There's Always a Woman

The Quick Pitch: Husband, who works for the DA, and wife, who is secretly running her husband's old detective agency, compete to see who can solve a murder.

As my rating indicates, I generally enjoyed There's Always a Woman. It's no Thin Man, as it's often compared and as Columbia Pictures had hoped it would be, but the movie is decent enough entertainment. The mystery may not be much, but this kind of light-hearted, who-done-it is never deep on plot. The film looks good and moves at a good pace. The direction is snappy with very little in the way downtime. Joan Blondell really shines as Sally Reardon. She's cute, funny, and sassy. She dominates the screen anytime she appears. Co-star Melvyn Douglas is good in his own right and makes a good straight man for Blondell, but he can't compete with her screen presence. There are a variety of other solid actors in the supporting cast, most notably Mary Astor, in what is pretty much the same role she played a few years later in The Maltese Falcon.

The thing that bothered me the most about There's Always a Woman was the casual depiction of spousal abuse. Maybe attitudes have changed since 1938, but I don't enjoy seeing a woman having her hair pulled or being hit by her husband. It didn't come off as funny or playful, just mean. Without those moments, I would have definitely rated There's Always a Woman higher.

6/10

Despite thin comedy material, JOAN BLONDELL and MELVYN DOUGLAS give their all to the interplay between the detective husband and snoopy wife routine in this fast-moving comedy/mystery. Douglas is a detective badly in need of clients when MARY ASTOR pops into his office while he's away and tells her story to Blondell about keeping tabs on an unfaithful husband.

MARY ASTOR, JEROME COWAN and ROBERT PAIGE are the chief suspects when the man is killed, but the accent throughout is on comedy rather than solution of the crime. What matters is that the comedy is breezy and stylish in the Blondell/Douglas manner with both of them at the top of their form. Revelaton of the murderer comes as no big surprise.

Trivia note: RITA HAYWORTH has a fleeting moment as a secretary, unbilled in the credits. Blink and you may miss her one line and quick exit.

Party mystery, part screwball comedy There's Always A Woman features Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell as a man who opened a private detective agency and his ever helpful wife.

Douglas had worked for the DA's office as an investigator and felt he was in a career rut so he opened a private agency. As clients haven't been flocking to his office he's ready to go back to work for DA Thurston Hall, But Blondell says she wants to keep the agency open just in case.

No sooner does Douglas get his job back than in walks a client Mary Astor. She plunks down 3 century notes.which pays a lot of back rent and she wants Frances Drake who has been carrying on with husband Lester Matthews.

She does some surveillance in a madcap sort of way at a nightclub. The next day Matthews is shot to death and Robert Paige who had made some threats at him is arrested.

Douglas gets the investigation at the DA's office and Blondell keeps going on her investigation. She's from the Lucy Ricardo school of criminology and will have an awful lot of 'splaining' to do eventually.

Three years later Mary Astor and Jerome Cowan who plays a gambler in There's Always A Woman would be part of the immortal cast of The Maltese Falcon. And ironically in this film both would have the same function.

Columbia might have made more of these had its stars not been tied to other studios. But Blondell was with Warner Brothers and Douglas with MGM. The two had a good chemistry and Blondell is a hoot.

A good combination of genres is There's Always A Woman.

Caught this today on TCM - lots of fun. characters and snappy dialog borrow heavily from the 'Thin Man' series, only husband Douglas works as a lawman, and wife Joan is the wannabee 'private eye' (with all the right hunches). Blondell is very charming and lovably wacky, but proves that blonds CAN compete in the 1930's (Hollywood) world of sleuthing. Hilarious results come from Douglas attempting to keep wifey under wraps in latter portions of film while he tries 'to break the case wide open'.

Also, earlier, the couple return home from a romantic night out, but Joan's great expectations for intimacy appear to get dashed (---: witty scene, but tastefully portrayed ..

8 / 10

Bill Reardon (Melvyn Douglas) is a struggling private detective. His wife Sally (Joan Blondell) had push him into quitting a well paying investigating job in the DA office. He goes off to get his old job back. Famous socialite Lola Fraser comes in looking to hire an investigator and Sally promptly takes the job pretending to be an investigator. She starts investigating behind her husband's back which gets complicated when the DA office gets involved in a murder case.

The one and only issue I have is Bill's constant physical fake-outs against his wife. He keeps pretending to hit her and missing by the barest margin. He even throws something at her. It's another era and it's supposed to be funny. It's like Ralph Kramden. It hasn't aged well. Otherwise, the combative rapid-fire banter is fun.