charlesem In A Lady of Chance, Norma Shearer has a role that would later be perfected by Barbara Stanwyck: the tough grifter with a soft heart. The story is nonsense: She falls for her mark, a Southerner (Johnny Mack Brown) she thinks is a rich man, even after he takes her home to Alabama and she learns that she has jumped to the wrong conclusion. Stanwyck does it better in Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941) and The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941), but Stanwyck also had better directors than the prolific but undistinguished Robert Z. Leonard. He allows, or perhaps encourages, Shearer to mug and pose endlessly; at first she's delightful, but a little of that sort of thing goes a long way. A Lady of Chance also contains an embarrassing heap of period racism, when Shearer and Brown are being wheeled along the Atlantic City boardwalk by a singing black man, and Brown remarks that it reminds him of "the darkies singing on the plantation back home."

Michael_Elliott Lady of Chance, A (1928) ** 1/2 (out of 4) MGM silent film about a con artist known as "Angel Face" (Norma Shearer) who lures rich, married men to her apartment so that she can blackmail them. After a con goes wrong she flees from the police and meets her next target (Johnny Mack Brown) but after marrying him she lears that he's actually poor, which doesn't sit well with her partners who want cash. This is a pretty typical story of a bad girl falling in love and then trying to go straight. What sets the film apart is the performance from Shearer who is very good as both the good girl and the vamp. There are several pre-code elements ranging from her lifting her skirt up to show off her legs to some other heated moments, which makes the film somewhat better. The biggest flaw is that we've seen this type of film countless times even before this one was released.

movingpicturegal Entertaining silent film following the story of a gold-digger named Dolly aka "Angel Face" (played by Norma Shearer). Dressed up as the "good girl" we first meet Dolly working as a switchboard operator at a ritzy hotel, where she is recognized by two former partners in crime (slick, oily Brad and bad, blonde Gwen) who force her to rejoin their "racket" or face the consequences (she failed to report for her parole). Seducing a wealthy man she met at the hotel, he's soon minus $10,000 and picking out mug shots of Dolly at police headquarters. Brad and Gwen try to keep the dough for themselves, but wise Dolly gets the better of them - and wanting to work her own racket, she heads for Atlantic City where she ends up at a hotel absolutely swarming with men attending a "tile and cement" convention. There she meets her next "mark", an innocent Southern cement man/mama's boy (Johnny Mack Brown) who happens to be the perfect specimen of the "tall, dark, and handsome" man. She doesn't seem to notice his rather remarkable charms - under the impression he's about to make a million dollar deal, her heart is only on his wallet. Dolly bats her eyelashes into marriage, but things aren't exactly what she expects - and she just can't seem to escape from those two vultures either!This is a fun film - amusing and well acted, with an interesting, if predictable plot line. Norma Shearer is great, as always, and has a lot of expression on her face in this film - Johnny Mack Brown is charming and oh so handsome to look at. Lowell Sherman, who plays Brad, is terrific in this as he plays the smarm to the hilt. There is some interesting photography in this - like a shot of just the feet of the actors as Dolly is chased by some phony cops, and another interesting shot of the heavily made-up face of "Angel Face" visualized atop her new switchboard operator look when she is recognized by Gwen. The version of this screened on TCM features a decent jazz score that suits the film well.

Patrick-96 "A Lady of Chance" was Norma Shearer's last silent film. The Turner Movie Classic channel debut of this forgotten gem with a brand-new score, took place on August 15, 2001. It was a total delight! The print was in excellent condition and looked just as audiences first saw it in 1928. Norma, who never looked lovelier, was in top form and showed how adept she was as a silent movie actress. Never let anyone say that she couldn't handle comedy! It's a fun film to watch and I recommend it to anyone, not just Shearer fans.