A Lady of Chance 1928 - Norma Shearer

Film Review and Rating / Synopsis

• A Lady of Chance (1928) - Plot Summary - Entertaining silent film following the story of a golddigger named Dolly aka "Angel Face" (played by Norma Shearer). Dressed up as the "good girl" we first meet Dolly working as a switchboard operator at a ritzy hotel, where she is recognized by two former partners in crime (slick, oily Brad and bad, blonde Gwen) who force her to rejoin their "racket" or face the consequences (she failed to report for her parole). Seducing a wealthy man she met at the hotel, he's soon minus $10,000 and picking out mug shots of Dolly at police headquarters. Brad and Gwen try to keep the dough for themselves, but wise Dolly gets the better of them - and wanting to work her own racket, she heads for Atlantic City where she ends up at a hotel absolutely swarming with men attending a "tile and cement" convention. There she meets her next "mark", an innocent Southern cement man/mama's boy (Johnny Mack Brown) who happens to be the perfect speciman of a "tall, dark, and handsome" man. She doesn't seem to notice his rather remarkable charms - under the impression he's about to make a million dollar deal, her heart is only on his wallet. Dolly bats her eyelashes into marriage, but things aren't exactly what she expects - and she just can't seem to escape from those two vultures either!
  
  Review - This is a fun film - amusing and well acted, with an interesting, if predictable plotline. Norma Shearer is great, as always, and has a lot of expression on her face in this film - Johnny Mack Brown is charming and oh so handsome to look at. Lowell Sherman, who plays Brad, is terrific in this as he plays the smarm to the hilt. There is some interesting photography in the film - like a shot of just the feet of the actors as Dolly is chased by some phoney cops, and another interesting shot of the heavily made-up face of "Angel Face" visualized atop her new switchboard operator look when she is recognized by Gwen. The version of this screened on TCM features a nice jazz score that suits the film well. Rating - * 8/10 stars *
  
  Director: Robert Z. Leonard
  Film Genre: Romantic Comedy
  Film Runtime: 78 minutes

Links / Resources

• IMDb film listing for A Lady of Chance (1928), cast and crew, trivia
• AFI Catalog Listing, cast, summary, tech details