The Law and the Lady

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• 1951
• 1 hr 44 mins
• Comedy, Drama, Suspense

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It's the turn of the nineteenth into twentieth centuries. Londoners Jane Hoskins and the Honourable Nigel Duxbury are literal and platonic partners in crime. Their initial tie was Nigel's identical twin brother and sister-in-law, Baron Henry and Baroness Sybil Minden. Nigel had the misfortune of being born five minutes later than Henry, who thus inherited the family fortune leaving Nigel largely to fend for himself. Jane was haughty Lady Minden's personal maid, the two who had a falling out leading to Jane leaving their employ with a few extra quid in her pocket. Rather than follow her thought to marry for money, love only a secondary consideration, she able to act the lady in having viewed such all her life, Jane is convinced by Nigel to join him in cons and swindles against the wealthy to live, she in the process at least pretending to live the high life as Lady Jane Loverly. They end up moving from gambling mecca to mecca swindling gamblers until they are asked to leave the city quietly by the authorities when their cons are discovered. Heading east, they reach the end of the line in reaching the US, specifically San Francisco. Rather than these cons which net them enough money solely to fund future cons, Nigel is able to convince Jane that a more lucrative venture is to become jewel thieves. Their mark is wealthy society matron Julia Wortin, whose humble origins more than come to the forefront in her personality. The plan is for Nigel to get a job in Mrs. Wortin's mansion (he naming himself Hoskins), and discriminating "Lady Loverly" to befriend Mrs. Wortin, and only Mrs. Wortin of all the society requests made of her in San Francisco. At a weekend long gathering hosted by Mrs. Wortin in honor of Lady Loverly when Jane and Nigel plan to steal Mrs. Wortin's necklace which they can sell off jewel by jewel as needed, their plan is threatened as Lady Loverly is wooed by two men, one being Tracy Collans who believes money should be able to buy him anything, and the other Mrs. Wortin's neighbor, the suave Juan Dinas, a descendant of Spanish royalty. Jane is thinking about accepting Juan's proposal of marriage, it her original plan not only to have money but arguably to have love as well, which doesn't sit well with Nigel not because of the probable end of their working partnership, but that he has long been in love with Jane himself.