The Lady Refuses

3/8/19311h 12m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ Torn From the Heart of Woman ~

Overview:

A wealthy London nobleman hires a pretty but poor young woman to distract his playboy son from marrying a golddigger. Complications ensue when the girl and the father begin to fall for each other, and things get even more complicated when the son declares his love for her, too.

Director:

George Archainbaud

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

jealousy
love triangle
self sacrifice
murder
prostitution
pre-code
gold digger
interclass romance
father son relationship
melodrama
melodramatic
father and son
jealous lover
wild oats

Cast

Betty Compson

~ as ~

June

John Darrow

~ as ~

Russell Courtney

Gilbert Emery

~ as ~

Sir Gerald Courtney

Margaret Livingston

~ as ~

Berthine Waller

Ivan Lebedeff

~ as ~

Nikolai Rabinoff

Edgar Norton

~ as ~

Dobbs

Daphne Pollard

~ as ~

Millie

Halliwell Hobbes

~ as ~

Sir James (uncredited)

Dick Rush

~ as ~

Detective (uncredited)

Reginald Sharland

~ as ~

Freddy (uncredited)

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 3 year(s) ago
6
Betty Compson is quite good in this amiable little love-triangle melodrama. She is a lady down on her luck who, in order to avoid the pursuing constabulary, alights on the home of the wealthy "Sir Gerald" (Gilbert Emery). He takes her in, has dinner with her (much to the chagrin of his butler "Dobbs" (Edgar Norton) and the pair begin to bond. He, meantime, has been having some issues with his errant son "Russell" (the handsome John Darrow) and so the pair concoct a plan by which she is to be paid £1,000 ($5,000) to help bring him back from the avaricious clutches of Margaret Livingtsone ("Berthine"). Snag is, gradually she falls for both men - and they both fall for her and... Now, the production is about as basic as you can get and is seriously stage bound. The lighting is desperately short of wattage and the British accents - well, perhaps less said about the the better. That said, Compson delivers an engaging, feisty towards the end, performance that demonstrates a strength of character and an independence of spirit well ahead of it's time (for the cinema, anyway!).