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Such a frustrating disappointment

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

If you enjoy the film Pocketful Of Miracles, which was the remake of this film, I highly recommend watching Lady for a Day the original. I found a copy of a 1933 review for this charming film and it states ' a picture which evoked laughter and tears from an audience at the first showing,' and it still hits the mark perfectly today as it did in 1933. May Robson was a superb choice to play Apple Annie and her performance is extremely splendid, she completely embodies the character of Annie, thus making her real and believable. Probably May Robson's best performance ever. No one could have done a better job of playing the lovable old Judge Blake than the wonderful Guy Kibbee. Warren William adequately handles the role of Dave the Dude along with Glenda Farrell as Missouri Martin. A host of excellent supporting actors all give sufficient performances to make this amusing sentimental tale of the grey-haired Cinderella a very pleasurable and entertaining film. There are many fine synopsis written for this film, however Lady for a Day must be seen to be fully appreciated. This is also a terrific example of Frank Capra's best work and one of the finest films from the 1930s.

This fantasy of depression life in New York was like "Gold Diggers of 1933" in its sympathy to the variety of character types who roamed the theatre district in search of a future. If Little Orphan Annie at this time was hoping for an escape from Miss Hannigan's reign of terror at the orphanage, the aged Apple Annie was hoping to find a way to bring happiness to her beautiful daughter raised in a Spanish convent and now engaged to a nobleman whose father wants to meet the mother in order to approve the match. The help of jaded gambler Warren William, crusty Ned Sparks, dipsomaniac judge Guy Kibbee and nightclub entertainer Glenda Farrell might just put the scheme of making her look like a lady (shades of "Pygmallion"), showing that at least in Runyeonland, gangsters have good hearts, especially if an apple a day brings luck at the race track.Character actress May Robson brings much heart to the down-on-her-luck Annie who longs to see her daughter at least one last time and be seen as the great lady she could have been rather than the poor street vendor she has become. Warren William escapes from the playboys and ruthless businessmen he was playing over at Warner Brothers to take on one of his most memorable roles as the good-hearted gangster (a staple in Damon Runyeon tales) while Ned Sparks gets most of the funniest lines. He delivers them with a cigar in his mouth, acid spewing and joy exploding out of every wisecrack he makes. Nat Pendleton is also amusing as the lovable dumb lug Shakespeare, Williams' right hand man.The chemistry between Robson and Guy Kibbee (pretending to be her husband) is totally charming, giving the impression that there will be a nice September romance once the story we see on screen ends. Parker is lovely as the innocent daughter, but Barry Norton and Walter Connelly seem miscast as Spanish nobility. That is a minor flaw through a film that totally engrosses you and goes straight to the heart.

Back in the days of the studio system only one B picture outfit managed to vault itself into the big time and compete with the majors. That studio was Harry Cohn's Columbia and the film that did it was Frank Capra's Lady For A Day.In his very candid memoirs Capra said unabashedly that his goal was to win one of those statues nicknamed Oscar. The Motion Picture Academy Awards were only five years old, but still the awards were coveted then because it meant prestige and far bigger salaries and in a director's case, bigger budgets to work with. Capra said he tried and failed with a very arty film, The Bitter Tea of General Yen which lost money for Columbia and Cohn. He set out try it a different way with a sentimental story from that most sentimental of writers, Damon Runyon. The original story was entitled Madame LaGimp and it was about a street beggar who the great city of New York takes to its heart for a brief period with the assistance of a gangster with a streak of sentiment.But this was Columbia, the poverty row studio so Capra couldn't get the only old lady movie star around in Marie Dressler from MGM. May Robson was his second choice for Apple Annie, the street beggar who has a daughter in a convent school in Spain and engaged to marry into Spanish nobility. As for the gangster Capra wanted James Cagney, but Harry Cohn couldn't pry him loose from Jack Warner. He was offered Warren William instead and certainly the dapper and elegant William played a different kind of gangster than Cagney would have. For William's moll, Capra's partner and screenwriter for Lady for a Day Robert Riskin persuaded his then girl friend Glenda Farrell to take the part. She Jack Warner was willing to part with.With the great skill that Capra had in casting his films, some of the best character actors around like Guy Kibbee, Nat Pendleton, Ned Sparks, and Walter Connolly filled out his roster. A lot of these people would work for Frank Capra again and again.Came Oscar time and Lady for a Day had the great distinction of being nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay adapted from another source. This was the first film from Columbia Pictures that was ever nominated for anything by the Motion Picture Academy. May Robson made Capra forget he ever wanted Marie Dressler. Unfortunately she lost to a young actress picking up her first of four Oscars, Katharine Hepburn.Riskin lost to the writers of Little Women and the film itself lost that year to the British story Cavalcade. One of the most embarrassing moments in Frank Capra's life occurred when Awards host Will Rogers in announcing the Best Director said "come up and get it Frank."Capra rose thinking it was him and the spotlights came down on him. Then there was a frantic buzzing and the spotlight shifted to the opposite side of the hall where Frank Lloyd got up to accept the award that was meant for him for directing Cavalcade. Talk about feeling like a nickel looking for change.However next year Capra's next film It Happened One Night swept all the major Oscars including his first. It sounds like something that only could have happened in a Frank Capra movie.

For a middle class Indian guy like me falling head over heels for Hollywood movies and especially for B/W beauties is like making Ned Sparks laugh.... very difficult!And yet in love I am with Hollywood for movies like 'The Lady For A Day'.( What you haven't seen it? Rent it or better BUY it .. Right Now!)It's pure magic from beginning to end.Performances are top notch.Warren Williams with his voice n charm, Ned Sparks with his comments and May Robson for her great performance make the film a legend.Let's not forget Frank Capra. It actually makes you wonder weather it is Capra's direction , the performances or the storyline which sets this film apart.Capra's brand of comedies is well known. And this one is an out n out success!Whatever be the ingredients it's poetry in motion. It's a must watch for true fans and it should be made compulsory for the 'Scary Movies Gang'.