Traveling Saleslady

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 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.

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.

When her father refuses to give her a job in his toothpaste company, Angela Twitchell sets out on her own in "Traveling Saleslady." She's going to prove him wrong, that the business world is not place for a woman. And does she ever in this film.

Joan Blondell plays Angela and Grant Mitchell plays her dad, Rufus. While billed as a comedy romance, this film hardly has any of the latter, and very little of the former. Angela teams up with Elmer, played by Hugh Herbert, who has invented unique flavored toothpastes. She then offers the product to her dad's competitor, with the proviso that she still owns the product and gets to go on the road to sell it.

That she does, much to the consternation of her dad's top salesman, Pat O'Connor (played by William Gargan), for whom Angela has eyes. A very good supporting cast of various characters contribute to this film. It was a glowing tribute to "women's lib" long before that movement of the late 1960s. Indeed, Hollywood made any number of movies ahead of that time in which women were cast in business and professional roles. Some were comedies - much better than this one, and others were dramas, mysteries and other genres.

As a comedy, "Traveling Saleslady" just isn't very funny. It has very little humorous dialog. And the funny situations are light at best. Part of the problem may be with Blondell herself. She was a favorite for lead roles at Warner Brothers during the Golden Era, especially comedy. But in this genre she always seemed to have one face - a wide-eyed, perky, smiling, agreeable, go get-em persona. So, when the dialog, action or scene doesn't mesh with that persona, what otherwise would be funny is a thud or just a pass over.

Here are a couple of the few good lines in this film.

Harry, "Is that you, Claudette?" Claudette, "Errr, ya got me. How are ya, Harry?" Harry, "Oh, me, I'm pretty OK, uh, except I caught cold last Tuesday. No, maybe it was Wednesday." Claudette, "Well, try to remember. I must know." Harry, "Let me see. My birthday was on Tuesday..." Claudette, "You sure?" Harry, "No.... no, when did I catch cold?" Claudette, "Listen, Harry, when you do remember, telephone me."

Martha, "Pat, pat!" Pat, "What do you want?" Martha, "I wanna go to Niagara Falls." Pat, "Can you swim?" Martha, "No, but I can cook."