5th Ave Girl

Dir. Gregory La Cava

83 Minutes

USA

1939

Starring: Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, Verree Teasdale, James Ellison, Tim Hold, Kathryn Adams

***1/2/*****

Feeling neglected at work and home, Timothy Borden (Walter Connolly, who would pass just the next year) spends a lonely birthday walking in the park where he meets Mary Grey (Ginger Rogers). Attracted to her blunt attitude and vagueness about herself, Borden decides to go all out and celebrate, taking her out to dine and dance (and buying a round of champagne for every one in the club---"If you're dumb enough to spend it, I'm smart enough to help you spend it"). Drunk and with a black eye, Borden wakes up to discover he forgot much of the night and is dumbfounded with Mary comes out of a spare bedroom. But he is struck by the fact that his family actually seems to care, and employs Mary to be his live-in faux-mistress, with the two pretending to gallivant around town as Mary feigns interest in the old man (much to the dismay of his wife and son, but to the wonderful enjoyment of his daughter (played perfectly by Kathryn Adams), who is in love with a chauffeur spouting out Communist ideologies).

The film starts very strong, and the scenes between Connolly and Rogers are such a pleasure (and the two have a very lovely chemistry build on affection and friendship over sex). And we move marvelously in La Cava's typical wheelhouse of what happens when an outsider is integrated into an existing (often non-ideal) situation. Set pieces around Borden's mansion are engaging and very enjoyable, especially the earlier gag with Borden's black eye. But eventually the initial narrative starts to run a little bit out of steam and one can see a struggle in figuring out a proper way to conclude the action. Connolly and Rogers are so enjoyable to watch together (a wonderful exchange in the back of limo where they spend an evening just riding around while the family thinks they are out partying that ends with them dozing off on each others shoulders is perfect) that it becomes a shame when that is abandoned for the more bland routine business between Mary and Borden's son (Tim Holt). And the film begins to redeem itself in the final minutes by heading towards a note of truthful melancholy before riding that romantic plot line to its inevitable, but unfortunate, consummation. But the picture is strong enough in its set-up that it is too easy to forgive it for losing its way, though certainly not without a few missteps that risk knocking down the entire venture.

April 24th, 2020