Lady Be Careful
Cast & Crew
Theodore Reed
Lew Ayres
Mary Carlisle
Benny Baker
Larry Crabbe
Grant Withers
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
U.S. Navy men on leave are eager to meet girls. While egotistic heart breaker Jake boasts about his talent for winning women, "Dud Dynamite" Jones, so-called for his shyness around the opposite sex, is resigned to going fishing. Dynamite's luck changes when a boat full of debutantes runs into his boat in the fog. Dynamite befriends the girls by telling the father of one of them that the accident was his fault, thereby preventing the father from suspending their boating privileges. When Dynamite returns to his ship with a mob of adoring girls, Jake, infuriated at his own bad luck, bets Dynamite he cannot win over a cafe dancer in Panama City named Billie "Stonewall" Jackson, who refuses to date sailors. As proof of Dynamite's conquest over Billie, he must procure her "Ms. Panama" ribbon. When most of his Navy cronies bet money on him, Dynamite is forced to approach Billie to please them. Although Dynamite's comedic buddy Barney fills his ear with bad advice, Dynamite eventually wins Billie with his own sincerity. Meanwhile, Billie's girl friends, who have bet on her ability to resist Dynamite, try to keep Billie from falling for him. After their first kiss, Billie finds out about the bet when the sailors, led by Jake, stage a shivaree outside Billie's window. Dynamite, enraged, fights Jake and starts a brawl, then later apologizes to Billie, who forgives him. Dynamite then proposes to Billie on the beach and she accepts, but when he asks for her ribbon so Barney can win his bet, she throws Dynamite's ring in the sand. Barney then helps patch things up and Billie, willing to hand over her ribbon, waits for Dynamite to apologize. He decides to mimic toughness, believing that will win her back, but when she screams, Jake enters with the admiral and calls for Dynamite's arrest. Billie swears Jake has a vendetta against Dynamite and he is cleared. Dynamite gives Billie back her ring and throws down her Ms. Panama ribbon to Barney, who wins his bet.
Director
Theodore Reed
Cast
Lew Ayres
Mary Carlisle
Benny Baker
Larry Crabbe
Grant Withers
Irving Bacon
Barbara Barondess
Sheila Bromley
Wilma Francis
Ethel Sykes
Murray Alper
Jack Chapin
Wesley Barry
Nick Lukats
Purnell Pratt
Jack Adair
Josephine Mckim
Jennifer Gray
Barbara Koshay
Irene Bennett
Terry Ray
Louise Stanley
Paul Barrett
Roy Crane
Joe Ploski
Frank Arthur Swales
John Morley
Henry Arthur
Frank Losee
Harry Burns
Carlos Barbe
Lowell Drew
Charles Requa
Billy Dooley
Clarence L. Sherwood
Robert Cummings
Edward Earle
Crew
Edgar Anderson
Roland Anderson
Hugh Bennett
Alan Campbell
Hans Dreier
A. E. Freudeman
Benjamin Glazer
Don Johnson
William Le Baron
Harry Lindgren
Ray Lissner
Patterson Mcnutt
Boris Morros
Dorothy Parker
Harry Ruskin
Sidney Salkow
Henry Sharp
Ralph Spence
Dale Van Every
Eddie Welch
Adolph Zukor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The play Sailor, Beware!, which was originally staged in New York in 1933, was revived on May 3, 1935 and had five hundred performances. According to the New York Times and Variety reviews, for the Broadway first run of this film, Arthur Mayer, managing director of the Rialto theater, switched the title of this film to Sailor Beware. The Hays Office, which had already banned the play, balked and forced Mayer to change the title back to Lady Be Careful. Several reviewers mention their disappointment that the film diluted much of the sexuality that had made the stage version a success, making the play unrecognizable in the film. A news item in Hollywood Reporter states that Joe Ploski, Benny Baker's "stooge," made his screen debut in the cameo role of "Chowoski." Variety and New York Times erroneously list Wilma Francis' character as "Bernice," the part played by Ethel Sykes. Other Paramount films based on the play Sailor, Beware! are the 1942 film The Fleet's In, directed by Victor Schertzinger and starring Dorothy Lamour and William Holden, and the 1951 version Sailor Beware, directed by Hal Walker and starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The 1942 version was also based on the 1928 Paramount release The Fleet's In (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30).
