Lady Behave (1937) starring Sally Eilers, Neil Hamilton, Joseph Schildkraut, Grant Mitchell directed by Lloyd Corrigan Movie Review

Lady Behave (1937)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Sally Eilers in Lady Behave (1937)

Those Meddlesome Kids

When her sister Clarice (Patricia Farr) arrives home drunk, Paula (Sally Eilers) is less than happy but she is furious when Clarice mentions she got married last night despite already being married to someone else. To make matters worse the man Clarice married in her drunken stupor is millionaire Stephen Cormack (Neil Hamilton) who has fled the country and has his lawyers trying to arrange a quickie divorce who when he shows up at Paula's looking for Clarice mistakes Paula for her. Fearing Clarice will end up in prison for bigamy Paula pretends to be her whilst her lawyer tries to seek Clarice's first husband to get an annulment. But not only does her first husband discover the truth and try to blackmail Paula but Stephen has two teenage children who think their father's new wife is a gold digger and will do anything to get rid of her. But matters get even more confusing when Stephen returns home to meet his wife for the first time and falls for her.

If "Lady Behave" had been made 5 years later the part of Paula would have gone to someone like Ginger Rogers and maybe I am biased but if this had features Rogers it would have lifted it to be memorable than just another enjoyable old movie which once watched is sort of forgotten about. I said sort of because it would be hard not to remember the nutty confusion comedy which starts with drunken bigamy, features confusion comedy and deception along the way before then bringing in some predictable romance as well. It is part of the reason why I would have loved someone like Ginger Rogers to be in the movie as the comically convoluted nature of it is prime for big laughs even though you can guess where things will end up once the set up.

But having said the acting is enjoyable and Sally Eilers is pleasant as Paula, the trouble is she just can't deliver the big laughs like the movie deserves. But then there is George Ernest and Marcia Mae Jones as Stephen's teen children and they certainly deliver the laughs with their devious plans to have a man seduce their new step mum so she will go away.

What this all boils down to is that "Lady Behave" is now an enjoyable distraction with an amusingly convoluted storyline but lacks the big laughs of a bigger star than Sally Eilers even though she does a reasonable job.


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