Jane Sells Haute Couture

When a rainstorm floods out a train trestle and strands her in the boom town New City, Texas, Lucy Gallant (1955) (played by Jane Wyman) realizes she can make her fortune by selling the nouveau riche clothing from New York and Paris. With the help of local banker Charlie Madden (William Demarest), the owner of the local brothel Lady "Mac" MacBeth Claire Treveor), and rancher Casey Cole (Charlton Heston), Lucy opens a store. But the success of the store creates a barrier between her and Casey - he wants a stay-at-home wife, and Lucy loves working.

I try to not give away the ending of films as a rule, but as our major issue with Lucy Gallant was the ending, I'll have to do a bit of a spoiler. We had thoroughly enjoyed it up until the last scene, but the standard 1950s woman as "handmaiden to her man" routine was irritating. The character of Lucy Gallant is so attractive - she's smart, clever, imaginative, kind, and loyal - it's hard to see her giving up her dream because some man doesn't want his wife working.  We found ourselves coming up with a five years later scenario in which Lucy was back running her beloved store.

Based on a novella, The Life of Lucy Gallant by Margaret Cousins, this is an interesting portrait of the women in New City.  The characters of Lucy, Molly Basserman (Thelma Ritter) and Mac are carefully drawn. All are strong characters, well able to take care of themselves (and often having to do so). The script is not so careful of the the men.  Casey begins as gentleman-ly and rather attractive, but deteriorates into a petulant, chauvinistic caricature. Gus Basserman (Wallace Ford) may have found oil, but he remains a crude drunk, Jim Wardman (Tom Helmore) is your typical northern carpetbagger, and Charlie Madden is a weakling. In fact, the only reliable male here is Summertime (Joel Fluellen), who remains loyal to Lucy through every crisis, but as an African-American is relegated, per the mores of the time, to being the doorman at Gallant's.

Jeanine Basinger, in her book A Women's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960 posits that the film equates Lucy's life in the department store as a prison, where freedom is marriage and children. But I would suggest there is another subtext in the film, much more hidden, and possibly more critical of the role Lucy assumes at the film's conclusion. The biggest advocate for Lucy's marriage to Casey is Molly Basserman. At the beginning of the film, Molly runs a boarding house while her husband wildcats for oil. Later in the film, we see Gus Basserman drinking and whoring. Finally, Lucy discovers that Gus has purchased a very expensive fur coat for another woman, and it appears that Molly is blissfully unaware of her husband's infidelity. With this the only symbol of a "happy" marriage in the film, just WHAT is Lucy getting herself into?

In their review of the film, the New York Times comments that Charlton Heston is "not believable" as Casey. We tend to agree. He plays the role as though pouting for the whole film. While at first, Casey seems like a gallant gentleman, after awhile he is merely annoying. He seems to have no regard for Lucy's happiness, and he is unable to compromise on anything. We expected that the character would grow, but he did not. Heston was allegedly dissatisfied with his performance - his mind was elsewhere. When Lucy Gallant wrapped, Heston flew off for his next role - in The Ten Commandments!

The film is very much about fashion, and there are some lovely outfits (though most have a 1950s vibe, even though much of the action takes place before the second World War). We also get treated to a Vista Vision fashion show, emceed by the one and only Edith Head (who designed the dresses for the film). 

The film demonstrates that the growth of Gallant's mirrors the growth of the town of New City, and the dominance of the female clientele in the town. We see other stores begin to appear near Gallant's, including a high-end jewelry story. The women in the town dress better, and there is a decidedly more cosmopolitan air to New City by the conclusion of the film.

According to the AFI catalog, Joan Crawford was at first interested in the part of Lucy. The Hollywood Reporter had also announced that Jody McCrea (son of Joel and Frances Dee) and Julie Dorsey (daughter of Jimmy) were to have made their film debuts in Lucy Gallant; neither however made it to the final version of the film. 

We'll leave you with an early scene, in which Lucy meets some of the local ladies of New City: