Without any preliminary fanfare, Columbia launched one of 1940's most delightful entertainments. Once you overcame the manifold implications of a title like The Lady in Question, you were rewarded with an hour and twenty minutes of delectable domestic fare that was by turn droll, downright funny and slightly dramatic, but always irresistibly humorous. Director Charles Vidor has not only managed to keep his characters in situations that are plausible, but has imparted to the whole an infectious atmosphere of home and hearth. The screenplay by Lewis Meltzer represents an adroit translation of the French film by Marcel Achard which was released in New York in 1939 as Heart of Paris.Not the least of the film's virtues are its players. Brian Aherne contributes one of his finest impersonations as the blustering, good-natured owner of a Parisian bicycle shop who, upon being called as a juror, is so touched by the pathetic girl accused of murdering her lover that he holds out for her acquittal, then takes her into his family on the pretext that she is the daughter of an old classmate. His efforts to hide the girl's true identity from his wife, and then to thwart the romance which develops between her and his son, lead to many amusing (and touching) domestic complications. To attempt to give further details of the plot would be to do the film an injustice, for it springs to life out of situations of a sort which invariably seem frightfully dull in print.

Greatly enjoyed this film which is full of drama and plenty of laughs along with a great cast of new stars who would become very famous and successful on the Silver Screen in Hollywood for many years. Charles Vidor produced this film and that is living proof this is a great 1940 extra special film. Brian Aheme, (Andre Moestan) is a bicycle shop owner who desperately wants to become a juror in a court case and gets himself deeply involved with the trial of Natalie Roguin played by Rita Hayworth and Andre Moestan feels great compassion for Natalie and manages to sway the jury into setting her free. Andre gives her a job in his bicycle shop and lets her live with his family above the shop. Glenn Ford plays the role as Pierre Moestan, the son of Andre and he falls madly in love with Natalie. Evelyn Keyes, (Francois Morestan) gave a great supporting role as the daughter of Andre Moestan who wants to get married in the worst way and is simply boy crazy about all men and full of the devil. It is great seeing such great super stars so very young and just starting out in their Hollywood careers. Enjoy this film. I must also mention that Evelyn Keys had just given a great performance in "Gone With The Wind", 1939 and played a great role in this film and went on to become a great Pin Up Girl for our Fighting Troops during World War II.

The Lady in Question is noted in cinema history as the first film to feature both Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. However it's not their film, both are second and third billed respectively below Brian Aherne.Columbia Pictures remade the French film Gibouille which had been done the year earlier with Raimu and Michele Morgan in the roles that Aherne and Rita had. In fact Gibouille was what launched Michele Morgan's career in French cinema.Knowing that I think a lot of the film's humor and innuendo probably got lost on the transatlantic voyage. Aherne is a bicycle shop owner who has been picked for jury duty and is determined to take his responsibilities quite seriously. He gets on a case with Rita as a defendant who is accused of murdering her fiancé. Aherne's questions to her and his forceful advocacy of her, earn Rita an acquittal.But Brian's not finished. He offers to give her any kind of help she needs because while she has a legal acquittal, she's got a reputation like O.J.'s. Aherne takes her in which causes all kinds of complications with his wife, Irene Rich, son Glenn Ford, daughter Evelyn Keyes, and her fiancé Edward Norris.The Lady in Question is probably done in by the infamous Code firmly in place in Hollywood. Stuff that the French cinema could and did do, were forbidden here. Columbia also had to keep it in the French setting because of the differences between their jury system and our's.Still Rita and Glenn do shine together, although no one I'm sure would ever have predicted their mega-hit Gilda six years later. Actually Edward Norris has the nicest performance as the no good rat of a fiancé that Keyes has, who tries to put the make on Rita.It's a pleasant enough film, but I'm betting the original French version must be infinitely better.

Interesting that Columbia teamed GLENN FORD and RITA HAYWORTH six years before GILDA made them such a hot romantic combination, in a rather tepid courtroom tale that's an uneven mix of comedy and drama and barely allowed the sparks to fly between Ford and Hayworth.Actually, it's BRIAN AHERNE who gets top billing as the Parisian shop owner who sits in on a murder trial and finds himself falling for "the lady in question". Aherne plays the man as a naively foolish individual who looks forward with childish glee to jury duty--and then manages to convince the others that Rita is not guilty of murder.EVELYN KEYES plays his equally flighty daughter and IRENE RICH is his sensible wife. GLENN FORD is his attractive and reasonably sensible son.It soon becomes apparent that all of the courtroom scenes are going to be played for comedy rather than drama. LLOYD CORRIGAN and GEORGE COULOURIS play opposing lawyers with comic skill and CURT BOIS does an amusing job as a fellow juror who takes an instant dislike to Aherne when he's accidentally splashed with water and then becomes his amusing adversary for the rest of the story.But the spotlight is mainly on BRIAN AHERNE and he easily walks off with the film as the bumbling shop owner who begins to think that perhaps he shouldn't have talked the other jurors into freeing Rita, after she has an affair with his son whom he finds has stolen some money in order to leave with her. Aherne had a flair for comedy that is really given the spotlight here.There's a clever plot twist at the end in which Aherne realizes how wrong he's been about everything.RITA HAYWORTH shows promise in a rather uninteresting role that doesn't allow her to do more than look like a decorative leading lady and GLENN FORD is clearly not yet the movie star he would become. Both have relatively minor roles compared to Aherne.Summing up: Interesting oddity is strange mixture of comedy and drama.