Truly Dreadful Film

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

She is the basic motif for see this lovely film, nice, sweet, charming. because Carole Lombard has her ordinary job and Walter Connolly has the status of glue of a so familiar story about love, money, succes and values. May Robson does more than an inspired character but she has the gift to translate the spirit of a great way to discover the world . and this is the gift of this film who has the virtue to be a trip in past. sure, a film more as slice from the spirit of a time than a great artistic work. but good opportunity for fair smile and comfortable atmosphere. and this is one of real good points of a movie who propose the flavor of a lost period.

Available on an excellent TCM DVD, "Lady By Choice" is a must-have for both May Robson and Carole Lombard fans. Although second in the billing, Robson actually has the lead role and we are introduced to her right from the start when her delightfully gin-soaked character disturbs a rendition of "Mother", and is arrested. In court, we are introduced to Miss Lombard (the "Human Heatwave"), her manager and publicity man. But after a brief squabble with the judge (Walter Connolly), the radiantly photographed – by Ted Tetzlaff – Lombard disappears from view for over twenty minutes. In the meantime, Miss Robson is allowed to ham it up – which she does with pleasing gusto! Then Lombard returns with the bright idea of adopting Robson as her mother! Roger Pryor makes rather a weak fist of the hero, but all the rest of the players offer solid support. David Burton's direction is far superior to his material and I am amazed he did not have the really splendid Hollywood career he obviously deserved. This movie is available on an excellent TCM DVD.

Fan dancer Carole Lombard 'adopts' tippler bag lady May Robson as her mother in order to improve Carole's public image. The old lady winds up becoming a mother figure to Carole and tries to help her become successful in a more respectable career. But when that falls through, Carole starts to date a young lawyer friend of May's for his money. This creates a rift between the two women and May determines to stop Carole from taking advantage of the lawyer.May Robson is great. Carole Lombard is beautiful and has good chemistry with May. Fine support from Walter Connolly, Roger Pryor, and Arthur Hohl. Lady for a Day is one of my favorite Frank Capra films. It has great Damon Runyon characters, fun dialogue, and a lot of heart. This is a cash-grab follow-up to that movie but not a sequel. May Robson plays a similar character but this is not Apple Annie. None of the characters in this movie are quite as colorful or enjoyable as those in the Capra movie. Still, it's entertaining enough thanks to Lombard and Robson.

Carole Lombard plays a Sally Rand type fan dancer and May Robson does her Apple Annie role again in Lady By Choice, a nice comedy from Columbia with overtones of Frank Capra in the making. At Columbia seeing Frank had come up with a winning formula, Harry Cohn was looking to copy it wherever he could. Who knows he might have put Capra's name on it for the foreign market like he did with If You Only Could Cook and Capra never found out.In Lady By Choice, Lombard's press agent, Raymond Walburn, gets an idea for Mother's Day for Lombard to adopt a little old lady. So she goes to a senior citizens home and picks out May Robson, a gin guzzling old woman in the tradition of Apple Annie. Robson comes not only with her gin, but with a young attorney from a wealthy family, Roger Pryor who's been charged by his late father to serve as some kind of guardian angel for her when she gets tanked up and rowdy. Robson's in need of a lawyer especially when she's in court in front of Judge Walter Connolly.It's not Lombard's greatest role, but she does well with it. May Robson is merely starting where she left off in her Academy Award nominated Lady For A Day that was directed by Frank Capra. The only weakness in the film is Roger Pryor who's a rather insipid type in a role that called for someone like Joel McCrea. A nice choice by TCM to run for Mother's Day.