LADY FOR A DAY

Apple Annie (May Robson) is a homeless woman who earns her living selling apples in Times Square and uses her savings to send her daughter Louise to a Spanish boarding school. In her correspondence with her daughter, Annie has created an image of belonging to the upper echelons of New York society. One day Louise writes to her that she is coming to visit her soon with her future husband and family in tow. Annie is desperate for her daughter to find out the truth about her… ‘Lady for a Day’ represents Frank Capra’s point of attaining full maturity in his filmmaking, with the skilful blend of realism and fairy-tale tone that would characterize many of his films from then on. In 1974, Willis described ‘Lady for a Day’ as the director’s perfect film: when it was released, it was a huge success and won four Oscar nominations. In 1961, Capra himself made a remake entitled ‘Pocketful of Miracles’.