Men Are Such Fools

Men Are Such Fools is one of a handful of B pictures that Busby Berkeley directed between his musical extravaganzas. I guess Jack Warner was operating on the theory that if Berkeley was on salary, he'd earn his money one way or another.

It's a B picture comedy vaguely reminiscent of the Rock Hudson-Doris Day films a generation later. The leads are Wayne Morris and Priscilla Lane. He's a former star football player, she's a working girl in the advertising game. Priscilla was cute and homespun and was great in stuff like Four Daughters. Here she's all right, nothing more, ditto Morris.

THIRD billed in this film is Humphrey Bogart and ironically until he started getting gangster parts, these were the kind of roles he played on Broadway, sophisticated comedies. Bogey shouldn't have tried going back to his roots. His is the kind of role a generation later would have been played by Gig Young or Tony Randall.

Nothing spectacular here, it didn't harm the careers of Bogart or Berkeley, but it didn't help either.

Men Are Such Fools (1938)

** (out of 4)

Predictable and rather boring melodrama about a hard working secretary (Priscilla Lane) who works her way to the top of her office when she meets and eventually marries an ex-football star (Wayne Morris). Soon afterwards she eventually gives up her career and then problems start to rise as his career takes off. This here is yet another Warner "B" film that has a pretty good cast but in the end it gets ruined due to a rather lackluster screenplay. I really didn't think too highly of anything here, screenplay wise, because I found the comedy to be over the top and silly and then the melodrama was just too predictable. I think the early "dumbness" of the characters really hurt the later drama because it's hard to take either character too serious considering some of the dumb situations they get into early on. When the second half of the film takes place the characters just go through various motions that really make no sense except to lead up to the predictable ending. Lane is charming enough in her role and I think she comes off the best as her wonderful energy is always going strong and this really keeps the film moving. Morris doesn't give the greatest performance but he too is good enough in the role. Humphrey Bogart gets third-billing and plays the boss who falls for Lane. Once again we see Bogie in a rather thankless role that even he can't do too much with. The movie runs a brief 68-minutes but it feels much longer because the screenplay drags in so many places and one can't help but feel they've seen this type of story one time too many.

Linda Lawrence (Priscilla Lane) is a secretary in an advertising agency. She doesn't have time for lovelorn salesman Jimmy Hall (Wayne Morris). She is more interested in climbing the corporate ladder. Her boss Harvey Bates (Hugh Herbert) takes an interest and asks her to have dinner with him. Jimmy barges in on their 'date' and she falls for him. They meet Harry Galleon (Humphrey Bogart) at a pool party.

Busby Berkeley is directing but there are no big dance numbers. I didn't know that he made such non-dance movies. I am surprised by the modernity of the main theme. Linda is a modern girl trying to balance between romantic life and work life. I was hoping for more Bogie. He's the subordinate third wheel villain to the lightweight Jimmy. In addition, I'm annoyed by Harvey's voice work. It's not funny and he's trying too hard. This modern-ish rom-com is borderline ok.

If you want to see a truly bizarre '30s flick, catch this one. Wayne Morris and Priscilla Lane star as a couple who work in the city and then move to the suburbs. He keeps working, she stays home. She has a maid. She picks him up from the 5:15 train each day. She hates it and leaves him and goes back to work in New York. Then she informs her husband and the world she's leaving for Paris with a friend. Morris chases after her. The friend, by the way, is Bogar before he became a star. This film was a programmer, slotted in as a second or even third feature on a single bill. Morris is a horrible actor and thoroughly unconvincing as a businessman. Lane channels Ginger Rogers throughout, which is unsettling. Bogart merely treads water. And the film is poorly written. While it was billed as a comedy, it is more of a drama -- with cartoon music constantly playing in the background. Filmed almost entirely on the lot, it gets a little jarring during a brief car chase, the footage of which doesn't match the rest of the photography. If you watch it, take it for the curio that it is. Better yet, watch a BLONDIE flick instead. Better plots, better acting, more believable. Blondie was played by an actress named Penny Singleton, who just so happens o appear in this flick.

Disturbing romantic drama about a woman climbing the corporate ladder while being involved with a clod. The woman is played by Priscilla Lane, an actress I like but certainly not in this role. On the surface a career woman in a 1938 movie actually sounds good. Unfortunately whatever good you can find from a historical perspective is undone by Lane's unhealthy relationship with a gross pig called Jimmy, played by Wayne Morris.

Wayne Morris was an actor with an amiable screen presence but here he's playing a pushy, obnoxious, chauvinist stalker with a severe bad temper and violent tendencies. He parks the car he & Priscilla are in on railroad tracks with a train bearing down so she will say yes to his marriage proposal. This guy actually endangers her life just to get her to say yes! Someone thought that was romantic?!? Some usually solid supporting stars don't help much. Penny Singleton is likable but sadly wasted in a small part. Hugh Herbert is an annoying cartoon of a character, always fidgeting and making stupid noises. If the two lead roles were written better, Herbert's character would be the film's biggest deficit. But as it stands his irritating character is nothing to worry about next to the dysfunctional couple. Then we come to the main reason I even checked this film out: Humphrey Bogart. I've seen almost all of Bogie's films so whenever I get the chance to check out one of the few I haven't, I jump at the chance. Well this one was a wasted role for Bogie, playing Lane's infatuated boss who gets socked out by Morris.

This is a terrible film. The characters are so wholly unlikeable that I can't believe Warner Bros made this mess. This may be the lowest rating I've ever given a film from this period. I'm a huge fan of classic films and I can often forgive their faults even more than modern films. But this is one case where I can't. Avoid this unless you're a fan of Bogart's or Lane's and just have to see every movie they're in.