Goodbye Again

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.

Delightfully absurd comedy in which Joan Blondell is the long suffering secretary to a bestselling author (Warren William) who is being pursued by his ex girlfriend (Genevieve Tobin) who is convinced she is the model for the heroines of his books. To add to the confusion, her sister and brother-in-law turn up, determined to avert a scandal, and her hapless husband also gets dragged into the perplexing situation. It is all very funny with Warren William particularly amusing as the egotistical but charming author. A treat for anyone who enjoys screwball comedy.

It's GOODBYE AGAIN as a loyal secretary tries to help her weak-willed, philandering boss out of the romantic complications caused by an old girlfriend, now married.

This was the sort of ephemeral comic frippery which the studios produced almost effortlessly during the 1930's. Well made & highly enjoyable, Depression audiences couldn't seem to get enough of these popular, funny photo dramas.

Joan Blondell & Warren William are perfectly matched as a memorable comedy team. She was the great Hard Times sassy, brassy blonde who always got her man, no matter what travail or comic bumps she encountered along the way. Nearly forgotten now, William is best remembered for the hard-boiled, cynical tycoons & shysters he played to perfection. It is great fun to see him essay light comedy.

Wacky, whimsical Hugh Herbert appears as a blithely unconcerned cuckold. Whether stalking his faithless spouse through trains & hotels or gleefully pushing for a divorce, he is equally hilarious. Behind him comes a rank of character actors - Genevieve Tobin, Wallace Ford, Helen Chandler, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ruth Donnelly - all equally adept at catching the comedy in the story line.

Much of the dialogue & plot is vintage pre-Production Code material.

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.

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.