She Couldn't Say No (1930)

Overrated

Brilliant and touching

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

... because it is lost like so many other Vitaphone films where the soundtrack on disc has often survived but the nitrate film has not. How the other reviewer could know about the "directing, editing, production design and camera work" when this film has likely been dust for years is beyond me. The broad outline of the film the other reviewer has correct - Winnie Lightner plays a torch singer in love with a gangster played by Chester Morris who ultimately dumps her for Sally Eiler's high society character. This can be found by reading a page in Richard Barrios' excellent book "Song in the Dark", which is all about the early film musicals made from 1926-1934. The film made money, had mixed reviews, and allowed Winnie Lightner her only chance at a really dramatic role. The rest of the films she made from this point forward were comedies, some musical, some not.The nitrate elements for this film are lost, and I'm not sure about the soundtrack, but it is likely it may be gone too. The reason I say this is that archive.org has the soundtracks for many Vitaphone films, but "She Couldn't Say No" is not among them.

I always find it distracting when a character in a movie or TV programme has the same name as the actor playing that character. 'She Couldn't Say No' stars an actress named Winnie as a woman named Winnie: an unnecessary contrivance. Perhaps Warner Brothers were trying to build up Winnie Lightner for the star treatment. A few months after making this movie, Lightner starred for Warners in 'Sit Tight', in which she again played a character cried Winnie.Wild Winnie Harper (Lightner) is a nightclub chantoozey who attracts the attention of Jerry Casey (Chester Morris). Now get this: Casey is a gangster, but he allegedly wants to go straight. He decides to groom Harper for stardom, envisioning a new 'legit' career for himself as her manager.So far, so cliché ... but at this point the movie takes an unexpected turn. The rules of bad scriptwriting require Casey and Harper to fall in love, but for Harper to be dismayed by Casey's criminal behaviour. SPOILERS COMING NOW. Sure enough, she falls for him. But, surprisingly, Casey has the ga-ga's for Iris, a hoity-toity society girl. (Sally Eilers is very weak in this role.) Also surprisingly, Casey genuinely *does* intend to go straight, rather than making empty promises.Winnie Lightner wallows in some of Alice Faye's leftover masochism as Winnie Harper nobly steps aside. Then Casey gets shot dead by one of his underworld cronies ... and it turns out that he actually loved Harper all along, but didn't think he was good enough for her. (Oh, but he's good enough for that rich society dame.) Along the way, we get dialogue like 'You're making mud pies of my heart.'This movie reminds me of several other movies, but in every case the other movie is preferable. The directing, editing, production design and camera work are all consistent with Warners' B-unit. Chester Morris was an under-rated actor who usually impresses me, but here he seems merely to be going through the motions. 'She Couldn't Say No' ... but I certainly can, and I'll rate this programmer 5 out of 10.