Ladies in Love 1936

Martha, Yoli Haydn, and Susie Schmidt move into a newly rented apartment in Budapest, each bringing their own dreams and disappointments. Martha, a practical necktie salesperson who also acts as a part-time bunny feeder for Dr. Rudi Imre, hopes for stability and a sense of belonging. Yoli Haydn is blunt about her guarded heart, masking a guarded, almost callous stance toward romance. Susie Schmidt, a dancer with a romantic soul, clings to a vision of independence but quietly longs for a love that won’t disappoint her. The trio begins a quirky little ritual they learned about, counting the corners of their room, sitting down, and making a wish. Each woman wishes for something different: Susie seeks independence from men, Yoli longs for a rich husband, and Martha yearns for a good home, a man, and perhaps children. The ritual is lighthearted but sets up the emotional currents that will braid their lives together.

Soon, two men come into their orbit. John Barta arrives as Yoli’s love interest, while Karl Lanyi arrives for Susie. Susie, with her heart on her sleeve, falls head over heels for Karl, while Yoli maintains a cool exterior, pretending not to care about the newcomer she has already encountered. Yet the pairings are uneasy and fragile by design: Susie confesses her love to Karl, only to find him slow to respond, and she retreats, leaving her hopes hanging in the air.

The plot thickens when Susie must perform a dance as part of a magic show. Martha envisions an opportunity to connect with the magician, Sandor, and hopes Susie can introduce them. She brings along a case of neckties to safeguard her stock and, perhaps, their potential sale. The magician’s act includes vanishing tricks that seem to play with the ties and her case, a playful yet perplexing sequence that culminates in him paying Martha for the ties but secretly reclaiming the money. When the show unfolds, the magician is in need of an assistant and has fired someone else, leading Martha to step in. Yet a misunderstanding looms: the magician misreads Martha’s interest and kisses her, prompting her to quit in a swift, decisive escape.

Meanwhile, Yoli’s admirer becomes entangled with another woman, a very young beauty named Marie Armand. The attraction between Marie and the man who once claimed to care for Yoli demonstrates that Yoli’s calculated detachment may be masking a vulnerable heart. He cannot accept Yoli’s professed love because her performance of coldness has long boxed in his feelings, and he finds himself drawn toward Marie instead.

As the story unfolds, Susie learns of the man she loves is pursuing another future, marrying someone else. In a moment of despair, she drinks heavily and contemplates ending her life with poison. The crisis deepens when Martha, accidentally taking a sip herself, becomes gravely ill. The women rush to the doctor Dr. Rudi Imre who had been служing as her employer and caretaker, and he and the medical team manage to save Martha from the poison’s grip. In a poignant turn, Martha survives and the doctor’s care evolves into a romance of its own, with the two finding mutual regard and love through the crisis.

In the aftermath, the women reassess their paths. Susie’s heartbreak gradually gives way to resilience as she moves forward, while Martha and Dr. Rudi Imre begin a relationship built on trust, companionship, and a shared sense of gratitude for having weathered the ordeal together. Yoli, having confronted her own defenses, starts to glimpse a future that might include genuine companionship rather than calculated schemes. The three women eventually leave their shared apartment, carrying the lessons of friendship, longing, and the unexpected ways love can arrive when plans fail and hope persists.

The film closes on a note of quiet uplift: the once-flourishing, chaotic vibrancy of their Budapest home gives way to new chapters, with each woman stepping into a future shaped by experience, choice, and an enduring bond that survived the trials of romance, ambition, and a night of danger and healing.