David Burton directed Make Way for a Lady, a romantic serio-comedy, starring Herbert Marshall and Anne Shirley, based on Elizabeth Jordan’s 1935 novel, “Daddy and I.”
June Drew (Anne Shirley) plays the sensitive daughter of widowed Christopher Drew (Herbert Marshall), who suffers his new solitude in silence, refusing to complain or feel sorry for himself. Concerned about his “empty life and loneliness, she then tries to “match” him with eligible women.
Both actors are better known for other films: Herbert Marshall for The Little Foxes, opposite Bette Davis, and Anne Shirley for Stella Dallas, with Barbara Stanwyck as her mother, for which she received the Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Films of Related Interest
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring the young Ron Howard as the concerned son of the widowed Glenn Ford, trying to match him at all costs with the right woman.
Cast
Herbert Marshall as Christopher ‘Chris’ Drew
Anne Shirley as June Drew
Gertrude Michael as Miss Eleanor Emerson
Margot Grahame as Valerie Broughton
Taylor Holmes as George Terry
Clara Blandick as Mrs. Dell, Drew’s Maid
Frank Coghlan Jr. as Billy Hopkins
Maxine Jennings as Miss Marian Moore
Mary Jo Ellis as Mildred Jackson
Murray Kinnell as Doctor Barnes
Credits:
Directed by David Burton
Produced by Zion Myer
Screenplay by Gertrude Purcell, based on “Daddy and I” novel by Elizabeth Jordan
Music by Roy Webb
Cinematography: David Abel
Edited by George Crone
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date: November 13, 1936
Running time: 65 minutes
Note:
I am grateful to TCM for showing the film on December 10, 2019.