A Lady Takes a Chance

(1943)

86 minutes

Director: William A. Seiter

Cast: John Wayne, Jean Arthur, Charles Winninger, Phil Silvers and Mary Field

Comedy / Romance / Western

Opposites really do attract in this 1943 romantic comedy. Set in 1938, Molly Truesdale (Jean Arthur) decides to take a life-changing break from her hectic life in New York, where she is fending off amorous advances from three suitors, none of whom is her type. Molly sets off on a romantic-sounding bus tour of the West, only to have to fend off another would-be suitor in the shape of Smiley Lambert (Phil Silvers), the bus driver. Molly’s life takes a dramatic turn when rodeo star Duke (John Wayne) literally falls into her lap after being thrown at a rodeo. Molly is smitten with this “real man” and changes from prey to predator to snare the Duke. Can Molly overcome the Duke’s wild, womanizing nature and the influence of the Duke’s two best friends, Waco (Charles Winniger) and the Duke’s horse, Sammy, or will the Duke ride off into the sunset ?