The First Traveling Saleslady

The title role of "The First Traveling Saleslady" is played by Ginger Rogers. She portrays Miss Rose Gillray, a woman who sells corsets like she is a missionary selling salvation. But circumstances require that she make a change of vocation and she becomes a traveling saleslady peddling barbed wire to Texas ranchers. Talk about a challenge! She is assisted by Molly Wade, played by Carol Channing. I don't think audiences would have been familiar with Miss Channing when exposed to her in this role. She plays the part with energy and displays her unique vocal talents fully.

I am a fan of Miss Rogers, but I was disappointed by her performance in this silly comedy. When she first spoke, I questioned if the character was supposed to be drunk. I think she was deliberately changing her voice to create her character, but I am not sure. The portrayal is uneven--like the entire film. There were moments I enjoyed and others that had me scratching my head in perplexity.

Clint Eastwood (as Lt. Jack Rice) appears in one of his first credited roles as a fresh-faced Rough Rider who instantly falls for Molly. Barry Nelson plays an entrepreneur (Charlie Masters) who might be an intermittent love interest for Rose as he literally comes into and out of the film repeatedly.

The film contains some interesting content regarding a "Purity League" that safeguards the morals of society and some mentions of Women's Rights, particularly Women's Suffrage.

There are some cute references to how the country has changed, like the mention that traveling over the road at 12 MPH is thrilling.

James Arness portrays Joel Kingdom, owner of most of Texas it seems. When he is on screen, he has a strong presence and he energizes those scenes.

As a whole, this film drags at times and often seems a parody of the type of film it is. It feels like the direction is most to blame.

This was Ginger Rogers last movie for the studio in which she was a star, RKO Radio. In fact, most of the interest in watching this weak attempt at comedy is the cast that was put together for the film. Director Arthur Lubin seems to have been directed by remote control and the screen play Devery Freeman and Stephen Longstreet supplied was not interesting. It's a mystery how this film was made, at all.

Unfortunately, the film doesn't offer much to Ginger Rogers in the way of an colorful role to play. She was a much better actress that deserved better than this Rose Gillray, the corset maker turned barb wire saleslady. Barry Nelson is the man who believes in the future of the automobile and whose path to California keeps meeting Rose in the most unlikely places. Ms. Rogers and Mr. Nelson don't show much chemistry between them, and probably this is where the film fails, something than with another director, could have been solved, but which Mr. Lubin ignored.

The film offers performances by Carol Channing, a Broadway star that never made it big in the movies. She plays Molly, Rose Gillray's assistant. In fact, she has the best lines in the film. A young Clint Eastwood is seen as Lt. Jack Rice, a member of the Rough Riders that Rose and Molly meet at the hotel. James Arness, another television idol, plays the rich landowner Joel Kingdom. Lastly, David Brian, an actor that tended to be seen in heavy roles, makes a good appearance as James Carter, the barb wire manufacturer.

This is a film to be watched as a curiosity.

A dull little situation comedy made at the end of RKO's reign, and it looks desperate -- the patently false production values, the cheesy Americana, the mid-century niceness that dates so many '40s and '50s movies. However, and I can say this with authority: It's the only movie you will ever see where Clint Eastwood ends up paired with CAROL CHANNING. The Fifties were strange times, children.

In this day and age of R rated movies with blood and sex and violence, isn't it nice to have a little foolishness and fun in beautiful color. Enjoyed the costuming. Loved seeing Clint Eastwood in his youth. Loved seeing Carol Channing as well. James Arness before Gunsmoke was fun. It was just a fun movie for a rainy Sunday afternoon.The movies with Doris Day, Ginger Rogers, and others at the time brought relaxation and escape. Reality movies like we see today are too real. Our lives are real enough.To go back to a time that was relaxing, funny, and not real is a good break. Nothing wrong with reality movies, but movies like this are a chance to take a breath, smile and enjoy with the whole family.

This film is an interesting time capsule. It was made in the late 1950s, and it shows some stars who are on their way up, and one who is on her way out. An unfair thing to say to Ginger Rogers, but this is not one of the films (like KITTY FOYLE, her movies with Fred Astaire, THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, or ROXY HART) that people remember her for. Ginger would still be making films until 1965, her last one an Italian comedy with Ray Milland, but they were all lesser efforts - although she did deliver good performances.

But three (no, make it four) of the stars actually were on their way up - or seemed to be. They are Clint Eastwood, Carol Channing, James Arness, and Barry Nelson. It was the sixth or seventh movie Eastwood had appeared in, and (I believe) the first one where he 1) had substantial dialog to give his film persona a real character, and 2) he was one of the male leads and was paired with the second female lead whom he romances, kisses, and marries. This is Ms Channing, playing "Molly", Rogers closest friend and partner in the saleslady business. Channing's character actually has better lines (at times) than Rogers did - funnier ones too. She is no budding feminist, but a rationalist (when she and Rogers are threatened for selling barbed wire in cattleman country, she suggests - reasonably - that they leave). It might strike a modern film lover as incongruous that Eastwood and Channing go off together at the end of this film, but in reality it's not so odd. Channing was always a greater Broadway star than Hollywood star (her best screen role would be in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, where she was Mary Tyler Moore's eccentric aunt who trounces Bea Lillie). She did not make more than a dozen or so films in her career. She is not more than five or six years older than Eastwood, and their pairing together is not so unlikely as it seems (the pairing of Nelson and Rogers is more unlikely). She too landed this role because her career (like Eastwood's) was on the rise - she just having won Broadway laurels in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES as "Loralie Lee". Ironically, that performance was not captured by her on film, but Marilyn Monroe performed it. Also ironic is her pairing as Rogers' friend, as one of Channing's later hit performances was as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the original HELLO DOLLY, and she was replaced in it by Rogers.

James Arness had been in films since the late 1940s, appearing in several John Ford films like WAGON MASTER, John Wayne films like ISLAND IN THE SKY as well as THEM and some other science fiction movies. But in 1956, the U.S. public was getting used to Arness in the television western hit GUNSMOKE (as Marshall Matt Dillon). That role of a lifetime (literally) made his name and career - he was on the way to super stardom. So his performance as Joel Kingdom, ostensibly the villain of the film, is balanced by his sense of humor and his interest in possibly marrying Rogers.

The fourth figure was Barry Nelson. Nelson is an interesting person. He was a capable performer, and he did have one real good comic lead part in MARY, MARY. But while respected in the industry, Nelson never made it with the public. He was good looking but not striking (Arness has a more rugged handsome appearance, which stood him well in GUNSMOKE and other western roles).

Upon some reconsideration one can add a fifth figure - David Brian. A good looking man, who always looked like he had just left a hefty Board Room conference with fellow company directors, he gave some excellent performances in his career as good guy (he ends up with Joan Crawford in FLAMINGO ROAD) or bad guy. But like Nelson, while he was always employable he never caught on with the public. Here, he too is interested in Rogers. He reluctantly agrees to her selling the barbed wire in Texas, but he does so because when she fails he plans to marry her. All this does in the end is lead to him and Arness having a fistfight, but both discovering that Nelson has outmaneuvered them with another sigh of progress - Nelson's horseless carriage.

It is a sweet little film, but no more than that. My favorite moment comes in the hotel sequences. Rogers and Channing trick Arness into giving up his use of the PRINCE OF WALES suite in a cattle town hotel. They are looking forward, after dinner, to sleeping in this fancy room. They find a bald, bearded fat man snoring in the bed. It turns out it is Prince Albert Edward (the future King Edward VII) who has come to town after all, and has a running right to the use of the room.