Ladies In Love (1936)

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Having rewatched "How to Marry a Millionaire" '53, recently, I was struck by how similar the plots of these movies are. In both films, we have 3 unrelated poor, but beautiful, single women who rent an upscale apartment together, rather than separate dingy apartments, in hopes that will suggest to their dates that they are better off than they are. Actually, between these films, there were several other films with the same basic plot, if differing in some details. This includes "Three Blind Mice" '38, "Moon Over Miami" '41, and "Three Little Girls in Blue", in which 3 sisters or other relatives, rather that unrelated women, are involved. Loretta Young, who is one of the women in this film, was also one of the women in "Three Blind Mice". Curiously, near the end of the present film, she was singing "Three Blind Mice". In addition, I just came across the '31 film "Three Girls Lost", which also includes Loretta(as well as John Wayne!) and, from the summary, sounds like it had a basically similar plot. Obviously, a popular plot to redo! ......Fortunately, Fox chose 3 charismatic beautiful actresses who are easy to tell apart at a glance. There is also a 4th girl(Simone Simon, as Marie) who worms her way into the relationship between wealthy John(Paul Lukas) and Constance Bennett(Yoli). Somehow, twice, she got into John's house to surprise John and Yoli when they arrived. Yoli doesn't want to go to South America, where John's business is about to take him, providing teenage Marie with an opening. John is quite hesitant, but eventually agrees, provide they marry before he goes. Yogi must find another wealthy prospect........Petite Janet Gaynor, as Martha, develops tenuous relationships with Don Ameche, as Dr. Rudi, and with Alan Mowbray, as magician Paul Sandor. Both are initially grouchy toward her, as she is an assistant to them. However, both eventually appreciate her company. But, apparently, Sandor said something that ticked her off, and she left him, going back to Rudi and his experimental rabbits. Martha would later become the victim of Susie's(Loretta) attempt to poison herself after losing handsome wealthy Karl(Tyrone Power) to his fiancé. Dr.Rudi was called to try to help resuscitate her, and this further cemented their attraction to each other. Not long after, they married. Martha had achieved at least part of her wish to snare a nice husband, who might not be very wealthy. By the way, Susie must have been kidding herself when, at the outset, she claimed she wasn't looking for a husband. She just wanted to run a hat shop. One look at Tyrone and she forgot about this claim! He escorted her to a few functions, not telling her that he was engaged to soon marry a countess(Virginia Field). Eventually, she found out, and tried to poison herself, only succeeding in poisoning Martha by mistake......The finale of the film is entirely too rushed! We know that Martha found her man, but what about the others? Martha mentions that Susie finally got her hat shop. But, how did this come about? Is she still looking? I think I heard Yoli mention a Ben, presumably Ben Horvath: a wealthy man she met at a party he gave. But, it would have been nice to confirm this suspicion, and detail the events leading up to this. Apparently, all were satisfied that they had accomplished their goal, as they simultaneously moved out of their apartment in a gay mood.

The only thing I can really say in praise of this very disappointing waste of effort, money and time, is that I really enjoyed the delightfully inappropriate Viennese music score directed and conducted by Louis Silvers. The script by Melville Baker (who later wrote the excellent "Above Suspicion") can only be described as a screaming bore. Admittedly, Baker probably didn't have much to start with in Ladislaus Bus-Fekete's 1930 Hungarian stage play which was translated by Victor Katona and Guy Bolton (of all people!) and which was published by Dutton of New York in 1937 - that is AFTER the movie was released. Presumably, Dutton anticipated that the movie would be a really big hit. It was certainly packed with star power: Janet Gaynor, Loretta Young, Constance Bennett, Simone Simon, Don Ameche, Paul Lukas, Tyrone Power... Alas, Only Alan Mowbray really delivers (and perhaps Simone Simon). The director, Edward H. Griffith, was not exactly a director of renown. And even if he was, almost everyone else assigned to this movie seems to be working at half steam, including my favorite photographer, Hal Mohr.

This pleasant little movie set in Budapest caught me by surprise. With so many older films you can predict where the movie will end up...but not with this one. The ending caught me out of the blue...and for that alone it's worth seeing.The plot to this film is very much like the later film, "How to Marry a Millionaire". Three young ladies, Susie (Loretta Young), Yoli (Constance Bennett) and Martha (Janet Gaynor) are friends and decided to pool their money and rent a really swanky apartment instead of three separate crappy ones. The goal of this isn't only to live well but to help the women snag swanky husbands as well--and the film is all about their attempts to find the rich man of their dreams.While I didn't love this film, the acting was very nice (you also get to see the likes of Don Ameche, Tyrone Power, Paul Lukas and Alan Mowbray in the film as well) and the story reasonably interesting. But as I mentioned above, what really caught my by surprise was the ending. It was NOT by the numbers and predictable. Overall not a great film but well worth watching.

Although no one on this film got any closer to Budapest than the new 20th Century Fox studio's back lot, Ladies In Love is a nice romantic film about three women who agree to split the costs of an apartment in a swank Budapest neighborhood. The better for them to catch good husbands and the three go about to work.Janet Gaynor works as a lab assistant to Dr. Don Ameche who basically treats her like a doormat. She must like the idea because she then goes to work for egotistical magician Alan Mowbray as his assistant and general factotum. Mowbray is in a part that later on Clifton Webb would have specialized in.Loretta Young thinks she's found true love in Tyrone Power. But Power is a heel in this one and he's some kind of minor nobility. He trades up for Virginia Field who not only has title, but money. This was the role that made Darryl Zanuck decide that Power would be the franchise player of his new 20th Century Fox studio. Power would play a hero/heel in many of his films, but here he's a straight heel. Seventh billed in the cast list he got a lot of fan mail from this film that helped Zanuck in his evaluation.Constance Bennett is the oldest and most experienced of the three. She's got a thing going with another titled gent Paul Lukas. But one fine day a sly little minx from the country shows up in Simone Simon. She's supposed to be a teenager, but this girl is most mature in her wiles. She's got Lukas panting and wanting more.In the end one girl gets what she wants, the other two have to settle as they leave their apartment in the ritzy part of Budapest. A close call to tragedy also happens to one.Ladies In Love is a nice romantic film in which a whole cast gave a nice ensemble effort. Some futures were made because of this film.