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The Lady Refuses

"Torn From the Heart of Woman"

A wealthy London nobleman hires a pretty but poor young woman to distract his playboy son from marrying a golddigger. Complications ensue when the girl and the father begin to fall for each other, and things get even more complicated when the son declares his love for her, too.

Top Cast

  • Betty Compson

    Betty Compson

    June

  • John Darrow

    John Darrow

    Russell Courtney

  • Gilbert Emery

    Gilbert Emery

    Sir Gerald Courtney

  • Margaret Livingston

    Margaret Livingston

    Berthine Waller

  • Ivan Lebedeff

    Ivan Lebedeff

    Nikolai Rabinoff

  • Edgar Norton

    Edgar Norton

    Dobbs

  • Daphne Pollard

    Daphne Pollard

    Millie

  • Halliwell Hobbes

    Halliwell Hobbes

    Sir James (uncredited)

  • Dick Rush

    Dick Rush

    Detective (uncredited)

Overview

A wealthy London nobleman hires a pretty but poor young woman to distract his playboy son from marrying a golddigger. Complications ensue when the girl and the father begin to fall for each other, and things get even more complicated when the son declares his love for her, too.

Rating

5.3 / 10
20 Reviews
0 Popular

1 Reviews

  • CinemaSerf
    CinemaSerf
    6 Mar 28, 2022

    Betty Compson is quite good in this amiable little love-triangle melodrama. She is a lady down on her luck who, in order to avoid the pursuing constabulary, alights on the home of the wealthy "Sir Gerald" (Gilbert Emery). He takes her in, has dinner with her (much to the chagrin of his butler "Dobbs" (Edgar Norton) and the pair begin to bond. He, meantime, has been having some issues with his errant son "Russell" (the handsome John Darrow) and so the pair concoct a plan by which she is to be paid £1,000 ($5,000) to help bring him back from the avaricious clutches of Margaret Livingtsone ("Berthine"). Snag is, gradually she falls for both men - and they both fall for her and... Now, the production is about as basic as you can get and is seriously stage bound. The lighting is desperately short of wattage and the British accents - well, perhaps less said about the the better. That said, Compson delivers an engaging, feisty towards the end, performance that demonstrates a strength of character and an independence of spirit well ahead of it's time (for the cinema, anyway!).

Recommendations

Madame X

Holly Parker, the wife of a wealthy diplomat, is compromised by the accidental death of a man who has been romantically pursuing her. She is forced by her mother-in-law to assume a new identity in order to save the reputation of her husband and infant son. She wanders the world, trying to forget her heartbreak with the aid of alcohol and unsavory men. Eventually returning to the city of her downfall, she murders a blackmailer who threatens to expose her past. Amazingly, Holly is represented at her murder trial by her now adult son, who has become a public defender. In the hope of protecting her family, she refuses to reveal her real name and is known to the court as "Madame X".

Madame X

6.4 1966