Lucy Gallant

Lucy Gallant

D: Robert Parrish (1955); with Jane Wyman, Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest, Allan Shivers, Edith Head.

Lucy Gallant is a most unusual movie for its time, in that it portrays a success-driven woman who is not a bitch. Being a bitch was the price to pay in the Fifties if a woman were to be successful -- after all, we wouldn't want anyone to get any wrong ideas, right? Director Parrish, who also directed the entirely unrelated Casino Royale, sets this story in the Texas that dreams are made of -- oil wells in the back yard and cattle on Main Street. It is against this setting that jilted bride-to-be Lucy Gallant (the irrepressible Wyman) lands in her expensive trousseau, alone and seriously out of place. Wyman is an expert at portraying these misplaced characters who follow their hearts and come out on top -- just as she does here, when she turns her fancy clothes into cash and opens a saloon. But she knows, deep in her heart, that all women want glamour -- even the mud-splattered, oil-rich matrons of her town. She parlays her saloon into a dress shop while her erstwhile admirer, played by Heston, wishes she could just be the "little woman" that he so richly deserves. She leaves Heston in the dust as her little shop becomes a bigger shop, and her bigger shop becomes even bigger. It is this development that offers a multitude of fashion moments, from the "event" gowns her clients wear to the full-blown fashion shows presented (one features design icon Edith Head playing herself). More than anything, this seems to be based on the story of Neiman-Marcus, with a little bit of Christian Dior thrown in for good measure, and a dose of reality is provided by the appearance of then-governor of Texas Allan Shivers, who presents Lucy an award. And, of course, since this is the Fifties, Charlton Heston is still waiting around at the end for Lucy, when she gets back to being what she's supposed to be -- a woman, not a businessperson.