The naive Evelyn Warren, elected school teacher of the year by Time Magazine, goes to Las Vegas, where she loses a lot of money. In order to pay her debts, casino manager Matt Braddock asks her to take care of his sad little daughter Diana.
Elena paga il debito, Vahingossa vaimoksi
USA
USA
Douglas Sirk’s romantic comedies are sweet and weirdly pure, even when they try to be cynical and a little hard-boiled, like this one does. That said, it’s pretty fluffy and probably not worth watching unless you’re a Sirk completist, or are in the tank for either of the stars. (And, since I’ve apparently been waiting my whole life for stupid romcom Stephen McNally, I want to stay here forever.)
Honestly, The Lady Pays Off is quite fun! I enjoy seeing Linda Darnell play roles like this and I think she’s quite talented. I was kind of surprised to see a lot of people didn’t/don’t think she’s a good actress. I honestly have seen so much range from her as an actress but I guess a lot of people don’t agree.
This is also another movie with a terrible poster. The Lady Pays Off is a cute romantic comedy with a weird/absurd premise but it works! It’s fun! I enjoyed watching and felt relaxed by the end. It’s a nice breezy film.
Routine courtship between two people from different worlds. One runs a gambling join, the other a teacher. One gets drunk and assemble a gambling debt she can't pay, so she has to work it off by being the teacher for the casino boss' daughter. And it all starts off there. Mildly amusing and very predictable, but it was a good showcase for Linda Darnell, and Stephen McNally came off confident doing his bit.
Sirk's comedy opens really strongly. So strongly that I was looking up the scripting credits as for a scene or two it felt like a minor league mankiewicz. A wry look at 50s conformity and gender with actual clever laugh lines. You start composing the review and wanting to link it to Sirk's better known stuff.
But it turned out that the scripters really hadn't done much else, possibly because those first few scenes fade away as it becomes a proto-parent trap romance that forgets to make you laugh for the final two thirds.
Darnell is good, McNally alright, but it doesn't really know what to do with it's characters or the setup they've found themselves in and just coasts along after a bit.
It remains watchable and I'm on a quest to watch a lot more Sirk, but the opening promised a lot more.
This is a very stereotypical light romcom of two people from different worlds coming together and falling in love through their differences. The opening of this film had me excited at first with the teacher not wanting to be seen as a mother just because she's a woman but that theme quickly became very loose as the story goes on.
Film 25/37 in the “holy shit I can’t believe I’ve already watched 25 Douglas Sirk films” canon
Work for hire used to mean something different in the 50s than it does today. Today, a journeyman director may get hired to do a TV procedural, or a Marvel joint, or a random sequel. But in the 50s (and to be fair, even as recently as the 2010s), a studio is sitting on a truly fucking bananas script or pitch and whoever’s available becomes the person lucky enough to turn “teacher has to pay off a massive gambling debt because she doesn’t understand gambling by babysitting a depressed little girl for a summer” into something. Not necessarily something worthwhile, but just SOMETHING.…
This gave me major Parent Trap vibesss🤌
Felt like some things were missing in a few parts & it was far from perfect but still cuuute.
Gigi Perreau is precious🥰
Shockingly enjoyable: not because it's very good, because the script is rather mediocre and makes very little effort to disguise how pedestrian it is, but rather because Sirk's direction is so assured and fluid. He really is the forerunner to Spielberg, with a total command over camera movement, blocking, pace, and tone. There are some very nice compositions here which show some attempt to enliven the material, and there's a cutesy mirror trick with two Linda Darnells that is especially welcome given Sirk's career-long fascination with them. Sirk claims no role in the material, and that's not unbelievable, but there's an even-handedness to the characters that is somewhat striking, how the antagonistic other woman is given some sympathy by the…
Blame the other but the fact is that everyone has flaws. Delightful comedy from Sirk who truly loves his characters equally even if he favors others a bit more.
Creo que la mitad de las ideas de juego de gemelas están contenidas aquí, una comedia romántica entretenida para pasar el rato.
