Men Are Such Fools

Being an unabashed 'Lane, Priscilla' (qv) fan, Men Are Such Fools would be a delight to watch if only for the wonderful Miss Lane alone. But as a neat little bonus you get 'Bogart, Humphrey' (qv) in a rare, at that time, non-gangster role.This combination makes for an enjoyable movie about a young woman determined to succeed in the advertising business.

However, the one problem I have with this movie is Wayne Morris, or at least the character he plays.

As in another movie Mr. Morris was in with Miss Lane, _Love, Honor and Behave (1938)_ (qv), there is this undercurrent that seems to imply that you can show a woman how much you love her by physically pushing her around.

I understand that things were different back then, but it is still a bit difficult to watch any guy resort to physical contact with a woman in order to win her over. This is by no means a big part of this movie, but it is noticeable after seeing it happen over a series of films from that era.

That being said, the positives far outweigh any of the negatives. With Priscilla Lane starring and Humphrey Bogart in support, you can't go wrong spending your time with Men Are Such Fools.

I gave 6 stars only because of Priscilla Lane and Penny Singleton. The movie is ridiculous because Morris' character treats Lane's character so horribly, but she "falls in love" with him anyway. He practically kidnaps her, forces himself on her, acts like a spoiled child, and treats her terribly, but she marries him anyway. Not much has changed when it comes to women marrying idiots like this guy. You'd think they would pay attention to all the red flags that indicate what morons, narcissists, misogynists, and crybabies these dudes are, but they go right ahead and marry them regardless. On top of that he's a frat boy, which is just slightly better than being a serial killer.

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.

Kind of a love triangle, starring wayne morris, cilla lane, and bogie. Linda and jimmy are engaged, but with linda, work comes first! Almost a half hour in, we finally see bogart. And he keeps her working late. Decisions to make. Schemes. Consequences. Hugh herbert is here as linda's nervous boss, for comic effect. Gene and kathleen lockhart are together again as the daltons. Penny singleton played blondie in so many films. Good chemistry between the actors. It's silly and fun to watch. Directed by busby berkeley! Known mostly for his huge, elegant dance numbers, he only directed 31 films. Wayne morris died young at 45. Mona barrie died at 54, and of course, bogey died at 57.

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.