By Frank Miller
The Lady Consents
Brief Synopsis
A doctor leaves his wife for another woman then realizes he's made a big mistake.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Stephen Roberts
Director
Ann Harding
Anne Talbot
Herbert Marshall
Dr. Mike Talbot
Margaret Lindsay
Geraldine "Jerry" Mannerly
Walter Abel
Stanley Ashton
Edward Ellis
Jim Talbot
Film Details
Also Known As
The Indestructible Mrs. Talbot
Genre
Romance
Drama
Release Date
Feb
7,
1936
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Film Length
9 reels
Synopsis
When Geraldine "Jerry" Mannerly, a successful, attractive sportswoman, is thrown by an overly rambunctious horse at a New York country club, surgeon Mike Talbot admininsters to her, then overcome by her attractiveness, kisses her. After Mike casually confesses his transgression to his trusting wife Anne, he lunches with Jerry the next day and begins to see her regularly. Anne, who has caught the eye of Stanley Ashton, a friend of Mike's father Jim, dismisses rumors about Mike and Jerry and even invites Jerry to a costume party. Determined to "steal" Mike from Anne, Jerry tells him at the party that she is leaving immediately for California and consequently coaxes a confession of love out of him. Jerry then declares that, in order to spare Anne's feelings, she is willing to sacrifice her own love, which drives Mike to ask Anne for a divorce. Although devastated, Anne agrees to the divorce without a fight and leaves for Reno. When she returns to New York, she is greeted by the ever-faithful Stanley and by Jim, who upbraids her for giving up on Mike too easily. Soon after, Anne attends Mike and Jerry's wedding and, with a breaking heart, blesses their marriage. While the new Mrs. Talbot transforms Mike's home into a formal showroom and antagonizes the easy-going Jim with her snobbishness, Anne is wooed by Stanley, who proposes to her every day. Weary of Jim's disdain, Jerry coldly forces him to move to Utah, where he has invested in a gold mine. In Utah, Jim is shot in a gun accident, and Mike and Anne are summoned to his deathbed. Brought together temporarily by Jim's death, Mike finally tells Anne at Christmas that he wants to re-marry her, but when he asks Jerry for a divorce, she denies him his freedom. Although Anne offers to become his mistress, Mike insists that they separate. Eventually, Anne, using her own set of tricks, fools Jerry into believing that she will impoverish Mike with alimony demands and, thus revealing Jerry as a gold digger, drives the false wife from her husband.
Director
Stephen Roberts
Director
Cast
Ann Harding
Anne Talbot
Herbert Marshall
Dr. Mike Talbot
Margaret Lindsay
Geraldine "Jerry" Mannerly
Walter Abel
Stanley Ashton
Edward Ellis
Jim Talbot
Hobart Cavanaugh
Yardley
Ilka Chase
Susan
Paul Porcasi
Reverend Neal Dodd
Minister
Crew
John L. Cass
Recording
Perry Ferguson
Art Director Associate
J. Roy Hunt
Photography
Edward Kaufman
Associate Producer
Bernard Newman
Gowns
Van Nest Polglase
Art Director
Darrell Silvera
Set Dresser
Robert Sparks
Contr to Screenplay const
Anthony Veiller
Screenwriter
Roy Webb
Music Director
P. J. Wolfson
Screenwriter
P. J. Wolfson
Story
Film Details
Also Known As
The Indestructible Mrs. Talbot
Genre
Romance
Drama
Release Date
Feb
7,
1936
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Film Length
9 reels
Articles
The Lady Consents
Ann Harding was nearing the end of her tenure as a star at RKO Pictures when she made this romantic melodrama leavened with a healthy dose of comedy. That was a welcome change from her usual maudlin soap operas. This time she's the wife of a doctor (Herbert Marshall) who succumbs to the seven-year itch with ambitious sportswoman Margaret Lindsay. She nobly consents to a divorce so Marshall can marry Lindsay, then supplies a comforting shoulder when he discovers his new wife is just a social climber.
Harding had been RKO's first female star in the pre-Code era, playing well-born women falling from social grace. The arrival of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1934 blunted the effectiveness of her usual vehicles, and this would be her next-to-last picture for RKO. Fortunately, she picked P.J. Wolfson's story "The Indestructible Mrs. Talbot," which gave her some opportunities to play a down to earth shooting craps and drinking canned beer (which led to complaints from glass blowers whose livelihood was threatened by the recent arrival of canned beer). The film also offers comic support from Edward Ellis as her blunt-spoken father-in-law and Walter Abel as a suitor with a cadre of drinking buddies.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
The Lady Consents
Ann Harding was nearing the end of her tenure as a star at RKO Pictures when she made this romantic melodrama leavened with a healthy dose of comedy. That was a welcome change from her usual maudlin soap operas. This time she's the wife of a doctor (Herbert Marshall) who succumbs to the seven-year itch with ambitious sportswoman Margaret Lindsay. She nobly consents to a divorce so Marshall can marry Lindsay, then supplies a comforting shoulder when he discovers his new wife is just a social climber.
Harding had been RKO's first female star in the pre-Code era, playing well-born women falling from social grace. The arrival of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1934 blunted the effectiveness of her usual vehicles, and this would be her next-to-last picture for RKO. Fortunately, she picked P.J. Wolfson's story "The Indestructible Mrs. Talbot," which gave her some opportunities to play a down to earth shooting craps and drinking canned beer (which led to complaints from glass blowers whose livelihood was threatened by the recent arrival of canned beer). The film also offers comic support from Edward Ellis as her blunt-spoken father-in-law and Walter Abel as a suitor with a cadre of drinking buddies.
By Frank Miller
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was The Indestructible Mrs. Talbot, which also was the name of P. J. Wolfson's screen story. RKO borrowed Herbert Marshall from Paramount and Margaret Lindsay from Warner Bros. for this production. Hollywood Reporter production charts add Thomas Braidon, Ernest Hilliard, Harold Minjir, Landers Stevens, Russell Hicks, David Clyde, George Pearce, John Ince and Bill Dooley to the cast, but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. According to modern sources, RKO received a flood of mail from varous glass blowing unions protesting a scene in which the innovation of tin beer cans is featured.
