Gallant Lady
Cast & Crew
Gregory La Cava
Ann Harding
Clive Brook
Otto Kruger
Tullio Carminati
Dickie Moore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As Sally Wyndham watches in horror, her fiancé, a famous aviator, crashes and perishes in an explosion. Dazed, Sally goes to a park. As a cop is about to arrest her for streetwalking, a man passing by pretends that he is late for his meeting with her, and the cop lets her alone. The man, Dan Pritchard, formerly a doctor, is now, he admits, a social outcast. Dan explains that he was just released from a two-year prison term for killing an incurable patient who begged for relief from pain. He now plans to escape to an island in the Pacific. After Sally confides that she is pregnant, Dan arranges for his friends, Philip and Amy Lawrence, to adopt the child, as Sally says that she does not want the child to pay all its life for what happened to her. Dan then gets Sally a job with his friend, Maria Sherwood, an interior decorator who is secretly in love with him, and he leaves on his voyage. Six years later, Dan returns. Sally relates that Amy Lawrence died two years earlier, but that her child, whom she has not seen, is in good hands with Philip and his aunt. Dan plans to leave the next day on a boat for Argentina, having become an expert on cows, but after having experienced Sally's concern for him, he decides to remain and become a veterinarian. When Sally discovers that Maria, who had been planning a business trip to Italy, is in love with Dan, she convinces Maria to let her go in her place. In Italy, Sally is courted by Count Mario Carnini. She ignores his proposal of marriage, but lets him join her when she visits Paris. At their hotel lobby, a young boy who is returning to America the next day shows Sally his stamp collection. When he forgets the envelope with his stamps, Sally notices his name, Master Deedy Lawrence, and realizes that he is her son. She quickly makes reservations on the same ship on which he and his aunt are traveling. After the boat leaves, Sally discovers that Count Carnini has followed her. Sally and Deedy spend much time together after his aunt and nurse become ill. When the boat docks, Deedy introduces her to his father and his new fiancée, Cynthia Haddon. After Maria, who turns out to be an acquaintance of Philip's, complains about Cynthia, who wants the firm to do their home over, Sally, now a partner, convinces Maria to let her take the job. When they pass Dan, who now looks like a derelict, being led away by a cop, Sally takes his arm and convinces the cop that he was only waiting for her. She tells Dan of her dream that Philip now might want to give up Deedy to her, but Dan convinces her not to tell her identity and spoil Deedy's happiness. When she tells Dan that Deedy and he are her whole world, he is encouraged to try again at life. Sally visits the Lawrence home and sees that Cynthia is not only snooty, but that she has no tolerance or love for Deedy. Sally then tells Dan that she plans to marry Philip herself, so that Cynthia will not be allowed to hurt her son. Dan is extremely upset, and he confesses that he loves her and proposes, but she pays no attention. Sally easily interests Cynthia in Count Carnini. She then goes fishing with Deedy, and when Philip comes home, he joins them and the three have a wonderful time together. When they return to the house, Cynthia insults Deedy, and he dumps a bucket of water on her. She slaps him and calls him a wretch. Cynthia says that she suspects Deedy is really Philip and Sally's child, and when Sally doesn't deny it, she cancels the contract with the firm. Although Maria doesn't mind, Sally wants to resign and leave the country because she feels she has made a mess of things, not only with Philip and Deedy, but with Dan also. Philip, having seen Cynthia's true nature, breaks their engagement. He proposes to Sally, but she says she cannot accept him. Dan, however, convinces her to marry Philip and keep her secret from him and Deedy. Dan then goes off to Singapore. Sally returns to the Lawrence home, and when Deedy, speaking for his father, asks if she will live with them and be his mother, she agrees.
Director
Gregory La Cava
Cast
Ann Harding
Clive Brook
Otto Kruger
Tullio Carminati
Dickie Moore
Janet Beecher
Betty Lawford
Ivy Merton
Theresa Maxwell Conover
Adrienne D'ambricourt
Miss Kennedy
Charles Coleman
James Burke
Mr. Perry
Kenneth Thompson
Hugh Sheridan
Matt Mchugh
Ed Gargan
Wilfred Lucas
Emil Chautard
Crew
Al Blodgett
Jim Collins
Lee Crawford
Harry Davis
Richard Day
Ed. Ebele
Gilbert Emery
Ruby Felker
Tom Ford
Freddie Fox
William Goetz
Raymond Griffith
Charles Hall
Clarence Hewitt
Lou Johnson
Rose Krebs
Gregory La Cava
Peverell Marley
Barbara Mclean
Sam Mintz
Alfred Newman
Pat Patterson
Franc Rhodes
Leon Roberts
Joseph M. Schenck
W. G. Smith
Willard St. Claire
Janet Storck
Ed. Sullivan
Gwen Wakeling
Robert Webb
Joseph Wright
Phyllis Yates
Darryl F. Zanuck
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Included in the file for the film in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, are a number of drafts of the screenplay that include either revisions and additional dialogue by director Gregory La Cava, or credit both Sam Mintz, who received sole screenplay credit, and La Cava with the screenplay and dialogue. In addition, the files include extensive notes by associate producer Raymond Griffith on aspects of the screenplay. Verree Teasdale was listed for the role of "Cynthia" in early production records. According to the production records, the fishing scenes were shot at Franklyn Canyon near Los Angeles, and the airport scene was filmed at United Airport in Burbank. On a call sheet for one day near the end of production, Lowell Sherman is listed as director, rather than La Cava; it is not known if this is an error, or if Sherman did, in fact, direct one day. According to a pressbook for the film, this was Janet Beecher's screen debut. Twentieth Century-Fox remade this film in 1938 under the title Always Goodbye, starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Sidney Lanfield.
