Law And The Lady, The (DVD)

Why should the rich have all the wealth? From London to Monte Carlo to San Remo to Shanghai, lady's maid Jane Hoskins (Greer Garson) is out to grab her share of the good life. Passing herself off as noblewoman Lady Loverly and teaming with an accomplice (Michael Wilding) who sometimes poses as a butler, she uses beauty and guile to fleece the well-to-do. But during a stay at the home of prominent San Francisco doyenne (Marjorie Main), the lady's feelings for a Spanish royal (Fernando Lama) may cause her scheme's silken strings to unravel. The Law and the Lady brings a light-fingered, lighthearted touch to Frederick Lonsdale's famed drawing-room comedy The Lady of Mrs. Cheyney, adapted earlier for the screen in 1929 with Norma Shearer and in 1937 with Joan Crawford. Packed with wit and charm, it is rare (with Garson in an atypical comic role) treat.

• comedy