recommended

Really Surprised!

Dreadfully Boring

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

In THE LADY FROM CHEYENNE Loretta Young gives one of her most charming performances as a pioneer lady suffragist, and the results are most amusing. Robert Preston has been tapped to play her leading man in this Universal offering and together, they radiate a considerable amount of chemistry. Though one does wonder what Clark Gable might have done with this role, as the man who brings a meek schoolmarm (Young) out of her shell– too much, then must tame her! Edward Arnold lends fine support as a corrupt businessman, and then there's Gladys George in a scene-stealing assignment as a madam in charge of a boisterous group of girls. Don't miss this film.

"The Lady from Cheyenne" is loosely built around Wyoming's granting of the right to vote to women in 1869-- and if you want a history lesson, this movie isn't the place to look. It isn't accurate, and it isn't even plausible. But it is a pleasant, diverting and harmless film with an attractive comic performance from Loretta Young as a naive but earnest schoolteacher who fights for the cause of suffrage as a means of rescuing her town from corruption. Carole Lombard was the first choice for this role, and Young emulates her fast-paced, breathless delivery, but she captures the character's idealism better than Lombard would have, and she carries the film with her charm. The supporting cast is strong, the sets are convincing and Frank Lloyd, who specialized in period films, directs with a light touch and a properly brisk pace. Nobody's ever going to call it a masterpiece, but it's certainly a pleasant way to pass the time. By the way, the title is misleading; the heroine goes to Cheyenne, but she isn't from Cheyenne.