User Reviews

This is a funny and enjoyable movie. Jean Arthur plays Molly Truesdale, a young woman that needs a break from her job and the pursuit of three fellows wanting her companionship. She signs up for a fourteen day bus trip west. The vacation gets interesting when she meets a cowboy at a rodeo. That cowboy is Duke Hudkins (John Wayne), who is smitten with her coy flirtations. There is a magical interaction between Arthur and Wayne that seems to make the black and white film glow.

Phil Silvers plays the tour bus guide. The cowboy's side kick, Waco, is played by Charles Winninger. Also in the cast is Mary Field and Jean Stevens.

I thought I was going to see a John Wayne shoot-em-up western, but instead I got a fun black and white comedy. The only western action is in watching the rodeo scenes. John Wayne plays a total cowboy-- he is stuck in his cowboy ways and loves his horse more than anything else. Although John Wayne's character is prominent in the story, he is obviously not the lead. His character was there for Jean Arthur to play against. I will go as far as saying that the part of Duke Hudkins could have been played by another actor. Even without the John Wayne touch, the movie would have been just as good because of Jean Arthur as Molly Truesdale. It was a good role for Jean Arthur, and she made it the best it could be. This was her movie, and she got top billing.

I love her voice!

I love Jean Arthur. That voice! Distinct... kinda nasal but not annoying... and intelligent yet unarrogant. And she's cute despite not being a traditional forgettable beauty.

John Wayne is relatively young here, still attractive and ungrizzled, and so he still makes for a good prince in this cowboy-meets-city girl fairytale. And the movie does start off that way - very charming and romantic - but of course it doesn't last, since what kind of a movie would it be if the boy and girl lived happily ever after after 15 minutes.

So it's too bad then that it goes downhill from there, when the couple starts encountering forced obstacle after forced obstacle and lame joke after lame joke. It's only by the grace of its charming stars that this movie rises a notch above mediocrity.

This is a movie about two people who are the least likely to couple. Our girl Molly(Jean Arthur) is taking a cross the country bus tour to clear her head of men. Seems she has three of them! They just aren't her type though.

Bring in John Wayne as Duke Hudkins. A good looking rodeo rider that runs into our Molly and thinks she would be a great one night stand. That's what he thinks. She does like him alot. He is after all, a REAL man who is unlike the other men she has met in New York. Seems rodeo men are kind of scarce there. The Duke likes women, ALOT, and has no thought of settling down. That's what he thinks. Now Molly wants him bad. How to hog tie this cowboy is the question.

This movie is cute though with an quite impossible plot, but hey it's Hollywood. Not a classic like "Devil and Miss Jones", "Easy Living" or "More the Merrier", but a good film just the same.

Jean Arthur meets cowboy John Wayne in the 1943 comedy, "A Lady Takes a Chance." Arthur is Molly, a woman with plenty of suitors, though none is a prize, who takes a cross-country bus tour - conducted by Phil Silvers. While watching a rodeo, one of the riders falls on top of her. Turns out it's a fella named Duke (John Wayne). You can just see those pathetic guys at home flash before her eyes as she pulls Wayne toward her for a closer look. She misses her bus.

Given the current talk and late-night comic jokes about "Brokeback Mountain," this movie is extra fun. Wayne has no intention of marrying, though he loves to play the field, and accuses his rodeo partner Waco (Charles Winninger) of acting like "a wife." When Waco advises Molly to go back where she came from and forget about Duke, he sounds like a wife trying to get rid of a mistress, though he really wants to keep her from being hurt. But though Duke does a lot of flirting, Molly learns during a night in the desert that her big competition is Sammy, Duke's horse.

Jean Arthur is slightly miscast as Molly, though she was too wonderful an actress to ever come off as totally miscast. Someone like Betty Grable would have been more of a natural for the role than 40+ Arthur, but then, Arthur's talent helps her make the part her own and interesting besides. Her best scene is in the bar when she drinks cactus milk - hilarious. 27 years after his death, John Wayne is still considered one of the top 10 most popular stars, and with good reason. Tall, handsome, and rugged with a boyish smile, you can see why he'd make Arthur's heart go aflutter. He's usually not listed among favorite matinée idols because he made so many westerns, but make no mistake, Wayne was a hunk in his heyday.

This isn't your 21st century cowboy movie, but it makes for entertaining viewing just the same.

A lady who attracts suitors like flies meets a man who has women circling around him like bees to honey. Molly Truesdale, a young woman from Manhattan, takes a 14-day bus tour of the American West, where a rodeo cowboy is flipped from his horse and lands on her. Talk about meeting cute, and talk about offbeat casting. Pert and pretty comedienne, Jean Arthur, is the lady swatting away unwelcome men, while tall and tough John Wayne is Duke Hudkins, who wants to remain unattached and play the field. Actually, the two unlikely co-stars work quite well together, and Wayne's charm and Arthur's delightful voice and personality hold "A Lady Takes a Chance" together.

Burdened with a generic title that does not relate to the story, the film also suffers from Robert Ardrey's predictable screenplay, adapted from a Jo Swerling story. Despite a relatively short running time, the plot droops from time to time, and needless repetition in a hitchhiking sequence, reminiscent of "It Happened One Night," feels like padding. A few detours into a night sleeping outdoors on the prairie, the diagnosis and treatment of a sick horse, and a home-made dinner in a motel fall flat; howling coyotes are stale, horse pneumonia is boring, and the qualities of lamb chops irrelevant. However, Phil Silvers as Smiley Lambert, an overly enthusiastic tour guide on the bus, is a bright spot, although he has only two brief sequences. Silvers is much missed when off screen, and his presence would have enlivened the film immensely. Charles Winniger as Waco, Duke's sidekick, is diverting, as is Mary Field, a gossipy fellow tourist on the bus. Molly's trio of suitors, Grady Sutton, Hans Conried, and Grant Withers, illustrate why the unfortunate lady needs a long trip away from New York.

"A Lady Takes a Chance" depends too heavily on the chemistry and talents of the two unlikely co-stars. While the film is fitfully amusing, audience interest will depend on their desire to see John Wayne or Jean Arthur or the two together; fans of either or both will not be disappointed, but others who are looking for a hilarious screwball comedy may be disappointed.

A Lady Takes A Chance is a pleasant easygoing comedy about a young working class woman who saves and splurges for a bus tour out west. Jean Arthur as the vacationer gets a whole lot more than she bargains for in the form of rodeo cowboy John Wayne.

The Duke literally sweeps her off her feet after literally landing in her lap. Wayne gets introduced to Arthur when he gets tossed off a bucking bronco right into the front row section where she's seated. It's an interesting courtship because the Duke has a retinue of two others who are above her in his personal pecking order. Sidekick Charles Winninger and his horse Sammy.

In fact Sammy almost breaks the two of them up. Arthur takes a horse blanket meant for him to keep herself warm during a cold prarie night while they're camped out. Wayne has to teach her a bit about western etiquette.

A Lady Takes A Chance though it came out in 1943 had to be backdated to 1938. There were severe restrictions on travel at that time, the movie going public simply would not have bought a story that was current.

In a recent biography of Jean Arthur, Arthur was quoted as saying that she liked the movie and got along with John Wayne. She also says she wouldn't have had she known of his political views. Come to think of it, a whole bunch of Arthur's leading men, Gary Cooper, Joel McCrea, and James Stewart also didn't have views that would have meshed with hers.

Charles Winninger in his one and only appearance with Wayne does well in the sidekick role. Phil Silvers has a small role as a most obnoxious tour guide. I can't imagine going cross country listening to Phil Silvers shtick for a couple of weeks straight.

Jean, good thing you met up with Duke or you should have got your money back. But for the movie going public, A Lady Takes A Chance was well worth the price of admission.

This is by no means one of the top films of Jean Arthur or John Wayne, but it is perfectly pleasing entertainment and shows what these two actors were able to achieve on the basis of a relatively poor script.

Jean Arthur sparkles in this wartime comedy, as Molly Truesdale, a sweet, pretty salesgirl overwhelmed by 3 overzealous suitors! To get some peace and quiet, she takes a bus tour out west, a trip that sounded romantic in the travel brochures, but grows tedious, after monotonous days pass, and she has to fend off passes by the bus tour guide (Phil Silvers, in one of his many terrific comic relief roles of the '40s)!

Truesdale finally decides to combat her 'cabin fever' on the bus by attending a rodeo. She has a wonderful time, until one of the contestants literally falls into her lap! As the two disentangle themselves, she gets a good look at Duke Hudkins (John Wayne), and it's love at first sight!

Duke is the suitor she'd always dreamed of; handsome, virile, and 'all-man', and she begins a pursuit of the cowboy that is both uncharacteristic for her, and confusing for him! Despite warnings from his best friend, Waco (Charles Winninger) that this girl was after more than just a night of partying and passion, Duke invites Molly out, and the innocent city girl experiences her first evening of carousing! When, at evening's end, she puts the brakes on his amorous advances, he discovers she's not just another 'groupie', and that he's falling for her, too!

A romantic comedy of 'opposites' finding true love, 'A Lady Takes a Chance' benefits from the delightful performances of the two leads! Jean Arthur had a Meg Ryan-like quality of projecting both innocence and sexiness, and she makes Molly's transition from 'pursued' to 'pursuer' both believable, and understandable! John Wayne is equally good, sexy and easy-going, yet conveying Duke's confusion at the feelings he has for Molly, and his gradual realization that he'll have to 'take a chance', himself, to earn her love!

True, the tale follows your basic 'boy meets girl-boy loses girl-boy gets girl' scenario, but under the sure direction of pros William A. Seiter (who directed Astaire and Rogers in 'Roberta', and Shirley Temple, in 'Stowaway'), and Henry Hathaway (the legendary filmmaker who would direct Wayne's Oscar-winning performance in 'True Grit', 26 years later), the story has a freshness and charm that is unbeatable!

Whether you're a Wayne and Arthur fan, or you just love a romantic comedy with a happy ending, 'A Lady Takes a Chance' will bring a smile!

The wonderful series of screwball comedies that sparkled from 1934 through 1943 came an end with this witless, unfunny movie. Jean Arthur had been in several of the classic films and had just finished the wonderful "The More The Merrier." Somebody came up with the idea of putting screwball in a western setting, and who better to hire than veteran actor John Wayne. The concept might have jelled if the script had been adequate. Instead, it left Arthur to carry the full load and depend upon sight gags to get laughs. Wayne drinks, smokes, grunts, and gets into a bar fight. Arthur is reduced to copying the hitch-hiking scene from "It Happened One Night" and running about in the western wilds with makeup fully intact and her clothes unruffled, speaking lines worthy of Monogram pictures. Several scenes are simply embarrassing, including the crowded bus bit at the beginning (with Phil Silvers) and a campfire gag that seems to go on for half an hour without a laugh. Charles Wenniger is reduced to playing Gabby Hayes. In short, this film is a flop and heartily deserves its obscurity.

I won't bother to rehash the plot details, as others have already done so, but simply wish to express how much I enjoyed this film. It was a real treat from start to finish - slightly offbeat & definitely funny (but not goofy enough to be screwball) and sweet & romantic but not sentimental enough to be sappy.

Director William A. Seiter (who helmed "Sons of the Desert", Laurel & Hardy's best film, as well as other successful comedies) takes what is perhaps a shopworn premise and turns it into something special with the help of two extremely capable stars. John Wayne reveals his often underrated talent for light comedy in this - coming across just as masculine as always but with a sweet, funny softness that makes his Duke Hudkins extremely endearing. Jean Arthur is in a familiar role, playing a quirky but sweet city girl (Molly J. Truesdale) with just the right amount of spunk. Note her unconsciously forward behavior when the two of them first meet - wow! They are surprisingly wonderful together - watch the gentle, tender way the scene in the hay is handled. And never once did I feel like Jean Arthur faded to the background in Duke's presence. (In quite a few of his films, he is so charismatic and powerful a presence that his leading lady winds up looking about as charismatic as wilted celery.)

There are some funny scenes involving long bus rides, cold desert nights, sneezing horses, rodeo "groupies," bucking broncos, and broken cameras. The supporting cast is great, but they haven't much to do as this is really a film about a boy and a girl. Sharp-eyed fans of Gene Kelly and/or Frank Sinatra will recognize Grady Sutton from "Anchors Aweigh" as one of Molly's unspeakably drab beaux.

This is what I would characterize as a "B" movie. It's fine for what it is. Fifteen to twenty years later, this sort of movie died out, as that material moved to television. Jean Arthur was as good as the script allowed, and John Wayne was John Wayne. Arthur got, and deserved, top billing, as this was basically her film. Again, it's fine for what it is.

Another reviewer noted that the setting for this 1943 movie was 1938, a few years before the U.S. got into World War II. Life went on in time of war in the U.S., and Hollywood made many comedies to help relieve the home front stress and worry about the war. But the country also had rationing, reduced use of gas, and other product restrictions. So, it's not too likely that there were many bus tours around the country, as in this film. And, if there were some, the movie industry wouldn't want to be put on the spot encouraging Americans to splurge in a time of shortage. So, the time of the film taking place was just set back a few years.

"A Lady Takes a Chance" is a fun comedy romance that paired a couple of unlikely stars. Jean Arthur was one of the top female movie comics of the time, and John Wayne was known then for his long string of mostly Westerns. Wayne had ventured into comedy once before, in "His Private Secretary" (1933), and I think he did quite well. This movie showed that he could do comedy well – especially as a straight man against a comic partner.

The Arthur-Wayne pairing works very well in this movie. The Western and war film fans of John Wayne should enjoy this comedy-romance as well.

This is an atypical John Wayne movie & one that, recently popped up on Amazon Prime, and just so happened to be, a JW movie never yet seen (personally).

It is a great mystery as to how John Wayne, was ever cast for this film, and would be almost understandable, had this movie, predated his 1939 breakout role in Stagecoach.

Prior to Director John Ford's Oscar winning film Stagecoach, Duke had already spent a decade of his young-adult-life, making, B-Level, Shootem-Up pictures {now called Western Movies}.

But, interestingly enough, these referenced, cookie-cutter movie-shorts, {each less than 60-minutes in length}, were churned out, at a rate of a-half-dozen or so (every 45-60 days).

For John Wayne fans yet to see this particular movie that, must make such the necessary time invest, if for no other reason than, (it's a freakin John Wayne Movie) - this is truly understandable.

But be prepared for confusion to set in, questions to surface & the temptation, to hammer your own (shoeless) big toe, to keep from going mental - dont pretend that, you've not been amply warned.

The rating of one - is based on the maximum number of times that, anyone should watch this movie.

If it was only for the celebrated bar room brawl sequence in this delightful picture and nothing else it would still be remembered as one of the great comedies of the 1940s. But, of course, there's much more.

Produced by star Jean Arthur, whose performance in it is nothing short of excellent, A LADY TAKES A CHANCE is a real pip of a movie. The writing is first rate and the direction by that old master, William A Seiter (who goes back to the silent days) couldn't be better. The supporting players are all from the top drawer, too. Really, this is perhaps one of those rare, near-perfect films where everything works.

Seiter's jokes are mostly visual here, as in the aforementioned brawl scene, which in this writer's view is about the funniest one ever put on film, but also in many other moments. He was an extremely witty man and his flair for screen comedy can be well-observed here.

John Wayne is great as the somewhat dense but lovable lout who is "tamed" by the spunky Miss Arthur. He here displays a knack for comedy which, when under careful direction, could really shine.

I could go on and on but just sit down and watch it. Get yourself a big bowl of popcorn or some other favorite snack and enjoy this one with everybody in the family. You're in for a treat.

An American comedy; A story about a New York working girl who travels to the American West on a bus tour and meets a handsome rodeo cowboy. This is a low-budget opposites-attract romantic adventure. Jean Arthur and John Wayne don't have much screen chemistry but their amorous exchanges are warm and agreeable. The problem is the story doesn't really go anywhere despite the journey. Gambling, boozing and fighting clichés of the West mees the affectations of the East, but there are some touching moments created by the oil and water characters.

The other reviews adequately describe the plot. The cliches of the time (obligatory bar fight) are beautifully written into this charming funny film. The tough hero of "Sands of Iwo Jima", "Red River", even farces like "Donavan's Reef" shows a talent for comedy romance, I'd never seen. The role is a type Cary Grant might play but absolutely never could match Wayne's persona, here. Jean Arthur is great. The beautiful horse is miscast as a rodeo steed. Unique and entertaining.

I have read that Director William A. Seiter's most famous works are ROBERTA )1935( and SONS OF THE DESERT )1933( but, to be honest, if they are any better than A LADY TAKES A CHANCE they can only rate out and out masterpieces.

Lovely Jean Arthur and her famous froggy voice had me bewitched from the outset, so no wonder that then tall, dark and handsome rodeo cowboy and horse rider John Wayne should fall for her guiles too. Interesting Charles Winninger part as Wayne's sidekick, Waco, who trots out the film's most memorable line, "women are like socks, you need to change them." Amiable though he is, he views Arthur as the adversary, and Wayne comes to regard him as the "wife" he divorces to devote himself to Arthur. Could that be a homosexual subtext at the time?

Phil Silvers also whips up a charming routine as a bus driver assistant listing the marvels of Greyhound bus use, including "scotch and sofa."

Competent cinematography, pleasant background music, very droll dialogue, and great rodeo scenes make this a delightful comedy with the leads in sparkling and endearing form. 9/10.