There Goes My Girl

The 1940 comedy "His Girl Friday" is a magnificent film based on the earlier film "The Front Page". In between these two films came "There Goes My Girl"--and while it must have been influenced by "The Front Page", I actually think "There Goes My Girl" was a big influence on "His Girl Friday". This is because "The Front Page" was not about a couple--and the two subsequent films were.

In this film, Jerry (Gene Raymond) and Connie (Ann Sothern) are reporters for rival newspapers. The problem is that Connie's editor is a super-conniver--and he always comes up with a way to prevent the wedding because he doesn't want his best reporter to retire to a life of domestic servitude. In other words, back in the day, wives stayed home and didn't work outside the home. As for Connie, she seems pretty stupid and keeps falling for Whelen's schemes and eventually Jerry walks out--unwilling to allow himself to be pulled into Whelen's games and Connie's falling for them.

Eventually Connie comes to her senses and pretends to be going on an assignment for Whelen--but she really travels to Connecticut because she's heard Jerry is there. Can Whelen manage to once again derail Connie now that she is finally determined to win back her man?

The film is a nice comedy and very enjoyable. It's remarkably similar to the other two films but the dialog isn't quite as sparkling and zippy as it is in "His Girl Friday"--and who can surpass Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell? Plus, it's just funnier.

There isn't anything in THERE GOES MY GIRL that hasn't been done before in screwball comedies of the '30s and '40s. This has the feisty ANN SOTHERN playing a game of oneupmanship with would be hubby GENE RAYMOND, both of them cheated out of getting married by their scheming boss RICHARD LANE.

The story is absurd, the plot contrivances are everywhere, and it's just a matter of time before Sothern and Raymond are able to tie the knot by using physical restraint on Lane to keep him from interfering with their nuptial ceremony.

It's old hat stuff given a little too much zest from pert ANN SOTHERN, at her feistiest, and GENE RAYMOND, trying hard to be a comedian but not exactly a master of disguises. His French accent is a disgrace.

Newspaper stories were quite the fad in the '30s and this is just another one of those fast paced comedies that makes absolutely no sense when you stop to think about it. Other stars, like Rosalind Russell, Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert, Irene Dunne and even Bette Davis, did similar screwball newspaper stories but with much better scripts.

... and they cut the scenes with Lucille Ball ?? what were they thinking ? Lucy would make "Stage Door" in 1937 also, still a newbie at this point. Newspaper reporters Connie (Ann Sothern) and Jerry (Gene Raymond) are getting married, or have been trying to get hitched for some time now, and Connie's editor (Richard Lane) will stop at nothing to keep her from getting married. Connie follows Jerry out of town on a murder story, and tries to catch him in her web. Attentive viewers will recognize Connie's fellow reporter "Tate" -- It's Frank Jenks, who usually played the thug in crime dramas, and would have supporting roles in four films with G. Raymond. Joan Woodbury plays "Margot", an interloper and dancer who catches Jerry's eye. Will Connie & Jerry ever hook up? Some funny telephone gags. Plot very similar to "His Girl Friday", which was made three years Later... although different writers are credited.

Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond make a pleasant team as a pair of newspaper reporters whose wedding plans are delayed while they investigate a couple of murders. Richard Lane is frantic and loud as Sothern's editor, gleefully stooping to any trick to keep from losing his star reporter.

The capable supporting cast includes Frank Jenks and Gordon Jones as fellow reporters caught between pal Sothern and boss Lane. Bradley Page is the smoothly sinister nightclub owner who is up to no good.

Sothern has a couple of wild scenes where she throws a righteous fit at Lane's interference; Lane himself has some deliciously wicked moments in which he rubs his hands together and chuckles over his next scheme for separating Sothern from Raymond (who, after all, works for a rival paper). Raymond is fine if predictable as his usual fast talking self.

The plot moves fast but never really offers any surprises - maybe it's just too similar to every other newspaper crime-comedy made around the same time. In any case, while certainly enjoyable enough for fans, it's all too familiar to be very exciting.

I have the feeling this movie should be funnier than I find it. All the performers are good -- even if Gene Raymond was always a little too stiff to be interesting, that has lots of possibilities in a screwball comedy. Joe August's cinematography is, as always, great without being intrusive. The stooge reporters, including eternal lunk Gordon Jones, are fine. But this story of how Anne Southern pursues once-and-future fiancé Gene Raymond, after her editor, Richard Lane, has a fake murder staged to break up the marriage, never quite gels for me. Maybe it's the way everyone rushes through their lines.Maybe it's the long excursions in a serious plot about murder that no one is expected to care about. Maybe it's the fact that everything is a little too polished and beautiful, including Anne Southern in an expensive fur coat -- I don't care if she is on an expense account, she's a reporter. Mostly I attribute it to the fact there is only one genuinely funny scene, when Anne Southern is beating up the gorillas her editor sent to fetch her back.

The whole thing is directed by RKO stalwart Ben Holmes, a jack-of-all-tradesman for anything not involving a horse. Mr. Holmes worked so fast that he is credited with directing four movies that came out in 1944, even though he died in 1943!