SYNOPSICS
Lucy Gallant (1955) is a English movie. Robert Parrish has directed this movie. Jane Wyman,Charlton Heston,Claire Trevor,Thelma Ritter are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1955. Lucy Gallant (1955) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
In 1941 Texans suddenly rise from subsistence to wealth when they strike oil. With money comes the problem of how to spend it. Lucy Gallant, a New York socialite fleeing a humiliating tragedy, accidentally fetches up in Texas and creates her future by showing their wives how to dress tastefully, and very expensively. Her dress shop becomes bigger and more successful, but her love life is a blank despite the attentions of a cattle rancher who wants her to give up her career and marry him. Lucy's independence is too important for her to say yes, but when the US enters the war the two of them are separated. He returns still wanting to marry her, but what does Lucy want?
More
Lucy Gallant (1955) Reviews
a fictional version of Neiman-Marcus & Midland boom
First saw this movie on AMC over a decade ago, taped it, and love it. It's actually a good conglomeration of events during the Texas oil boom. The scenes of the hotels being so full and nothing for people to buy in the boom towns is very accurate. The development of the great department store is really telling the story of famed Texas department stores such as Neiman-Marcus, Joske's, Hemphill-Wells and others that brought world-class shopping to the oil and ranching areas of Texas. Heston's performance is great and he really pegs the personality of many older rancher friends I know. And, any lover of Texas politics will love seeing Governor Shivers play himself. Other folks are right, we need this on a good quality DVD - it just has too much good history of the oil boom and post WWII development in Texas to keep locked away.
Turns her trousseau into a fashion empire
Before the much bigger budgeted Giant came out the following year, Paramount's B picture unit producers William Pine and William Thomas gave us Lucy Gallant a thinly disguised version of the founding of Neiman-Marcus. Jane Wyman plays the title role of a woman who was stuck in a Texas oil boom town in the Thirties and got the idea that the newly oil rich Texans might like some really fashionable clothing. As she is a recently jilted bride left at the altar, Wyman sells off her considerable trousseau and with that money builds the best department store in the state with all the latest fashions from Paris and New York. Charlton Heston has a nice part as the cattle rancher turns oil millionaire like Rock Hudson in Giant who waits for Wyman. But this is clearly Wyman's film. Her father was accused of embezzlement and committed suicide and she wants to prove as a woman she can start and maintain her own business. Wyman and Heston got a really good supporting cast from Paramount. The Dollar Bills as Pine and Thomas were called in the industry were getting bigger and bigger budgets to work with from Paramount although nothing like what Warner Brothers did for Giant. They assembled a good supporting cast with folks like William Demarest, Thelma Ritter, Wallace Ford, Gloria Talbott, and Tom Helmore settling in parts you are accustomed to seeing them in. One I wish had more screen time though was Claire Trevor. She plays a former honky tonk owner who sells her place to Wyman for her original store and becomes a friend and rises to be a queen of Texas society. There's just too little of Trevor in this film. Lucy Gallant is Texas putting its best foot forward. None of the warts are shown as they are in Giant. Still the film holds up well and Dollar Bills were probably justly proud of this work.
One of my all time favorites. Have kept my TV recorded tape for twenty yrs.
Lucy Gallant is one of my all-time favorite movies. I love the story of the strong, driven, successful woman, Lucy Gallant. She so reminds me of the woman I always aspired to be. It was such a perfect match between Jane Wyman and Charlton Heston. They really complimented each other. I originally taped this movie off the TV probably twenty-plus years ago, obviously on VHS. I still have it, but it's an incredibly poor recording, very old and worn from so much playing. I also have to fast-forward through the commercials, that were left in when it was originally taped, though after twenty years or more, they are pretty interesting. It's always been one of my favorite movies to watch over and over. I would love to find a good copy on DVD.
Jane's got a fire in her belly!
Sudsy drama is dated in it's attitudes but still an entertaining ride. Jane Wyman plays a youngish woman who after being spurned has got a fire in her belly and won't let anything stand in the way of her achieving her goal. That would include a young and towering Charlton Heston, it would be harder to understand her resistance if Heston's character wasn't such a macho jerk for much of the film. He's the right actor for the role since his clinched jaw delivery matches much of the blow-hard dialog he's given to speak. What makes this more than a standard soaper is the talent of the assembled cast. The film is fortunate to have not just one but two of the best character actress Hollywood ever produced, Thelma Ritter and Claire Trevor. Both play roles they could have performed in their sleep but each give them their customary snap and for the latter part of the film Thelma is dolled up in the height of fashion. For fans of high class melodrama spiked here and there with humor and filled with sumptuous trappings this is a gold mine, although be warned the ending with prove frustrating steeped as it is in a 50's mentality.
Debutante stranded in a rough Texas oil boomtown uses her classy wardrobe to start an up-scale dress shop for the wives and daughters of the newly rich oilmen.
Jane Wyman plays a refined and educated Eastern woman who arrives in a Texas Oil town to get married. After the wedding is off, she sells her trousseau to get the money to start a dress shop. After 20 years she runs the biggest department store in Texas and socializes with the Texas rich. Charlton Heston waits patiently in the background for her to realize that she can have love and a career. This is one of the few movies from this decade that allowed the leading lady to be something beyond a stereotypical 50's woman. For many the costumes are the best part of the movie. The fancy department store has fashion shows with great 50's styles styles created by Edith Head and others. I would love for this to come out on DVD. It used to play on TV on Saturday afternoon about 30 years ago and I almost always watched it.