La femme aux cigarettes blondes

I first saw this movie as a teen eons ago while my parents were busy playing cards at the home of friends, and have loved it ever since. Since my last viewing was over 20 years ago, I would love to have this on DVD to enjoy it again! I love all the characters, and lovely Joan Bennett indeed looked SMASHING as a brunette, which she kept for the rest of her long career. Very appealing was the insouciance of Fredric March's character, the smart humor of bubbly Ann Sothern's part, and the determined dorkiness of Ralph Bellamy's eager beaver character plus an interesting and engaging story.

Let's get this released, people that have the say-so!

"Trade Winds" has some enjoyable moments. This Tay Garnett-directed independent feature has the beautiful and talented Joan Bennett as a murderess on the run in the Orient pursued by a skirt-chasing former policeman played by a very miscast Fredric March. The film veers from whodunit, to travelogue, to screwball comedy, to romance, to courtroom drama without much consistency. Because the major emphasis is on comedy and romance, the film needs the versatility of a Fred MacMurray in the lead. Although a fine actor, March is out of his element in a role that requires a lighter touch.

The usually reliable Ralph Bellamy, who excelled as the proverbial light comic "other man" in classics like "His Girl Friday," "The Awful Truth," and "Brother Orchid," ends up as an oafish buffoon of a policeman of the type often played by Edgar or Tom Kennedy. His performance clashes with March's and at times he seems out of an alternative universe. Although Ann Sothern has a very enjoyable drunk scene, she's underutilized, and the usually reliable Thomas Mitchell is given little to do but growl as a police commissioner... wasted in a role than would have usually gone to a William Frawley.

The film's inconsistencies are likely the fault of writer/director Tay Garnett, who had a lengthy but inconsistent career resume' with at least one masterpiece ("The Postman Always Rings Twice") to his credit. He did helm some films with similar elements to "Trade Winds": "One Way Passage" with Powell and Francis, "Seven Sinners" with Dietrich and Wayne, and "China Seas" with Gable and Harlow, but unfortunately Garnett never developed a consistent style, and by the 1950s he was directing TV Western series episodes like "Death Valley Days" and "Bonanza". With a steadier hand like a Howard Hawks at the helm, and more appropriate cast choices "Trade Winds" may have been a minor classic, but now it's just a curiosity. By the way, two interesting sidebars: Dorothy Parker (of Algonquin Round Table fame) was a collaborator on the script and the enigmatic Dorothy Comingore appears briefly here (under the name Linda Winters) several years before her triumph in "Citizen Kane."

Detective (March) goes on globe-hopping quest to return suspected murderess (Bennett) to authorities. He's aided by two bumblers (Sothern & Bellamy), at the same time he falls for his attractive quarry.

Not quite a sophisticated comedy, not quite a picaresque chase, not quite a murder mystery- - all add up to a not very good movie. Hard to believe this is from glossy MGM since the production values are nearly incompetent. In fact, I've seen better process shots from a Lash LaRue oater, and since these make up half the movie, you've got to wonder where quality control was.

I'm assuming acerbic wit Dorothy Parker and husband Alan Campbell were hired to furnish sophisticated banter for the two couples. If so, I must have missed it. What I did hear were subtle grammar gaffes from Sothern (e.g. 'whom for 'who') and clever malaprops (e.g. 'deduct' for 'deduce') from Bellamy, intended, I guess, to show their humorous pretensions, but hardly crowd-pleasers.

Also, it looks like Bellamy's buffoonish cop amounts to a typical example of 30's cops when Hollywood treated them as low-comedy relief. And whose idea was it to tack on the last 10-minutes of whodunit that sort of sticks out like a glued on appendage.

Where the movie does work is with the lovely Bennett and the comedically gifted Sothern. Still, it's a bit puzzling why the movie didn't turn out better given the talent involved, including ace producer Walter Wanger. Maybe it has to do with as many as four writers and who knows how many re-writes or with director Garnett's inability to forge a unifying style. But, whatever the reason, the film remains a somewhat unlikely disappointment.

Despite contributions to the script by witty Dorothy Parker, TRADE WINDS is tough going for most of its running time. JOAN BENNETT plays a woman running away from a murder charge who is trailed to exotic locations by FREDRIC MARCH and RALPH BELLAMY, detectives hot on her trail.

March falls in love with her and faces the dilemma of turning her in to the authorities, while Bellamy finds romance with wise-cracking secretary ANN SOTHERN. That's about it, for the plot. The suspense lies in learning when and how the Bennett/March romance will flounder and come to some sort of resolution for the final reel.

Director Tay Garnett makes heavy use of his home movies for all of the process shots used extensively throughout filming. The effects cheapen the images on screen so that never for a moment do you feel that these events are taking place in actual locales, only in front of a process screen full of faded images.

Silliness of the comedy interludes are imposed on any dramatic elements the story has, making for an uneven mixture of comedy and drama.

Joan Bennett's transformation to a stunning brunette changed the course of her career as she goes from blonde to brunette to avoid capture. It's the only interesting aspect of the photoplay for this viewer.

Performances are competent with Sothern and Bellamy vying for attention in some amusing byplay that at least gives some indication of Dorothy Parker's contribution. But generally speaking, the comic moments are strained and appear more foolish than witty. Revelation of the events surrounding Bennett's murder charge strikes a false note for the ending.

Several years before anyone thought of the film Trade Winds, director Tay Garnett did a round the world tour and took a camera crew with him. They shot miles of beautiful travelogue type footage and Garnett had it in his mind to use it. According to the Citadel Film Series book The Films of Fredric March, Garnett sold the idea to independent producer Walter Wanger. Who thereupon commissioned a story to be written around these films and naturally it would be starring his wife Joan Bennett. All that background you see in Trade Winds is what Garnett shot years earlier.

Trade Winds is a strange film it can't quite make up its mind to be a mystery, comedy, or drama it truly defies classification. One thing we do know is that right away we're given information regarding the forensics that Joan Bennett is innocent. If she had not run, but stayed behind she'd have known right away and we'd have had no film.

But run she does and private detective Fredric March is put on her trail. He sure needs the money as well as he and secretary Ann Sothern owe a lot of bills.

The weakness of the plot is made up for a lot by the supporting performances of both Ann Sothern and Ralph Bellamy. Sothern is not in the tradition of private eye secretaries like Effie in The Maltese Falcon. She turns out to be just as good a gumshoe as March and she's a person of shifting loyalties.

Which is unlike Ralph Bellamy who might easily qualify for being the dumbest cop the movies ever portrayed. I could have seen him being commandant of the Police Academy forty years later. He's so earnest in such a Dudley Doo-Right manner he's positively hilarious. Sothern and Bellamy really do carry this film.

March is a charming rascal and Bennett a beautiful and vulnerable victim, but if you watch Trade Winds I know you'll enjoy Sothern and Bellamy most of all.