Du Barry Was a Lady

Nightclub singer May Daly, Lucille Ball, is at the center of a comic, dream-tinged flirtation with wealth and romance. She attracts a crowd of admirers at the club, including the steady, practical Louis Blore, Red Skelton, and the club’s own magnetic master of ceremonies Alec Howe, Gene Kelly. Among her fan club is the mysterious and glamorous Perfume Girl, Ava Gardner, a figure who glimmers in the background of May’s ambitions. May loves Alec, but she clings to a plan shaped by her poor upbringing: marry someone rich and secure a life of elegance she’s never known.

The tension between love and money comes to a head after a party mishap. A salad spill drapes Willie with shame, and May postpones her plans to attend a soirée. She ends up on the subway with Louis Blore, a chance pairing that forces her to confront the reality of settling for someone who offers security rather than romance. On the train, Louis and an elderly woman provoke May to reexamine her stance on marriage, money, and happiness, a shift that foreshadows the comic yet sharp satire of the night.

The next morning brings a startling twist: a telegram announces Louis has won a prize of $150,000 in the Irish Sweepstakes. He confesses his love, and Alec teases May about the possibility that she now has a reason to choose Willie over a fortune. May, however, bluntly reveals that her interest in Louis is tied to money, and Louis seems oddly content with this candid honesty—at least at first. The prospect of wealth unsettles May’s loyalties, and the dynamics among the trio become ripe for upheaval as Mae weighs affection against affluence.

A drugged drink sends Louis into a vivid, sprawling dream in which he becomes King Louis XV at Versailles. In this fantastical sequence, May is Madame Du Barry, Alec is the Robin Hood-like Black Arrow, Willie embodies the Duc de Rigor, and a waiter named Charlie plays the Dauphin. The dream drips with glamour and danger as Louis acclimates to the privileges of rulership and the seductive pull of power. Du Barry warns of the fragility of privilege, and the pursuit of a high-born life draws them into a tense cat-and-mouse with royal guards. The dream blurs morality with desire, and Louis experiences a striking collision of fantasy and consequence when he tumbles off a cliff after being spotted in a moment of vulnerability.

The dream shifts again to the underground world where the Black Arrow leads a populist charge against the greed of the crown. Du Barry’s alliance with the rebels complicates the power dynamic, and Louis witnesses a landscape where loyalty and ambition collide. The sequence crescendos with a clandestine confrontation, a chase, and a swift, fateful twist that ends with Louis witnessing both treachery and mercy in equal measure. The court’s brutal logic—justice meted with force—unfolds in a manner that unsettles Louis and, by extension, May’s understanding of wealth and romance.

When Louis wakes, he is met by Ginny, a club singer who has openly pursued him, and the real world’s practicality comes crashing back in. Louis tries to play peacemaker, urging May and Alec toward a wedding, a gesture meant to stabilize life after the night’s madness. But May has shifted; her perspective on money and marriage has evolved, and she chooses to marry Alec despite Louis’s lingering offer of wealth. Their decision is marked by a stark new reality: a tax collector arrives, demanding the remaining balance of Louis’s windfall—$80,000—adding a final, satirical sting to a tale about gold’s allure and the cost of dreams.

In the end, the narrative remains a delicate balancing act between glittering fantasy and grounded consequence. The dream’s lavish imagery lingers as a counterpoint to the subway’s humdrum, the party’s laughter, and the taxman’s call. May’s choice underscores a simple, stubborn truth: money can glitter, but it does not necessarily buy happiness, and love, when tested by wealth, may still prove to be the truest thrill of all. The film keeps its tone light and observant, using the surreal dream sequence to explore wishful thinking and the price of vanity, while the everyday world reminds us that genuine connection endures beyond fortune.

Last Updated: October 07, 2025 at 09:39