I am very fond of Director Joe Pevney. I cannot honestly say that I have ever watched a bad film that he directed, and I quite enjoyed flicks like THE MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES, TORPEDO RUN, FEMALE ON THE BEACH, IT HAPPENS EVERY THURSDAY, among others.
Best of all, the completely unassuming THE LADY FROM TEXAS, with a gem of a performance from Josephine Hull, as the supposedly mentally unsound owner of a ranch in Texas. In comes Howard Duff looking for work, only to find that the old lady only has a couple of cows, some chickens, cats and even a skunk called Annabelle, plus she can only pay in useless confederate dough.
Mona Freeman and Duff make a great looking couple, their relationship starts on a completely different note, with Freeman throwing herself at Duff, and the fact that they get married just to help the old lady adds another wonderfully comic touch to a film determined to keep the heart in the right place.
The main villain is the son in law of a nearby landowner, who is not even particularly interested in the old lady's ranch. The son in law is, and to that end he enlists the services of an expensive lawyer to show in court that the old lady is dilly.
Well, she is most definitely not. In fact, she is sharper than the lawyer, and Hull portrays her most delightfully.
Duff comes across as engaging and a better man than he knows (his exchange of boots with the sheriff, well played by Flippen, is a recurrent and most felicitous joke, as is systematically dropping tea on the trousers of main heavy Stevens); Gene Lockhart is great as the town judge; and Mona Freeman is just so beautiful that she would always have deserved to have her man hunt down the justice of the peace to get their marriage wrapped up.
And so the film heads toward its happy ending without a single shootout, let alone death, and with communal values reigning supreme. What a defeat for capitalism and yet what a victory for the American Dream, even if the term did not exist yet at the time.
Great script, funny exchanges and punchlines.
I strongly recommend this cool flick that fits no particular genre (courtroom comedy? Family comedy?) despite wearing the skin of a Western.
The sole reason I do not award it 10/10 is that the photography could be better - but then perhaps I did not watch the best copy in the market. If I find a better one, I will certainly up the rating to 10/10.
