There's always a woman
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | There's always a woman |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1938 |
| length | 81 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alexander Hall |
| script |
Gladys Lehman , Morrie Ryskind , Philip Rapp , Joel Sayre |
| production | William Perlberg |
| music | George Parrish |
| camera | Henry Freulich |
| cut | Viola Lawrence |
| occupation | |
| |
There's Always a Woman is an American crime comedy with Joan Blondell and Melvyn Douglas from 1938, based on a story by Wilson Collison .
action
After William Reardon had to close his detective office in New York due to a lack of orders , he went back to working for the local prosecutor. But his office does not stay closed for long, because his bright wife Sally has made it into her head to run the highly indebted agency on her own. Her success does not seem to be long in coming when Lola Fraser, a wealthy lady of high society, hires Sally to shadow her husband Walter. Lola is convinced that her husband is having an affair with a friend named Anne Calhoun. Sally then gets William to accompany her to the expensive Skyline Club to watch Lola, Walter and Anne. She is rather clumsy and unintentionally attracts more attention than she would actually like. William is also puzzled about his wife's behavior, as he has no idea of her undercover investigation. Despite her starting problems as a detective, she notices how Walter hands his alleged lover Anne a slip of paper, which she then passes on to the nightclub owner Nick Shane. Sally also sees the jealousy in the eyes of Jerry Marlowe, Anne's fiancé, who threatens to kill Walter at the end of the evening.
The next day, the newspaper headlines announced that Walter was actually murdered the previous night. When Sally tells the police that Jerry is a possible murderer, his lawyer, Ketterling, instructs Sally, of all people, to prove Jerry's innocence. Since William is now investigating himself on behalf of the prosecutor, Sally takes the opportunity to eavesdrop on him while other suspects are being questioned. However, their information does not help them. Then she surprisingly finds Nick Shane dead and hears the scent of Lola's perfume. The evidence suggests Sally and William that Lola was behind the murders. Together they manage to wrest a confession from Lola. It turns out that Walter wanted to file for divorce and when Lola found out about it through her lawyer, she quickly realized that she would be far richer as a widow than a divorced woman. Because of this, she hired Shane to kill her husband. But when Shane tried to blackmail her, she didn't hesitate to pick up a gun and shoot him. After the case is solved, Sally and William decide to continue the detective agency together.
background
With There's Always a Woman , Columbia Pictures tried to start a crime film series similar to the popular The Skinny Man films with William Powell and Myrna Loy . Another film called There's That Woman Again about the couple Sally and William Reardon was shot, but only Melvyn Douglas as William Reardon was there again. Joan Blondell's role as Sally was cast by Virginia Bruce . Since the sequel was not as well received by the audience as the first part, the series was ultimately discontinued.
The young Rita Hayworth makes a brief appearance as Secretary Mary of about nine seconds. Originally, her role as Joan Blondell's confidante and her spy in the prosecutor's office was much larger. However, when the writers Joel Sayre, Phil Rapp and Morrie Ryskind were brought in to add more comic elements to Gladys Lehman's script , the plot changed dramatically. Since the film was planned as the first part of a series, apart from the Reardon couple, no other characters should be introduced as significant figures. Since Hayworth's role was important enough that the audience would have noticed if she stopped appearing in other parts, her scenes were almost completely deleted.
Reviews
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times described the film as "an engaging comedy". Joan Blondell is "definitely one of the most delicious comedians on screen". Since The Terrible Truth , Columbia has "not produced anything that good".
For Variety , There's Always a Woman was "a fast-paced comedy about the battle of the sexes against a crime scene." There is "a lot of comedy in the style of the thin man " and the laughs come "non-stop". Many of them are "cleverly embedded in the plot as surprising twists". The Motion Picture Herald said the interest in There's Always a Woman should be "big and enthusiastic." It is about "an amusing film in which silliness, mysteries, melodrama, suspense and moments of surprise were skilfully combined".
Web links
- There's Always a Woman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- There's Always a Woman at Turner Classic Movies (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth . Citadel Press, Secaucus 1974, p. 92.
- ↑ “ There's Always a Woman is ingratiating comedy, and Miss Blondell is certainly one of the screen's delightfullest comediennes. Not since The Awful Truth has Columbia done anything so good. " Bosley Crowther : 'There's Always a Woman': Murder and Mirth at the Music Hall . In: The New York Times , April 29, 1938.
- ↑ “This one is a briskly-paced, battle-of-the-sexes comedy against a background of a murder mystery. […] Plenty of slapstick in the Thin Man tradition. Laughs come pretty steadily. Many of these are cleverly planted as surprise twists. " See There's Always a Woman . In: Variety , 1938.
- ↑ “The market for There's Always a Woman should be wide and enthusiastic. It is an amusing show in which tomfoolery, mystery, melodrama, suspense and surprise have been welded in expert fashion. " Motion Picture Herald quot. after Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth . Citadel Press, Secaucus 1974, p. 92.