Goodbye Again

The premise to this film, its cast, and pre-Code status all made it promising, but unfortunately it fell short for me. Warren William is at it again as a suave yet unscrupulous author, his secretary is the plucky Joan Blondell, and the love interest who emerges from his past (despite now being married) is Genevieve Tobin. The film then follows the author's attempts to overcome his libido and say "goodbye again" to her, helped along by a chorus of characters who serve as his conscience (her husband, played by Hugh Herbert, her sister, her brother-in-law who is also a lawyer, and of course, his secretary).

The opening scene is amusing in that it shows the author's novels in the window of a bookstore, and we see such titles as The Boudoir Cloister (with a book cover that has a woman in lingerie reclining back on her bed, arms thrown back), A Saint in Scarlet (which has a woman with a fashionable bob and low-cut dress looking pensive), Ecstasy (flowers splaying out wildly), The Woman Who Gave (a close up of a woman's face, perhaps as she's about to give or receive), Purple Passion - a Novel of Burning Love in the Tropics (with a woman beneath a palm tree in an exotic place), and Miriam (with a woman clutching a pillow while lying on her stomach smiling joyously). Naturally, women in the bookstore are all clamoring to get copies.

There are also some wonderful little moments with William and Blondell, who were at the height of their pre-Code powers. Seeing William singing a camping song in closet, mocking the lawyer by repeating what he says as he says it, and hopping up on a window ledge and maniacally threatening to jump make the film worth seeing if you're a fan of his, and it's only 66 minutes anyway. Blondell slapping him in the face with tears welling up in her eyes, after earlier being the no-nonsense type who bargained with the hotel porter over the price of a bottle of rye, showed her wonderful range. Towards the end the film seemed like an early version of a screwball comedy, which may hold some appeal as well.

However, for me the film lacked that certain pre-Code sizzle, suffering from a weak script and some uneven storytelling from director Michael Curtiz. There's not enough passion between William and Tobin's characters, and when the weak nothing of a husband and the extraneous characters of the sister and her husband show up, it led to a lot of talking and hashing things through instead of the emotions and passion that would have made this interesting. There are a couple of clever little lines with inuendo, such as when the author says he slept well but "on and off," when we know his lover has been with him on the train, but there's not enough of this sort of thing.

It's clear to the audience that they've had sex in the past, though a portion of his recollection about a night he spent with her in college was censored, with a noticeable skip in what he says about it. That may have been by a local censor board from which the print survives (before the Production Code was enforced, different cities routinely had films hacked up according to what they believed best for their community), or been an edit required by Joseph Breen after 1934, when the film was considered for re-release. It's hard to know if other scenes were excised, though we know from the breakfast scene, that clear pre-Code signal to the audience, that they've had sex in the present too. The trouble is, it just doesn't seem like there was a lot of fire here, maybe because Tobin was miscast, maybe because of edits, or maybe because the script just wasn't daring enough.

It's not too surprising where this film is heading, and it was even a direction I'm usually a sucker for, that of the "she was right next to me all along, what a fool I've been," but even then it didn't feel natural here. Maybe I'm being a little harsh in my review score as it's not all bad, but I just thought this one was a bit of a waste of Blondell and William, who are so great elsewhere.

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.

Goodbye Again (1933)

A rollicking, smartly written, snappily acted comedy farce. Yes, I loved it.

Joan Blondell is the famous leading woman here, but it is really the witty, sharp performance by Warren William that lifts this great comedy to a true high. Add the very canny direction by none other than Michael Curtiz and you can see why this is a must see. You might even call this a screwball comedy, though coming a year before screwball's more official inception with "It Happened One Night."

The first real scene here might lead you to think it was going to be one kind of comedy, filled with subtle playacting and a kind of mismatched couple sparring. Hugh Herbert is a quirky character actor at his subtle best here, with mannerisms that surprise every time I see him, and he plays the bewildered husband perfectly. His wife, played well by Genevieve Tobin, is a ditzy but not stupid woman with a crush on an old flame who is now a famous author.

But wait for the real wit and cleverness to begin when this very author (Warren William) comes to town and she goes to seduce him. William is a perfect cad. He's without scruples, which makes you love him even if you might (might) disagree with his actions. (No one is ever actually hurt in these matters.) Blondell plays his secretary, supremely capable and devoted and yet independent. You suspect they should be the real couple in the movie, but they aren't.

Things only compound and get more zany with each scene, ending with exactly the fast, laugh out loud conclusion you kind of wanted all along. This is true pre-Code comedy, with adultery barely veiled (or not veiled at all if you're awake), and with no required justice for "crimes" committed along the way. Which makes it all terribly fun and funny and just slightly naughty. For all these reasons this is a movie not to miss.

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).

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.