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6.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Ladies in Love remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like old-school Hollywood charm and don't mind a plot that pivots from lighthearted rom-com to accidental suicide attempt in about ten minutes, sure. It’s perfect for a rainy Sunday. But if you hate movies where the stakes feel made of cardboard, you might want to skip it.
The whole thing starts with this idea of three girls moving in together to look richer than they actually are. It's that classic 1930s trope where everyone is obsessed with appearances. They spend half the movie worrying about who is dating which nobleman. It feels a bit exhausting, honestly.
The pacing is all over the place. One minute we’re watching a cute scene about a fancy dress, and the next, someone is legitimately considering drinking poison because a guy was mean to them. It’s a total whiplash. Who writes these things?
Janet Gaynor and Loretta Young are doing their best to carry the weight. They’ve got that sparkly, 1930s screen presence that makes even the silliest lines sound halfway decent. Tyrone Power is there too, looking exactly how you’d expect him to look. He’s essentially a prop with a nice haircut.
The most bizarre part is the poison. Someone drinks it by mistake, which should be a tragedy, right? Instead, it’s just how the plot moves forward. It’s like the writers realized they needed a doctor character and decided, "Hey, let's just make one of them sick."
I couldn't help but think about how much more grounded some other films of the era are, even the ones that get pretty weird like Fragment of an Empire. This one feels like it’s floating in a bubble where nobody really lives in the real world.
It’s not a masterpiece. It’s just a movie that exists to fill a time slot. But sometimes, that’s all you really need. 🍸