Salvo Pelo Gongo

Warren William is a successful romance novelist with Joan Blondell his ever-loving secretary. Up pops Genevieve Tobin, who promised to wait for him and didn't, asking for his forgiveness. He has no clear memory of her, so he does, and now he has to explain to his Miss Blondell, Miss Tobin's husband Hugh Herbert, and then dodge Miss Tobin, who is intent on making up for his broken heart, all without giving offense to anyone.

It's an amusing pre-code comedy, and probably closer to William in reality than the satyr-like heels he was usually called on to play in this era. He was married to one woman for 25 years until his death. They avoided the Hollywood scene, and he was an amateur inventor when not playing Perry Mason or the Lone Wolf. Miss Blondell, as she so often was, is acerbically funny in her role. Keep an eye out for Jay Ward, long before he thought of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Delightfully absurd comedy in which Joan Blondell is the long suffering secretary to a bestselling author (Warren William) who is being pursued by his ex girlfriend (Genevieve Tobin) who is convinced she is the model for the heroines of his books. To add to the confusion, her sister and brother-in-law turn up, determined to avert a scandal, and her hapless husband also gets dragged into the perplexing situation. It is all very funny with Warren William particularly amusing as the egotistical but charming author. A treat for anyone who enjoys screwball comedy.

A popular author and his gritty secretary have trouble when a still smoldering old flame and her addled husband show up unannounced.

I'm in a minority, but I found this Pre-Code farce both strained and talky. In fact the gab rarely lets up, which would be okay if the lines were snappier. But too much of the dialog is stagy and pedestrian. Then too, the estimable Warren William almost shouts his lines as though this makes them and him funny. It doesn't. The towering William is much better when presiding ruthlessly over empires. Unfortunately, the film can't seem to decide whether to madcap or not. Too bad also, that the humorously addled Hugh Herbert is largely wasted in an oddly recessive role.

And though this is minor, I had trouble telling the three blonde ladies apart since the resemblances are rather striking. Blondell is, of course, Blondell, perfectly cast as the take-charge secretary. She's a sassy treasure from that era, regardless of the material. Then too, Pre-Code means the screenplay can play fast and loose with mores of the time, which it does, adultery and wedlock paternity getting tossed off like gum wrappers. In fact, such is the main reason I tuned in.

Anyhow, a more apt leading man and a snappier script might have made the 65-minutes less forgettable. Unfortunately, farcical material was done much better in the same time frame, e.g. One Hour With You (1932), Trouble In Paradise (1932).

It's GOODBYE AGAIN as a loyal secretary tries to help her weak-willed, philandering boss out of the romantic complications caused by an old girlfriend, now married.

This was the sort of ephemeral comic frippery which the studios produced almost effortlessly during the 1930's. Well made & highly enjoyable, Depression audiences couldn't seem to get enough of these popular, funny photo dramas.

Joan Blondell & Warren William are perfectly matched as a memorable comedy team. She was the great Hard Times sassy, brassy blonde who always got her man, no matter what travail or comic bumps she encountered along the way. Nearly forgotten now, William is best remembered for the hard-boiled, cynical tycoons & shysters he played to perfection. It is great fun to see him essay light comedy.

Wacky, whimsical Hugh Herbert appears as a blithely unconcerned cuckold. Whether stalking his faithless spouse through trains & hotels or gleefully pushing for a divorce, he is equally hilarious. Behind him comes a rank of character actors - Genevieve Tobin, Wallace Ford, Helen Chandler, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ruth Donnelly - all equally adept at catching the comedy in the story line.

Much of the dialogue & plot is vintage pre-Production Code material.

Made a year before the film "Twentieth Century" that is supposed to have started the screwball comedy, "Goodbye Again" has almost all the ingredients that would feature in the screwball classics to come. On top of this is more bawdiness than any screwball until "Kiss Me Stupid" 31 years later. Warren Williams is a famous author on a book tour with his secretary/lover Joan Blondell. In Cleveland he is pursued by his old college flame Genevieve Tobin who believes she's the inspiration for one of his books, and both are pursued by her husband, her sister and her sister's stuffed-shirt husband (Wallace Ford in a great performance wearing "Harold Lloyd" glasses exactly like Cary Grant's in "Bringing Up Baby"). The author sleeps twice with the wife, once being forced to at the unknowing insistence of the family ("Did you sleep well Mr. Bixby?" "Yes...on and off.") All ends in exactly the sort of high-speed farce that Hawks, McCarey and Wilder would make famous in the next few decades.