The Lady Refuses is a 1931 film directed by George Archainbaud.
Sir Gerald Courtney is a stuffy old rich guy who is worried about his alcoholic wastrel of a son, Russell. Russell, in addition to drinking almost constantly, is spending his time with Berthine, a gold-digging schemer who is looking to bleed him for money.
Enter June (Betty Compson), a lovely young woman who is also flat broke and has decided to become a prostitute. She runs away from some suspicious beat cops on her very first night walking the streets, and winds up at Sir Gerald's door. Gerald takes a liking to June, and after chatting for a while, they make an arrangement. June will, for a fee of £1,000 (plus nice clothes, and a temporary stay in a fancy apartment), worm her way into Russell's life with the intent of separating him from Berthine and putting him back on the straight and narrow. It works—but in the meantime, Sir Gerald falls in love with June.
Margaret Livingston, who plays Berthine the scheming temptress, played a scheming temptress in the iconic late-silent film Sunrise.
Tropes:
- Call-Back: June says at one point that it won't work between her and Sir Gerald, because he'd never be able to trust her given her past (even though she didn't actually do any hooking!). At the end, when Sir Gerald does indeed assume the worst about June's night alone with Russell, she says to him "Remember when I said you'd never be able to trust me?"
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: "Paper, evening paper,' say the newsboys who are hawking newspapers announcing that Russell has been arrested for Berthine's murder.
- Fanservice Extra: Sir Gerald, who is buying clothes for June to wear in her guise as an upper-class woman, sees a model wearing a particularly skimpy Sexy Backless Outfit. Then he blunders into the wrong room looking for June, and instead sees a bunch of half-naked models changing clothes.
- A Foggy Day in London Town: It's a particularly foggy night in London when June, who is trying to avoid getting arrested, rings Sir Gerald's bell.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Russell is hurting badly after he wakes up in June's apartment after yet another night of heavy drinking.
- Love Dodecahedron: There's Sir Gerald and Russell, both of whom fall for lovely June. There's also Berthine, the money-grubbing schemer who, it seems, may be falling for Russell for real. And then there's Nikolai, Berthine's boyfriend and partner in crime, who starts to get very jealous when he comes to believe that Berthine has feelings for Russell.
- Maybe Ever After: The film ends with June rejecting Sir Gerald, tearing up the £1,000 check he wrote her before returning to a life of street walking. But he hasn't given up, saying to Russell (in the last line of dialogue) "Wherever she goes my boy, I'll follow."
- Meet Cute: Deliberately arranged by June, who pretends to lose her key on an evening where a drunk Russell is toddling home, and asks him for help (Sir Gerald has gotten her an apartment in Russell's building).
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The last shot is June walking away into the London fog, apparently back to her life of street walking.
- Sexy Backless Outfit:
- The Fanservice Extra model demonstrating dresses for Sir Gerald at the store shows off a dress that is cut down almost all the way to her tailbone in the back.
- Berthine wears a sexy backless dress towards the end, when she's getting dolled up to seduce Russell again.
- Streetwalker: It's June's first night of walking the streets, when she runs to Sir Gerald's door while fleeing from the cops. At the end she appears to be walking the streets again.
- Toplessness from the Back: One of the Fanservice Extras in the changing room that Sir Gerald blunders into is naked above the waist, shot from behind.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Russell in June's apartment, after he wakes up from a night of drinking. She has to explain that in fact they did not have sex.
