(1928)
2
Hans J. Wollstein
Contemporary critics thought Norma Shearer was completely miscast as a lady crook in this comedy-drama directed with his usually deft hand by Robert Z. Leonard. After all, what was a nice, genteel girl like Norma doing luring lecherous old millionaires into her boudoir in the first place? According to her rap sheet, Norma's less-than-virtuous Dolly has an alias, "Angel Face," and the accompanying mug shot depicts her looking quite a bit like Clara Bow. Yet in the opening scene she is the genteel Norma of old, slaving rather incongruously away as a switchboard operator, the kind of character popularized by the likes of Joan Crawford. The film's original reviews notwithstanding, Shearer actually manages to believably depict both facets of her none-too-realistic character: The mercenary chiseler and the ladylike charmer. To a modern audience, in contrast, several blithe references to "singing darkies" and an establishing shot of African-American children eating watermelons remain much more disturbing than Miss Shearer's dual personality. Originally released as one of those dreaded interim pictures, a part-talkie, A Lady of Chance survives only as a silent and as such resurfaced on cable station Turner Classic Movies in 2001, complete with an appropriately jazzy new score by Christopher Caliendo.
cast-crew for A Lady of Chance on AllMovie
A Lady of Chance (1928)
