Femmes d'affaires

Joan Blondell wants a job in the toothpaste firm owned by her father, Grant Mitchell. Hugh Herbert has developed a line of flavors for toothpaste and he wants to sell them to Mitchell. Mitchell is a fuddy-duddy and turns them both down without listening. So Miss Blondell goes to Mitchell's competitor, Al Shean, who is delighted with the idea, agreeing a a penny per tube, a place in the lab for Herbert, and a saleslady job for her. Soon she is tangling with Mitchell's top salesman, William Gargan, and the lady doesn't play fair, especially with her husband, George Barnes, in charge of the camera.

Director Ray Enright keeps the pace up, and added Glenda Farrell as a drugstore-chain owner who dates Gargan, so the words fly as as fast as the situations. Keep an eye out for Ruth Donnelly, Johnny Arthur, Bert Roach..... well, the usual cast of fine character comedians that Warners could draw on in this period.

The character played by Joan Blondell wants to make it in a man's world and boy, does she! Her pompous father tells her women don't belong in business when she asks for a job -- any job. So she goes to work for his rival. And work she does! Her father is a stuffy toothpaste manufacturer. She hooks up with dizzy inventor Hugh Herbert and comes up with a plan to revolutionize the world of toothpaste. And she leases her and Herbert's services to her father's rival for a year. And then she goes to work in the title capacity.

William Gargan is likable as the salesman who is both her romantic interest and her rival. (He works for her father's company. Needless to say, she is not using her real name; so to him, she is The Enemy.) It is far from a masterpiece. But Blondell is always a delight and it's a brassy, entertaining story.

... among the usual constrained unfunny comedies of the early production code era. Angela Twitchell (Joan Blondell) is the only child and go-getter daughter of toothpaste tycoon Rufus Twitchell (Grant Mitchell). The problem is, Mr. Twitchell won't let Angela go get anything. He has prehistoric ideas about women being too emotionally unstable and just not smart enough to be involved in business of any kind.

Angela meets up with an ex-bootlegger who has discovered how to get the flavor of his various bootleg formulas into toothpaste, but has been futile at his efforts to get Mr. Twitchell to talk to him - Elmer, played by Hugh Herbert. So Angela decides to get back at dad and take Elmer to dad's competitor. She tells the competitor that she will "rent" Elmer's formulas and labor to him for one year, providing she is allowed to be on the sales staff and get a percentage of her sales as income. The competitor agrees.

So Angela is out on the road, in competition with Pat O'Connor (William Gargan), representing Twitchell, who seemed like a big sleaze bag to me at first. For example, Angela gets no consideration from the first sales call she makes, which is on Glenda Farrell playing Claudette the buyer for a drugstore concern. O'Connor is leading Claudette on and thus Claudette only deals in Twitchell products. O'Connor is there when Angela strikes out, and is condescending and arrogant to her, amused by the idea of a saleslady. But he is not amused long. The rest of the picture is basically a battle of wits between Angela as a figurative Bugs Bunny and O'Connor as a figurative Daffy Duck. And we all know how cartoons go that have those two in them. A rare feminist situation in 1935 American films, compounded by the fact that O'Connor does not know Angela's true identity.

Hugh Herbert is portioned out in small doses, and that makes him work in this film as too much of his typical confused and inane act can get old fast. The double entendres don't come fast and furious as they would have in the precode era, but a few do get through if you listen carefully enough. Even our two feminist characters in this film show a bit of prejudice. Before their first meeting - Angela as saleslady and Claudette as the head of buying for her drugstore - both women assume the other is a man and are putting on their face assuming that will help them with the man they are assuming they will be dealing with.

And who can't help like a film that shows the sales route of the two rival toothpaste salespersons as lines of toothpaste meandering across a map of the U.S? Highly recommended.

It's so nice to see Joan Blondell in something a little different from the usual regurgitated trash she was forced to do around this time. This is a great piece of harmless nonsense with a lovely upbeat feel. For a change Joan is playing a successful business woman - not that common in 1935! Although it's a comedy role, she makes her character seem real and almost believable whilst also being totally adorable.

The cameraman on this film was by George Barnes, her soon to be ex-husband which apparently led to quite an uncomfortable set. He would no longer photograph his wife in any immodest scenes. Her sexy curves were now for his eyes only, not to be shared with the likes of us anymore. Long gone are days when we had long, lingering shots of her taking off her stockings. Nevertheless she dazzles in this.

She dazzles with as much sexy fun, happiness and enthusiasm for life that any character can have whilst also coming across as an actual person. Her style of delivery still works just as well today and she's guaranteed to raise a few smiles. Even when she's not being funny, she'll also make you smile just by her lovely, cuddly niceness....even if only shown from the neck up!

It's much better than most of the Blondell-Farrell comedies from the mid thirties. Great fun!

Joan Blondell stars as the daughter of a tooth paste baron (Grant Mitchell) who doesn't believe in women in the workplace or in embracing modern advertising. Blondell is bored and wants a job but daddy says NO! So she goes to a competitor with a new idea from a nutty professor (Hugh Herbert) with the proviso that she gets to be the traveling saleslady.

Blondell immediately runs into competition from daddy's crack salesman (William Gargan) and the two spend the rest of the film sparring and falling in love. Glenda Farrell also stars as the head of a drug store chain, also in love with Gargan.

Lots of fun, fast pacing, and many snappy lines make this a top B comedy of the 30s.Very modern in its view of women, big business, etc.

Ruth Donnelly is the mother, Al Shean is the competitor, Bert Roach (very funny) as the male wallflower, Mary Treen is a secretary, and Johnny Arthur is also a secretary.

Good roles for Blondell, Farrell, and Gargan---and all three underused by Warners.