I've mentioned a couple of times how, in addition to a ton off stuff on my DVR, I've also got a bunch of movies on my watch list on a couple of the FAST services, especially Tubi and Pluto. However, I have to admit that Tubi gets some pretty doubtful prints. I noticed this when I was watching an old MGM movie that I don't think I've ever seen show up on TCM: A Lady to Love.
The lady in question is played by Vilma Bánky, who was big in the silent era but quickly tailed off in the sound era because of her severe accent. We don't hear her for a while, howver, even though this is a sound film. That's because the movie starts with the male lead, Edward G. Robinson. He plays Tony, an Italian immigrant vintner in northern California, although the movie doesn't say anything about when it's set, what with it having been released at the height of the Prohibition era. Tony is getting to the point where he's really getting ready to find a wife so he can have some kids and keep the family business going. So, as he tells a priest as well as his second-in-command Buck (Robert Ames), he's going to go to San Francisco and find himself a wife.
While in San Francisco, Tony eats at a restaurant and meets waitress Lena (that's Vilma Bánky), whose accent is explained as her being a Swiss immigrant. He decides that this is the woman for him, and when he gets back to the winery has Buck help him write a letter proposing marriage and inviting her to the vineyards to start a new life. However, Buck points out that he should send a picture so Lena will remember who this is. Tony sees himself in the mirror and realizes he's no prize, while Buck is reasonably good-looking for the standards of the early 1930s. So Tony send's Buck's photo so that Lena won't reject him.
Fast forward to the day of the wedding. Tony has already bought a wedding cake, despite Lena not being there yet. Apparently, she's going to arrive in town at the train station and come home to be married immediately. Except that Tony never makes it to the train station, as we see Lena at the station waiting for somebody to show up and pick her up. The mailman brings her from the station to Tony's home, with Tony still not there. However, Buck is there, so when het gets to the car, Lena sees him and thinks he's Tony, since Tony sent Buck's photo, not his own.
Everybody but Buck goes out to look for Tony, leaving Buck and Lena alone long enough for them to develop a bit of an emotional attachment to each other. And then, just as Buck is explaining that he's not Tony, everybody else brings Tony back -- with two broken legs from a car accident. Now Lena feels a duty to Tony to marry him even though she would prefer Buck if she could have a normal choice.
A Lady to Love was based on a stage play, and much of it does have a stagey feel to it, although part of that is also due to the early talkie nature of the film. There was a remake in the late 1930s, They Knew What They Wanted, that I haven't seen either. As for the movie, it's interesting enough, although the sort of thing where I can see why people who aren't already movie buffs are going to have trouble getting into a movie like it. Robinson does well enough, although I feel like he's really overdoing the accent here.
I mentioned the quality of the print above, and one really weird thing about this one is that, about 20 minutes in, there's... a vintage TCM bug in the lower right (the old banner logo before the rectangle with the .com address). It also has the quality of a 16mm print for TV, but then a lot of early sound films don't have great picture quality.
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