The other day I saw a few comments about Norma Shearer - sneering at her thespian abilities in "Marie Antoinette" and "Romeo and Juliet" - I just wanted to shout "You don't know the real Norma"!! In the two movies mentioned she was fully entrenched as "First Lady" of MGM but, in the silent era, she was a beautiful leading lady. With Joan Crawford as MGM's flapper in residence, Norma pushed back her hair in a distinctive style, got a wardrobe of rather daring Adrian gowns and added a little shady to the lady. "A Lady of Chance" was Norma's last silent and introduced a new sophisticated Norma to her already legion of fans.
Dolly (Norma Shearer) is working as a switchboard operator at a certain ritzy hotel when she is spotted by two former associates, Brad and Gwen (Lowell Sherman and Gwen Lee), who recognise her as their one time partner in crime "Angel Face". Dolly hasn't reformed - she is trying her luck on her own - fleecing gullible millionaires out of their money, with pretty tears (she can cry on cue) and sad stories about dying mothers and sick little brothers. They "convince" her to come back to the gang, holding over her head the fact that she has failed to report to her parole officer. She reluctantly goes back, but is always one step ahead of her shifty con artist buddies. Again Dolly goes out on her own and finds herself at an Atlantic City Convention where she makes a play for Steve Crandall (Johnny Mack Brown), who she thinks is a naive Southern millionaire - "I never realised how uninteresting cement was - until I met you"!!! They marry (a funny title says "From now on I'll do the paying" to which Dolly replies when she closes the door "And How"!!!
Once she is in Steve's home town she realises she has made a ghastly mistake - he is not wealthy (he had been at the convention to interest people in his invention of unbreakable cement). He is working to pay off his ramshackle car and the plantation he had dreamed of returning to, well, his family owns the small homestead next door which is badly in need of paint. Dolly is thoroughly disillusioned but is won over by the family's love for her and contentment in the simple things in life - something she has never experienced. Like two bad pennies, Brad and Gwen turn up but before Dolly can convince them that Steve is really poor - Steve bursts through the door with the news that he has sold his invention for $100,000!!!
Lowell Sherman and Gwen Lee almost steal the movie - Gwen Lee should have had a much bigger career but her height went against her in an era when leading men were not tall. Lowell Sherman had been playing dapper cads since "Way Down East" with Lillian Gish and his debonair and jaunty mannerisms gave this movie even more class. Even though it was just a frothy comedy it had all the style and sophistication that made MGM the greatest of the "Dream Factories".
Highly, Highly Recommended.
Dolly (Norma Shearer) is working as a switchboard operator at a certain ritzy hotel when she is spotted by two former associates, Brad and Gwen (Lowell Sherman and Gwen Lee), who recognise her as their one time partner in crime "Angel Face". Dolly hasn't reformed - she is trying her luck on her own - fleecing gullible millionaires out of their money, with pretty tears (she can cry on cue) and sad stories about dying mothers and sick little brothers. They "convince" her to come back to the gang, holding over her head the fact that she has failed to report to her parole officer. She reluctantly goes back, but is always one step ahead of her shifty con artist buddies. Again Dolly goes out on her own and finds herself at an Atlantic City Convention where she makes a play for Steve Crandall (Johnny Mack Brown), who she thinks is a naive Southern millionaire - "I never realised how uninteresting cement was - until I met you"!!! They marry (a funny title says "From now on I'll do the paying" to which Dolly replies when she closes the door "And How"!!!
Once she is in Steve's home town she realises she has made a ghastly mistake - he is not wealthy (he had been at the convention to interest people in his invention of unbreakable cement). He is working to pay off his ramshackle car and the plantation he had dreamed of returning to, well, his family owns the small homestead next door which is badly in need of paint. Dolly is thoroughly disillusioned but is won over by the family's love for her and contentment in the simple things in life - something she has never experienced. Like two bad pennies, Brad and Gwen turn up but before Dolly can convince them that Steve is really poor - Steve bursts through the door with the news that he has sold his invention for $100,000!!!
Lowell Sherman and Gwen Lee almost steal the movie - Gwen Lee should have had a much bigger career but her height went against her in an era when leading men were not tall. Lowell Sherman had been playing dapper cads since "Way Down East" with Lillian Gish and his debonair and jaunty mannerisms gave this movie even more class. Even though it was just a frothy comedy it had all the style and sophistication that made MGM the greatest of the "Dream Factories".
Highly, Highly Recommended.