Lady in the Dark (1944)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Mitchell Leisen

Writers:

Frances Goodrich (writer)
Albert Hackett (writer)

Release Date:

10 February 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

The minx in mink with a yen for men!

Plot:

Ginger Rogers, "Allure" magazines editor-in-chief, suffers from headaches and continuos daydreams and undergoes psychoanalysis to determine why. |

Plot Keywords:

Magazine | Editor | Beautiful Woman | Based On Play

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars.

Cast

Ginger Rogers	...	Liza Elliott aka Boss Lady
Ray Milland	...	Charley Johnson
Warner Baxter	...	Kendall Nesbitt
Jon Hall	...	Randy Curtis
Barry Sullivan	...	Dr. Brooks
Mischa Auer	...	Russell Paxton
Phyllis Brooks	...	Allison DuBois
Mary Philips	...	Maggie Grant
Edward Fielding	...	Dr. Carlton
Don Loper	...	Adams
Mary Parker	...	Miss Parker
Catherine Craig	...	Miss Foster
Marietta Canty	...	Martha
Virginia Farmer	...	Miss Edwards
Fay Helm	...	Miss Bowers

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Russell Paxton: "This is the end! The absolute end!"

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Star! (1968)

Soundtrack:

THE SAGA OF JENNY

Lavish and worth watching...but sadly dated....

I like this movie. It is confusing and difficult, but you can't help but like it. Ginger Rogers plays a fashion magazine editor...and she finds herself having headaches and feeling dissatisfied. This makes no sense, as she has an exceptional job (especially for 1940) three suitors, and conscious and unconscious lives that are fabulously costumed. She goes to her doctor who recommends a psychiatrist...a drastic move for the time...which she promptly declines...but then does finally go to. Ginger undergoes a great deal of stress in this film,and keeping a bottle of aspirin at hand might be wise. As she makes progress with her shrink...her dream sequences become more and more lavish. The film is beautifully costumed...even clothes left lying on a chair...are fabulous. And there are HATS. HATS. Hats... mousey through military...lots of hats...and FURS...Ginger has one dress with a floor length mink skirt...lined with gold and scarlet sequins, two or three fur coats, a muff, and several other dresses trimmed with fur. Pull the shades and make certain that no one from PETA is around when you run this film. The dream sequences are the real meat of this...they are very beautiful and very surreal. In the end, of course, Ginger selects one of the men (no, not the married one) and seems to be on the road to recovery. You get the feeling that a lot got left out...and I don't know what (yet). I know Danny Kaye was 'discovered' in the Broadway show...and that he had special material. Danny was under contract to Sam Goldwyn by the time this was made...so neither he nor any of his special material made the transition into this film. This film is a visual knock out...and a restored print should be made and hi-def DVD's struck...so we can watch this from time to time. It cannot help but remain dated and politically incorrect....that is the legacy of its 1940 dateline.. but it will certainly always be stunning to look at.