The Girl Said No

William Haines and Leila Hyams star in this rather dated early talkie from MGM. In this Haines finds the girl of his dreams with Hyams, but she's been earmarked for the boss's son Francis X. Bushman, Jr.

In this day and age Haines would be arrested for the way he pursues Hyams. I'm not sure how in 1930 he wasn't hauled off to the hoosegow. But these were the parts Haines played, smart alecks who got away with anything.

Anyway Bushman is such a drip of a human being audience sympathy is with Haines.

Best in the film is Haines's scene with Marie Dressler where he does some unorthodox things to sell her some bonds. Polly Moran is here also for some more laughs.

Still feminists would stone the screen if this were made today.

It seems like people either love this film or hate it. Personally, I liked it a great deal. The film doesn't stray far from the typical Haines formula - the character starts out brash, ends up humble. Haines plays Tom Ward, recent college graduate and oldest son of a bank president. He's been laughing his way through life up to this point, and seems to have no intention of changing. His dad sets him up with a job via a friend in the investment business, and Tom fritters away that opportunity and instead takes an interest in the firm secretary, played by Leila Hyams. His attempts to woo her away from an extremely unlikeable coworker sets up situations for some typical Haines tomfoolery. However, Tom's fortunes and attitude take a sharp turn when his father dies suddenly and the family suddenly finds itself penniless. Now it's a job selling neckties for Tom and a small flat shared by the entire family.

If you like Haines' silent films, you'll like this one, but I don't think anyone should be introduced to Haines via one of his talkies. For one thing, talking comedy was never something MGM did extremely well or with much finesse, and in this first year of talking pictures the studio was really groping for successful formulas as well as adapting their silent stars to the new medium.

The worst thing about this film is that Haines is a fast talker and the primitive sound recording has trouble picking up all of his conversation. He gets better at speaking clearly in later films, and the technology improves as well. The second worst thing is that there is no explanation of some of the turns of events in the film that would have been familiar to anyone in March 1930. Today, it is hard to understand why the death of the head of household might automatically lead to instantaneous poverty for the surviving members, especially if that head of household was head of a bank right after the stock market crash. None of this is explained in the film.

The best part of the film is a ten minute bit done when Tom Ward is trying to sell bonds to a wealthy woman played by Marie Dressler. Since Dressler's character agrees to see Ward because she believes him to be a doctor, it sets up some comical situations that leave Haines' character squeamish to say the least. Polly Moran is another good part of the film. She plays the Ward family housekeeper that loyally follows the family from mansion to poorhouse. It's one of the few Moran/Dressler films in which the two actresses don't interact, but they still do much for the success of the film.

Highly recommended for the fans of early talkies and of William Haines. However, if you are unfamiliar with the early sound films and the goofy style of William Haines you might not share my enthusiasm.

After viewing THE GIRL SAID NO, that's the question that haunted me. Apparently, he had no control over WILLIAM HAINES, who, at thirty years old, is playing a brash and rude college student who thinks he's what every girl should want in a man. He's obnoxious to the point of driving the viewer to exasperation and he's the center of the whole story.

It's rough going for anyone to sit through this dreadful early '30s comedy of ill manners. Others in the cast do what they have to do as competently as possible, but nobody can top the mugging and mincing of Haines at his worst.

The only segment that manages to be downright funny is the ten-minute sequence with MARIE DRESSLER. It's a howl. Too bad the script didn't afford Dressler and Haines other moments like this.

LEILA HYAMS is attractive as "the girl," HENRY ARMETTA is amusingly exasperated as the waiter who foolishly agrees to a prank suggested by Haines, and POLLY MORAN almost makes sense out of a poorly written and directed role as a housemaid.

It's really a total waste of time to watch Haines mugging constantly and thinking he's being irresistibly endearing as a comedian. He's not.

But I have liked him in other films of the "silent" era. But this attempt at comedy is unbearably unfunny.

During the 1920s, William Haines made a string of films with very, very similar themes. In films such as BROWN OF HARVARD and THE SMART SET, he played a smug braggart that was immensely talented but needed to learn humility. He always found this out after he disappointed the team with his boorish behavior. However, late in the films, a humbler Haines then learns what it means to be self-sacrificing--once again allowing him to be the hero--and so ended each picture.

By the 1930s, Haines was essentially doing the same roles he'd done for years. The big difference was that with the advent of sound pictures, he not only acted conceited but you could hear him talking non-stop about himself--making people like me wish he'd stayed in silent films! Additionally, by the time he did THE GIRL SAID NO, his character had also changed--and not for the better. In the earlier films he was conceited but immensely talented. However in THE GIRL SAID NO, he was essentially an annoying idler with nothing to back up his boasting but his "charming personality". Well, to me this personality was not at all charming and I just wanted to bust him in the mouth!! An unlikable and sociopathic jerk is what he was in this film (such as sexually harassing a girl repeatedly, acting cruelly to everyone he came in contact with and risking others' lives) and I found myself loathing every second he was on film. This is quite a change, as I had liked many of his earlier films, but by this awful film he was simply too unlikable, too brash, too talkative, too selfish and just too much! Watching him was like watching an obnoxious four year-old who insists on entertaining guests--whether they want to or not!!

I've gotta admit something before I close. This is the first Haines film I didn't finish. I tried, believe me, but I simply hated the sight and sound of him and couldn't take it any more. I know that according to formula, by the end of the film he'll have changed, but I wasn't willing to wait plus someone this awful really won't change in real life.

I read a book some time ago about leading men at MGM and it said how Haines' career ended because Louis B. Mayer was a homophobe and pushed him out of films. I used to believe it, but with films like THE GIRL SAID NO, I am more inclined to believe that Haines just overstayed his welcome. With him performing essentially the same role again and again (and the character getting more obnoxious as the years passes), it's no wonder he was out of the business by the mid-1930s. I truly, truly hated him in this film and would rather gargle with glass then see it to the end!!

This labored attempt at madcap comedy features William Haines as a reckless, hyperactive go- getter who drives everyone around him crazy when he comes home after college graduation and proceeds to paint the town crimson. Early on, he falls madly in love with a secretary (Leila Hyams) who works in the Wall Street firm of one of his father's colleagues and sets out to claim her for his own whether she likes it or not, making one outlandish attempt after another to wrest her from a rival (Francis X. Bushman, Jr.). This kind of devil-may-care behavior is more suited to the silent cinema; with spoken dialogue mixed in the slapstick sequences seem to go on forever. Such is the charm, skill and magnetism of Haines that he almost pulls it off, but he is working with thin material that is stretched way too far, and let's face it, his behavior is reprehensible. Marie Dressler lends a big blob of color as a dowager who becomes falling-down drunk after two sips of alcohol.