--- title: "Lady for a Day" year: 1933 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/lady-for-a-day" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 5 published: "2026-09-19T22:19:43.012812+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T22:19:59.188764+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lady for a Day (1933) Directed by Frank Capra · 1h 36m · MPA NR · Comedy, Drama **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 75 (early) from 5 reviews *In a sentence:* Every crook on Broadway drops what he is doing to lie to a convent girl, and it is the kindest thing any of them ever does > Capra’s Depression fairy tale about an apple seller passed off as a society lady is nonsense, and May Robson makes it hurt anyway. The second half dawdles with reporters and policemen, but the film stays warm without ever going soft. ## Synopsis New York in the Depression. Apple Annie (May Robson) sells apples off Broadway and drinks gin in a tenement, hiding a secret from the panhandlers: a daughter, Louise (Jean Parker), raised in a Spanish convent and told in letters that her mother is Mrs E. Worthington Manville, a lady of society. Louise is sailing to New York with her fiancé Carlos (Barry Norton) and his father, Count Romero (Walter Connolly), who means to inspect the family. Dave the Dude (Warren William), a gambler who buys Annie’s apples for luck, is talked into helping by his girlfriend Missouri Martin (Glenda Farrell). They will install Annie in a borrowed flat, with pool-hall sharp Judge Henry G. Blake (Guy Kibbee) as her husband, and keep the lie up until the boat sails home. ## Review Frank Capra takes a Damon Runyon story about the crooks and panhandlers of Broadway and turns it into a Depression fairy tale, and the surprising thing, ninety years on, is how little of it has curdled. Robert Riskin’s screenplay asks you to believe that a gambler, his girlfriend, a pool-hall con man and most of the city’s beggars would drop everything so that an old apple seller can pretend to be rich for a week. Nobody in the film quite believes it either, which is what saves it. It is a good picture, funny for most of its 96 minutes and touching in a few of them, and its weaknesses are in the plot rather than the people. May Robson is the reason to watch. She plays Apple Annie as a drunk with a temper, not a saint, and she keeps the temper when the furs go on. The scene we will remember is the one where Missouri Martin’s girls have finished with her and she is left in front of a mirror in a borrowed gown. Robson does not smile. She looks at the woman in the glass as though she had met her once, years ago, and been rude to her. We had come expecting to be worked on and found instead that we were quietly upset, and it was the stillness that did it: Capra holds the shot and lets the face do everything. Around her Capra assembles a gallery of Runyon types and gives each a turn. Warren William, so often the cad in the pre-Code pictures of these years, plays Dave the Dude as a man embarrassed to be kind who does it anyway. Ned Sparks, as his lieutenant Happy McGuire, delivers every line in a gravel monotone through a cigar and gets the biggest laughs in the film without appearing to try. Guy Kibbee’s Judge Henry G. Blake talks like a man who has read half a dictionary and is saving the rest. Glenda Farrell is quick and warm as Missouri, and Nat Pendleton, as a heavy called Shakespeare, has a face that is funny before it moves. Joseph Walker lights Annie’s tenement room in hard shadow and the borrowed flat in a soft glow, so the lie is better lit than the truth. Robert Kalloch’s gowns for Robson fit her perfectly, and she wears them as if they might bite. Gene Havlick cuts fast in the first half, with headlines and telephones carrying the plot, and Howard Jackson’s music is used sparingly, in the manner of the time, which leaves the actors room to be quiet. It is a handsome, modest film that never looks as though it cost much. The flaws are in the plot. Jean Parker’s Louise and Barry Norton’s Carlos are the two people the whole conspiracy exists to deceive, and neither is given a character; they are a nice pair of clothes with a wedding attached. Walter Connolly does more as the Count, mostly by looking unimpressed. And once the lie is up and running, Riskin has to keep it running, so the second half fills with reporters who ask questions, an Inspector MacCreary (Robert Emmett O’Connor) who asks more, and a good deal of business about who has been locked in which room. Annie is off screen for long stretches and the film is thinner without her. The last movement takes a turn we will not describe, and it asks a good deal of your goodwill. Capra made this before [*It Happened One Night*](https://film.one/film/it-happened-one-night) and *Mr. Deeds Goes to Town*, and the sentiment here is lighter on its feet than it would become; he has not yet decided that every film must end with a speech. He remade it in 1961 as *Pocketful of Miracles*, at greater length and to less effect, which tells you what this version got right. Most of that is Robson. Watch it on a wet Sunday afternoon with someone who claims not to like old films. It is 96 minutes, nobody sings, and the crooks are nicer than the gentry, which is a Runyon idea and still a pleasant one. *Fi1m score 78, published 19 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (5) - **The New York Times** (85/100, inferred): Lady for a Day is a well-balanced film with pleasant sentiment and excellent fun, holding attention through its surprises and freshness, with capable direction by Frank Capra. May Robson gives an effective portrayal as Apple Annie, supported by strong turns from Warren William and Ned Sparks. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1933/09/17/archives/apple-annies-fling-at-society-lady-for-a-day-a-splendid.html) - **The New Yorker** (80/100, inferred): This is a thoroughgoing splash of sentimental whimsy that gets away with its arbitrary tenderness, thanks to clever handling by Frank Capra. May Robson is thanked for keeping the mother character from becoming too teary or sob-story-like amid the urban gangsters and politicians. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1933/09/16/1933-09-16-074-tny-cards-000001244) - **Variety** (**): The film asks viewers to accept an improbable, sentimental story adapted from Damon Runyon, handled with skill by director Frank Capra and especially screenwriter Robert Riskin. May Robson dominates early as Apple Annie, supported by a capable cast including Warren William as the superstitious gambler who helps her pose as a lady. [Read](https://variety.com/1932/film/reviews/lady-for-a-day-1200410740/) - **Slant Magazine**, Jaime N. Christley (60/100, inferred): The film is neither the best nor the worst of Capra’s celebrated works and an odd pre-Code title to receive a high-def release. It features strong character work from a talented ensemble that fills time between two standout charming scenes highlighting Capra’s emerging skill at pleasing audiences. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/lady-for-a-day/) - **/Film**, Witney Seibold (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an excellent movie that is sweet and a little wicked. They single out its story of a kindly old lady getting what she needs, along with the way gangsters use their resources and moral wherewithal to do the right thing for someone they care about. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/2195559/lady-for-a-day-1930s-comedy-influential-rip-off/) ## Details - **Director:** Frank Capra - **Director:** Frank Capra - **Screenplay:** Robert Riskin - **Story:** Damon Runyon - **Cinematography:** Joseph Walker - **Editor:** Gene Havlick - **Music:** Howard Jackson - **Costume design:** Robert Kalloch - **Producer:** Frank Capra - **Cast:** Warren William as Dave the Dude; May Robson as Apple Annie; Guy Kibbee as Judge Henry G. Blake; Glenda Farrell as Missouri Martin; Ned Sparks as Happy McGuire; Walter Connolly as Count Romero; Jean Parker as Louise; Nat Pendleton as Shakespeare - **Runtime:** 1h 36m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 13 September 1933 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: BG, DE, LT, RS. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *It Happened One Night* (1934), Fi1m 88: Capra and Riskin the following year, with the sentiment traded for a bus and a blanket — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/it-happened-one-night.md) - *Guys and Dolls* (1955): Runyon’s Broadway again, in colour and with songs, and the gamblers still have hearts - *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937): Old age and grown children without the fairy tale; harder and far more honest - *Tokyo Godfathers* (2003), Fi1m 82: Three homeless people in Tokyo do one decent thing at Christmas, and it costs them — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tokyo-godfathers.md) - *The Ladykillers* (1955): Crooks and a little old lady, from the other side; the crooks fare worse --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/lady-for-a-day