The Lady Chooses

Frances Parry (played on TV by Helen Hayes, on stage by Faye Emerson,) is a charming woman who lives in "the country" - 100 miles or so from New York City. Since her hard-working husband (played on TV by Dennis King, on stage by Hugh Reilly and Edward Andrews) only comes out from the city weekends, she has both the time and the emotional need to get deeper into civic affairs than she is really prepared to. This makes her fair game for the attractive but slightly shady ex-Governor who wants her to be his candidate for Congress. In a surprise ending this is what actually happens - but not before Mrs. Parry has lived through a sequence of exciting, funny, touching, devolpments. She holds an all-female press conference in which her husband subtly tries to expose her ignorance of economics but ends up exposing his own ignorance of female psychology; then, after a knock-down-drag-out quarrel she decides she will run for Congress - only to discover that her "following" has been largely faked - and that the ex-Governor's reall interest in her is romantic, not political!