LADY FOR A DAY (1933) *** Of all human emotions, kindness is probably the most difficult to make an interesting film about. It's not sexy, not violent, understated even when spectacular...strange, in some way it most be considered the most existential of all emotions. Existential or not, the path of representation is hewn with mine fields of sentimentality and schmaltz that are more like blankets. Damon Runyan and Frank Capra get around that little problem by surrendering to it, by pledging allegiance to sentimentality and declaring heart-warming sensibilities of schmaltz to be the only standards that matter. Such posturing may not be any more genuine than the action on the screen, but if you play along the benefits are you. Illusion is so often more authentic than literalism. The acting is so mellow, and fairytale-appropriate, that it's easy to miss how good it is. May Robson is so endearing as the fesity old apple lady, feistiness being just the thing to temper sympathy that would be appropriate but get in the way. Guy Kibbee is tremendous also, and Maurice Evans was too young for the part. Ned Sparks is best of all, a sonic point of reference equal parts Don Knotts and Jack Nicholson. Capra keeps the film together all along, though he loses a little momentum by allowing the camera to stray from Robson for too long in the middle, and no one brings a "lived happily ever after" denouement down the stretch like him. He does it so well that your mind is catapulted into a happy future beyond the film, not least for Warren William and Jean Parker. The pathos patricians and gracious gangsters, this stuff is worth suspending disbelief for.
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