Goodbye Again

Warren William is a successful romance novelist with Joan Blondell his ever-loving secretary. Up pops Genevieve Tobin, who promised to wait for him and didn't, asking for his forgiveness. He has no clear memory of her, so he does, and now he has to explain to his Miss Blondell, Miss Tobin's husband Hugh Herbert, and then dodge Miss Tobin, who is intent on making up for his broken heart, all without giving offense to anyone.

It's an amusing pre-code comedy, and probably closer to William in reality than the satyr-like heels he was usually called on to play in this era. He was married to one woman for 25 years until his death. They avoided the Hollywood scene, and he was an amateur inventor when not playing Perry Mason or the Lone Wolf. Miss Blondell, as she so often was, is acerbically funny in her role. Keep an eye out for Jay Ward, long before he thought of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

A popular author and his gritty secretary have trouble when a still smoldering old flame and her addled husband show up unannounced.

I'm in a minority, but I found this Pre-Code farce both strained and talky. In fact the gab rarely lets up, which would be okay if the lines were snappier. But too much of the dialog is stagy and pedestrian. Then too, the estimable Warren William almost shouts his lines as though this makes them and him funny. It doesn't. The towering William is much better when presiding ruthlessly over empires. Unfortunately, the film can't seem to decide whether to madcap or not. Too bad also, that the humorously addled Hugh Herbert is largely wasted in an oddly recessive role.

And though this is minor, I had trouble telling the three blonde ladies apart since the resemblances are rather striking. Blondell is, of course, Blondell, perfectly cast as the take-charge secretary. She's a sassy treasure from that era, regardless of the material. Then too, Pre-Code means the screenplay can play fast and loose with mores of the time, which it does, adultery and wedlock paternity getting tossed off like gum wrappers. In fact, such is the main reason I tuned in.

Anyhow, a more apt leading man and a snappier script might have made the 65-minutes less forgettable. Unfortunately, farcical material was done much better in the same time frame, e.g. One Hour With You (1932), Trouble In Paradise (1932).

Made a year before the film "Twentieth Century" that is supposed to have started the screwball comedy, "Goodbye Again" has almost all the ingredients that would feature in the screwball classics to come. On top of this is more bawdiness than any screwball until "Kiss Me Stupid" 31 years later. Warren Williams is a famous author on a book tour with his secretary/lover Joan Blondell. In Cleveland he is pursued by his old college flame Genevieve Tobin who believes she's the inspiration for one of his books, and both are pursued by her husband, her sister and her sister's stuffed-shirt husband (Wallace Ford in a great performance wearing "Harold Lloyd" glasses exactly like Cary Grant's in "Bringing Up Baby"). The author sleeps twice with the wife, once being forced to at the unknowing insistence of the family ("Did you sleep well Mr. Bixby?" "Yes...on and off.") All ends in exactly the sort of high-speed farce that Hawks, McCarey and Wilder would make famous in the next few decades.

The awesome Joan Blondell is assistant to popular writer Kenneth Bixby (Warren William). Bixby and Julie (Genevieve Tobin ) had dated way back when... which could be a problem, as Julie is now married to Harvey (vaudeville guy Hugh Herbert). William would probably best be known from the "Lone Wolf" films and the detective Philo Vance films. and the incredible Joan Blondell would go on to do How to Marry a Millionaire and Desk Set. The story is so-so. the picture and sound quality are quite good, for such an oldie. The plot is pretty lighweight and flimsy, but ah well. Herbert is quite understated in this one; in some of his films, he plays the mumbling, absent-minded cluck, and goes over the top. Not so much in this one. It's more of a love-triangle farce. must have been made JUST before the enforcement of the film production code... story of a married woman running after a single man wouldn't be considered proper pretty soon. and a son in addition! Blondell had started right about when the talkies were invented, but she's stuck in a light little caper here. Another Michael Curtiz production, but nothing on the level of Casablanca, which he would make ten years later.

About halfway through I realised I'd seen this before - only about a year ago but I'd instantly forgotten it. Kind of sums this nondescript nonsense.

Although we've got Michael Curtiz in the chair and Joan Blondell in full cuteness mode, what we haven't got is fun or drama or indeed entertainment.

Two problems: the studio and the cast.

Obviously WB made all sorts of movie genres back in the early 30s but those which stand the test of time are those in tune with the people struggling to get by as a result of the depression. This movie isn't about those people, it's about people we don't really care about. This type of movie needs more gloss so might have been better had it been made by Paramount etc. Who were used to that more superficial style.

Second problem - William Warren and Joan Blondell were the unlikely couple who just clicked a few months earlier in the fantastic Gold Diggers of 1933 - they're here again playing not too dissimilar roles but in this one they just don't click, there's zero chemistry between them. When we watch these types of romantic comedies (although this one isn't funny) we're hoping that the boy and the girl get together and live happily ever after. That doesn't happen in this, it just makes us annoyed that lovely Joan throwing herself someone whom we have no empathy for and clearly doesn't deserve her. There are quite a few underlying themes in this which, if better written, could have been explored more, maybe turning it into a more dramatic film rather than a weak comedy but as it is, it's a waste of everyone's talent.