A Lady Takes a Chance *** (1943, Jean Arthur, John Wayne, Phil Silvers, Mary Field, Hans Conreid) – Classic Movie Review 11,996

Director William A Seiter’s 1943 RKO Radio Pictures black and white American romantic comedy Western film A Lady Takes a Chance [The Cowboy and the Girl] stars Jean Arthur and John Wayne, alongside Charles Winninger, Phil Silvers, Mary Field and Hans Conreid.

Jean Arthur plays Molly Truesdale, the wide-eyed New York bank clerk who travels to the American West on a dream bus tour and takes a chance on Oregon rodeo star Duke Hudkins (John Wayne), in this most diverting and enjoyable action comedy.

The two ideally paired stars perform extremely well together but are almost upstaged by the droll Phil Silvers, who slips in as Smiley Lambert, a bus-tour guide, and lassoes the film out from under them. Charles Winninger also enjoys himself as Wayne’s sidekick, Waco.

A Lady Takes a Chance is written by Robert Ardrey and Garson Kanin (uncredited) from a story by Jo Swerling.

It is produced for Frank Ross Productions by Frank Ross, who was Arthur’s husband from 1932 to1949. He then married Joan Caulfield in 1950, and she did a film for his company, The Lady Says No (1951). Ross began acting in 1929’s The Saturday Night Kid, starring Clara Bow and Jean Arthur, but appeared in only two more films.

The film was a hit, taking $2.5 million in US rentals and earning a profit of $582,000, a success partly achieved by spending $250,000 on advertising, a huge amount then.

The cast are Jean Arthur as Molly J Truesdale, John Wayne as Duke Hudkins, Charles Winninger as Waco, Phil Silvers as Smiley Lambert, Mary Field as Florrie Bendix, Don Costello as Drunk, John Philliber as Storekeeper, Grady Sutton as Malcolm Scott, Jean Stevens as Jitterbug, Grant Withers as Bob Hastings, Hans Conried as Gregg Stone, Ariel Heath as Flossie, Sugar Geise as Linda Belle, Joan Blair as Lilly, Tom Fadden as Mullen, Dorcas McKim, Hank Bell, Charles D Brown, Lane Chandler, Bud Geary, Fred Graham, Cy Kendall, Donald Kerr, Jack O’Shea, Nina Quartero, Syd Saylor, Paul Scott, Eddy Waller, and Grant Withers.

It is the final film of Nina Quartero.

Wayne’s character name shares his nickname Duke. The teenage Wayne and his dog Duke were inseparable and they were dubbed Little Duke and Big Duke.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,996

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