his girl and they dash off – after Francey "checks out" Helen – leaving Peter wondering if he can trust his cousin. Initially Francey even stays in Keith’s flat until Peter insists that she move out and into an all girls apartment (run by Pangborn of course).
The rest of the story from this point is sequence after sequence of interruptions & circumstances which prevent Peter from telling his parents that Francey is actually his wife AND keep the couple from consummating their marriage (one of the funniest scenes involve the two hoping a wall bed will fall into place). During this time Keith Peter and Francey pretend that she is a new botany student at the university and all the while she is caught in unflattering and improper incidents by Peter’s uncompromising father who still assumes she is one of Keith’s trollops. One of these is at a prom where Francey gets in a cat fight (more than just slapping) with the still unawares Helen; another is in her apartment where stern Morgan Sr. catches her line dancing with Keith and Mrs. Morgan (his wife!) who’d earlier admitted to Francey that her weak heart was feigned. His disapproval causes Mrs. Morgan who now knows that Francey is married to Peter Jr. to leave her husband saying she’s tired of 30 years of having to behave a certain way so as not to risk losing an endowment for the college etc.. Morgan Sr.’s brief but frank talk with Francey (e.g. she’s not the right kind of girl for his son’s future) causes her to leave Old Sharon. Francey & Mrs. Morgan who had previously bonded end up on the same train in adjoining berths and after the aforementioned drunken sequence Peters Jr. & Sr. realize what they’ve lost and chase after them … so that the requisite happy ending can occur.
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