The Lady or the Tiger? (1942) User Reviews

Hated the story, loved the film. Too bad no one will ever see it again.

[Kelly G. · 6/10 · 7 June 2005]

I saw this film in an English class way back in Junior High. Even back then, my critical instincts told me I hated it because I thought the "you make up your own ending" stuff was a cop out.

To this day, I feel like if you write a story and if you can't make up your own ending, you shouldn't have started writing in the first place. But I understand in retrospect that this story is told to younger kids in order to develop their instincts in critical debate and analysis. Entire college classes are given over to spending weeks on end dissecting one story or novel; The lady or the tiger? is a good place to give younger students a starting off point into such things.

But the film, dear lord, the film! The story is told through narration, and is fashioned out of odd quasi-futuristic visuals that took this story from the era of knights and kings and stuff into the world of fascistic rulers. It kind of reminded me of what Julie Taymor did with her adaptation of Titus, or George Lucas' original student film version of THX 1138. The visuals and disquieting music all collide together to form a grim tone poem of sorts.

Considering the time this film was made, it's a pretty daring depiction of a simple story. But, then again, I just saw this story referenced on a Simpsons rerun (the one where Bart and his buddies sneak into Shelbyville), so maybe the story is more influential than I thought.

I don't know how or where this movie exists anymore. I'm sure it languishes deep in some educational film vault somewhere. In an era when just about anything warrants a DVD re release, I suppose it could see the light of day again on some kind of compilation. I wonder if I'll ever see it again.

A Short Film of a Classic Short Story Without a Conclusion

[theowinthrop · 7/10 · 14 July 2006]

Before he did such films as HIGH NOON and A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, Fred Zimmerman did this short film of only ten minutes length. It was a retelling, complete with narration by Carrie Wilson, of Frank Stockton's classic short story THE LADY OR THE TIGER?

Stockton is part of a lost generation of Gilded Age writers who once flooded the American literary scene with novels and short stories that are rarely recalled today. They were part of the so-called "Genteel" tradition of literature, trying to turn their fiction into perfect productions in terms of plotting and dialog. But the result frequently became too mechanical. The best of them, William Sidney Porter ("O Henry") survives as a major figure in the field of short story writing due to his surprise endings, sense of humor, and vivid use of different sections of the American society of 1900 from the dying embers of the old West to the "reconstructed" South, to the urban melting pot of New York. Stockton was (at the time of his death in 1902) another major literary figure. He wrote such popular novels as RUDDER GRANGE and THE CASTING AWAY OF MRS. LECKS and MRS. ALESHINE (which spoofed shipwreck tales). But most of his work is forgotten except for this one short story.

It is a very simple tale. In an ancient kingdom the punishment for serious crime is turned into a public spectacle in an arena. Before thousands of people, the felon is brought out and made to decide which of two doors to open up. One has a man-eating tiger behind it, which will attack and kill the felon if released. The other has a beautiful woman behind it, who the felon will marry.

The daughter of the king in the story is caught with her young lover by her father. The young lover is sent into the arena. He is watching the Princess, who knows which is the "safe door". She is also aware that her rival at court for the young lover is behind the "safe door". She signals the lover quietly which door to open. But we never see the result - the story is from an ancient writing and the end is lost. So we have to guess what happened. THe Princess is torn between him dying horribly or being forced to marry her rival. So at the end we have to ask ourselves what do we believe the Princess did - did she knowingly allow her lover to wed her hated rival, or did she knowingly let him die.

The narration is straightforward here, based on Stockton's prose story. Zimmerman's script made the narrator be a 19th Century gentleman at a party who relates the story, and shows the difficulties in guessing the Princess's behavior from the stresses of that situation.

Vince Barnet, who played many small time hoods, but had some good parts too (SCARFACE, THE KILLERS, SEVEN SINNERS) here plays the "barbaric" King, who determines that his daughter's boyfriend will be punished in the normal way of the choice of doors. Barnet usually had a mustache, but is clean shaven here (and looks younger as a result). Marie Windsor is his daughter, who is troubled at the no win situation that her lover's punishment leaves her with. The sets are rather spartan in their appearance, but the brevity of the film allows us not to notice the poor sets. Zimmerman's direction holds the pace of the fast film quite well.

I was lucky to find a small paperback book of eight stories by Stockton THE LADY OR THE TIGER AND OTHER STORIES, put out by Airmont, about 1968. Stockton later complained that THE LADY made him famous, but that he was constantly pestered by people writing to him and asking what was the result when the lover opened the door in the arena. Most people don't recall that he wrote what he called "A Continuation" of the short story, entitled, THE DISCOURAGER OF HESITANCY. It is close in spirit to the funnier, dark humor tales of Ambrose Bierce, for the plot is that the King in the story is receiving a party of visitors, who have heard of the events in the first story, and want to know what was the upshot of the choice in the arena. The King sets up a lesson for them that they won't forget, that if there are secret things that they run across maybe it's best they remain secret.

It was reasonably good as a short subject. For that, for being an early credit on Zimmerman's resume, and for Vince Barnet's jolly King, and for keeping part of Stockton's work still alive the film is a "7" out of "10".

The Lady AND the Tiger

[rparisious · 6/10 · 2 May 2008]

There is an alternative version of this done in the 1950's which I have been unable to locate a second time.Still,I think the ingenious solution is worth sharing with the readers.

It seems that,in the revised and greatly extended account, the King is Herod the Great,the Princess is his stepdaughter, Salome,and the other woman is Miriam,daughter of the High Priest.

Well,with Salome in the lead role there doesn't seem much doubt(despite her fleeting good intentions) that her boyfriend is headed for the tiger.But,as it develops t she and her lover prove a genuinely well matched pair.

He pulls both doors open simultaneously and beats it to safety while the tiger devours the innocent maiden.

However,Herod is so outraged at this lack of good sportsmanship that he decrees the cad be forthwith to taken Calvary and crucified alongside a second malefactor and Jesus of Nazarath.

Modern retelling of the story

[Zorro-3 · 7/10 · 28 June 2003]

It was set in modern-times. (They had cars.) But still with ancient Roman brutality. This gave it a sort of post-apocalyptic feel. The characters did not speak, only the narrator did. Short and simple, reasonably well done. Good for schoolkids.