El que juega con fuego

The title is highly misleading although it aptly describes the glamorous Miss Russell in the sort of nonsense Doris Day was making her own by the end of the next decade.

Playing an East Coast career girl wearing a succession of killer outfits with enormous shoulders and smoking endless cigarettes (it's no surprise that Rosalind eventually succumbed to cancer), we first see her secretary fielding calls from Walter Winchell, and like the fifties Doris is gratifyingly older than love interest Willard Parker (who's actually quite good as Hollywood's idea of a scholar of Elizabethan history who gets more full of himself as the film goes on).

Typically we never actually see the film that all the fuss is about, just as Brian Aherne as the cynical reporter is never seen at a typewriter, simply confining himself to constantly arriving unannounced looking pleased with himself.

seductive against the air of period. Rosalind Russell as axis of a nice comedy about success , a project and love in a mixture who respects classic rules of romantic comedy. that could be all. but it has a special dose of charm and that does it interesting in not ordinary manner. the strong woman, the charming , wise, sarcastic reporter and the innocent Prince Charming, the chaos and the silence, the feelings and the duty as ingredients of a story, like many others, about the metamorphose and real happiness. the mark of period, the brilliant Russell, the splendid performance of Brian Aherne are pillars of a film who , far to be memorable is an inspired choice for remind the flavor of a lost time.

Rosalind Russell stars in What A Woman in one of her career girl parts, that of a literary agent and one high powered agent she is. She's the daughter of a US Senator Edward Fielding.

That's enough to get free and easy free lance writer Brian Aherne interested enough to do a profile. Especially since Russell has a new project. She wants to get one of her authors reserved English professor Willard Parker to shed his pseudonym from the steamy romance novel he's written and become an actor.

She operates under the thesis if you can write it, you an emote it. As it turns out beneath the shy exterior of the professor lies a budding Errol Flynn.

Russell's high powered agent complements beautifully the slow paced and unhurried pace of Brian Aherne. Her big problem is she might just have fallen for her own creation in Parker.

The ever wise Aherne realizes that Roz will inevitably grasp they are meant for each other.

It's all a bit silly, but the leads do carry it off. After over 70 years What A Woman still holds up beautifully.

W.A.W. opens up in a magazine publishing office, where they are discussing how to interview the latest best-selling author, who no-one has ever met. Flash to Carol Ainsley (R. Russell, nominated for four Oscars), who is the agent for the un-seen author. She is determined to track down the author (played by Willard Parker), and doesn't realize the can of worms that revealing him may open... Brian Aherne is "Pepper", a magazine editor who is writing a story on Ainsley, and keeps popping up where-ever Ainsley goes. For most of the film, he is sitting in chairs, waiting for Ainsley to go through the doorway, or come back from where-ever she has been.

Keep an eye out for some fun supporting characters - Carol's assistant is played by Grady Sutton is a few years after making those hilarious W.C. Fields films. The office secretary is played by Norma Varden, who was so great as Lady Beekman in "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds". The mens dormitory clerk is Chester Clute, who looks and sounds just like Mel Blanc. Unfortunately, all these actors have very few lines; given a few more lines, they could have spiced the film up a bit. Russell does a great job, and carries the film well. It's a lot of fun to watch, although it's more plain and simple than I was expecting; after seeing her in "Friday", I was hoping for more plot twists. She has the same, strong, fast-talking personality that she had in "His Girl Friday". It was refreshing to watch an upbeat, war-time movie without a single mention of the war. Directed by Irving Cummings, who had directed Shirley Temple in four films in the 1930s. I hope Turner Classics starts showing this more often.

Irving Cummings, a contract director best known for his long tenure at Twentieth Century Fox where he directed Shirley Temple and many musicals, did this fast-paced, well-staged romantic comedy for Harry Cohn at Columbia. It's quite an achievement. Not only do the actors move as they deliver the dialogue, but the camera directed by Capra's favorite DP, Joe Walker, moves as well. The performances from the smallest to largest are perfect. One wonders, for example, why Williard Parker who plays the innocent professor never went on to stardom. He's both handsome and believable as is Ahern. This film is an ideal example of the Hollywood studio system at its best. Rosalind Russell in a star turn is surrounded by a superb supporting cast, and looks wonderful, lit by Walker. Was this picture ahead of its time? Did it lose money?