Main Cast: Joan Blondell, John Wayne, Philip Merivale, Ray Middleton, Blanche Yurka, Edith Barrett
Release Year: 1941
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
Plot
The unlikely combination of John Wayne and Joan Blondell adds a bit of vinegar and spice to the so-so costume drama Lady for a Night. Blondell is cast as Jenny Blake, owner of the Memphis Belle-not a WW2 bomber, but a gambling ship moored just outside New Orleans. Jenny's partner and erstwhile suitor is local political boss Jack Morgan (Wayne). She loves Morgan, but decides to marry for money and prestige, and to that end weds "black sheep" socialite Alan Alderson (Ray Middleton). Her new in-laws are infuriated by this marriage of convenience, and do everything they can to ruin Jenny in the eyes of society. When Alderson dies suddenly, his vengeful mother Julia (Blanche Yurka) accuses Jenny of poisoning her husband. Throughout the subsequent trial and scandal, Morgan stands loyally by Jenny's side, convincing her at long last that he's been the "right man" for her all along. Hattie Noel, who two years earlier lost the role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind to Hattie McDaniel, essays a neat Mammy-like characterization as Jenny's all-knowing maidservant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
John Victor Mackay - Art Director, Albert J. Cohen - Associate Producer, Leigh Jason - Director, Ernest Nims - Editor, Murray Seldeen - Editor, David Buttolph - Composer (Music Score), Cy Feuer - Musical Direction/Supervision, Norbert F. Brodin - Cinematographer, Garrett Elsden Fort - Screen Story, Isabel Dawn - Screenwriter, Boyce de Gaw - Screenwriter
