That Way with Women

James P. Alden (Sydney Greenstreet) is a frustrated auto tycoon. He has been forced to retire by his family and his doctor. They moved to an estate in California from his Detroit factory. His daughter Marcia (Martha Vickers) is throwing a society party. Greg Wilson (Dane Clark) is a working man attending the party and won't stop complaining about the social ills of the rich which annoys Marcia to no end. She is pursued by the dashing Carter Andrews (Craig Stevens). Mr. Alden decides to buy a gas station in secret just to get back to work. It turns out to be only half of a gas station as he becomes a partner with Greg Wilson. Greg reveals his hatred of the Aldens and Mr. Alden quickly lies about his identity.

It's a fun comedy which surprised me a little. I like the sitcom misunderstandings and I love Greenstreet in the role. The two younger leads could be better but they are functional enough. They could improve if they have more time together. Even the short manufactured time at the ball game is enough for them to build chemistry. It's a fun comedy and I actual laughed during the fight. I love the bit where she calls out the guys' names. This seems to be another version based on the same Saturday Evening Post story. I wouldn't mind another one for the modern times.

The usual romance story, with a couple different subplots going on. You have the man vs. female misunderstandings and high-society dame vs. the common man battles, with racketeers and the police sniffing around. Stars Dane Clark and Martha Vickers, who had both been making films for a couple years. Also has big names Sydney Greenstreet with his usual, famous guffaw and Alan Hale, who was in almost every single movie made in the 1930s and 1940s. The story is a bit convoluted, which is probably why they don't show it very often. It's pleasant enough to watch, but they do everything except take a rocket to the moon. The best role in this must have been the costume designer Leah Rhodes, who has Martha Vickers dolled up in exquisite dresses and hats throughout. Rhodes won the 1950 Oscar for costumes in Don Juan, a couple years after this one. Directed by Fred DeCordova, who also produced and directed Johnny Carson all those years.

This flick is a nice little post-war B-movie, with a John Garfield clone and Sidney Greenstreet.

Greg Wilson is a veteran, back and looking for something to do with his life. He meets up with J.P.Alden (Greenstreet), who offers to help him with his dream of owning a service station. In return, Alden only asks that he be allowed to help around the station.

Complications ensue, involving Alden's daughter, as Alden's true identity and situation become clear. Not "funny" complications, but a pleasant, "slice-of-life" sort.

I consider it particularly interesting because of the contrast of women's roles in this film and that of "Mother Is a Freshman" only two years later.

In this film, the female lead is spunky, self-assured, and fully capable... think Joan Crawford without the b**** attitude. Her clothing is loose and flowing, hair down and easy to care for, and her shoes are practical -- you could see her breaking into a run if the situation called for it.

In MIaF, however, we have a woman, played by Loretta Young, who is her polar opposite, and a precursor to 50s housewife "role model" -- helpless without a man, in tight skirts and high heels and with a Kim Novak type hairstyle that you would have to spend 3 days a week at the hairdressers to keep remotely decent looking.

I saw them back to back on a "classics" movie channel many years back, and the contrast made me particularly aware that Women's Lib did not *begin* in the 1960s, in fact it was simply *backpedalling* in the 1950s from where it had been in the 1940s.

The two together are an interesting view of the history of society which does not totally jibe with modern views of the Feminist movement, much as "Cimarron" does not gibe with modern views of Native American and Feminist relationships to society.

Dane Clark's hair remains a distraction; that any leading man should look like a cheap $5.00 party wig was provided as part of costuming/makeup shall forever remain a mystery. Whenever Dane appeared on screen it would appear a pompadour was glued about his head. Of the many romance comedies on TCM from the 1930s and 40s, this singular distraction of a leading man is comical in its own right.

The avuncular Sydney Greenstreet dominates this film as his sinister image is turned upside down in The Way With Women. Greenstreet plays an automobile tycoon who like Henry Ford came from humble beginnings and is Ford like wealthy now without the Fordian idiosyncrasies.

Bored with retirement Greenstreet on impulse buys a half interest in a gas station with war veteran Dane Clark incognito and the two start to build a business. Then they have to fight off a nasty protection racket with Clark and Greenstreet in jail where no one believes he's the wealthy tycoon he says he is. Henry Ford never had problems like this.

The fact that Greenstreet is incognito allows for a romance to develop between his daughter and Clark who really doesn't hit it off with her. The daughter is played by Martha Vickers known for two things, playing Lauren Bacall's psychotic sister in The Big Sleep and being one of Mickey Rooney's wives.

Although Clark and Vickers are attractive the film really belongs to Greenstreet and it is nice to see him not being the mastermind behind some sinister plot or hanging around the fringes of polite society. The man had a real gift for comedy that was not utilized all that often, the only other film I can think of with a funny Greenstreet is Christmas In Connecticut.

Not the best of films, but entertaining and a must for fans of Greenstreet. To see the funny side of Caspar Guttman by all means see The Way With Women.