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The Lady Says No
The feminist author of a national best-seller titled The Lady Says No meets a sexist magazine photographer and decides she'd rather say yes.
Release : | 1952 |
Rating : | 5.1 |
Studio : | Ross-Stillman Productions Inc., |
Crew : | Production Design, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | Joan Caulfield David Niven James Robertson Justice Lenore Lonergan Frances Bavier |
Genre : | Comedy Romance |
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Sadly Over-hyped
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
You're going to need some serious suspension of disbelief to watch this one. I mean, who would say "no" to David Niven? Joan Caufield plays a best-selling authoress, whose claim to fame is a book that warns unsuspecting women about the greatest horror known as Man. Men are filthy, nasty beasts, and women would do well to always say "no"! David Niven works for a popular magazine, and he's assigned to do a featurette on Joan. He hates her book and her message, and as soon as they meet, they're at each other's throats-and not in a good way. But, since it is David Niven, she just might be charmed long enough to listen to what he has to say.Yes, it's pretty silly, and enormously dated, but if you like silly and dated, you won't go wrong by renting The Lady Says No on a rainy afternoon. David Niven is absolutely adorable and charming, and since I love him anyway, it's easy to root for him in this funny 50s romp. My advice: watch the opening credits. If you start laughing during the song, you're in the right mindset to enjoy the rest of the movie. I find it hilarious.
As another reviewer once noted, "The Lady Says No" is "a listless raspberry at feminism circa 1951." This is a good description as far as it goes. The film is uninspired and quite predictable. Pretty Joan Caulfield plays feminist author Dorinda Hatch who has written a book advising women to avoid romances with men. Handsome David Niven plays wolfish Bill Shelby who is attracted to this man-hater and soon has her reluctantly returning his desires. The film has a lackluster script. Caulfield does the best she can with the part but Niven appears just plain bored as if he has mentally checked out from this trite material.One thing about it is that it reminds people of how feminism made a strange turn in the 1970s. Giving up on the idea of persuading women en mass to eschew intimate relations with men, feminism adopted legalized abortion as its cause. Obviously, abortion would have little market if it were really possible to get women to "say no." Although the film isn't terrific, IT SHOULD BE WATCHED! It should be watched to see what people in the 1950s thought a feminist would look like and be like and what feminism would champion. Does anyone in this era think a feminist is a dowdy stout woman in a long dress who stays home and knits? As I've already pointed out, a feminist movement that successfully championed celibacy would not be tied to "abortion rights." I want to add that I saw this routine programmer because I'm a fan of the relatively little-known Peggy Maley, the blonde beauty cast as Midge. I thought Maley did well with her lively but small part. She certainly looked sexy and bright but she almost always did. Here's to Peggy!
I thought this was a really good love story! Joan Caulfield and David Niven were awesome and perfect together! A woman named Dorinda Hatch writes a book about her hatred toward men. A photographer named Bill Shelby meets to do a story on her, and he automatically falls in love with her, but the feeling isn't mutual for Dorinda. She embarrasses him in front of other women by showing what would happen if a man whistles to her. After she makes a fool of him, she starts to feel sorry for him and slowly falls in love with him. Her book ruins the marriage of a couple, so Dorinda tries to help make it right. She eventually regrets that she ever wrote the book, and shows the love. If you love classic romantic comedies, you'll love THE LADY SAYS NO!!!
Ever wonder how those Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan films will look in years to come? LIke this empty headed flick. I'm not even sure what it was about! Niven was a photographer, Joan Caufield was some independent female who had to challenge him about a woman's independence. Huh? A photograph of her crossing her eyes and pulling a lock of her hair across her upper lip like a moustache was supposed to be embarrassing and he put it on the cover of a magazine. Really odd movie and such a waste of David Niven. I have seen him salvage other movies. Alas, this one he could not. The film was a showboat for Caufield, and she couldn't be more uninteresting if she tried. One very amusing moment was Niven having a dream about Caufield and she is dressed like Sheena of the Jungle in a leopard print one piece swimsuit. Very bohemian! Think of Madonna of '52. The wooden gyrations are laughable to begin with, but just before this scene, we're shown an unamed African American woman who was the towel girl (!) at the restaurant and her dancing to the band's music was priceless. This chick really cut loose! I thought it was tremendously odd that this woman was uncredited and danced so much more better than Caufield, and that her scene would precede Caufield's big dance moment. Avoid this flick at all costs, unless you are an overwhelming David Niven fan, as I am. This was not one of his best.