Director: William Keightley
Year:  1934
Rating: 6.5

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Back in the 1930's Warner Brothers had two actresses who were great at playing tough wisecracking dames - Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell. Joan was the more popular and often got those roles over Glenda who ended up in lesser B films. But there were a few films in which the two of them teamed up and they are terrific as they trade whip smart barbs and sarcastic rejoinders like a string of firecrackers going off. Their comic timing is spotless. These films - We're in the Money, Miss Pacific Fleet, Widows of Havana, Traveling Saleslady and this one were called Blondell-Farrell films and the audience knew what to expect. The two of them were great friends off screen as well which may contribute to their chemistry on screen.


It isn't often that I am upset that a film isn't longer but at 64 minutes it is a shame. It whizzes by in a flurry of sharp dialogue, comic fast-moving plotting and two great film personalities and suddenly it was over when I wanted to see a lot more of them. There were a lot more opportunities for comedy but a B film has rules and one is the length that it has to come in under. Because as much as I enjoyed this it is in fact a B film. Neither Blondell or Farrell were giant stars and neither were the accompanying actors though Robert Armstrong was just coming off of his King Kong starring role. The other main player is Hugh Herbert who shows up in many Warner comedies as basically the same character - confused, inarticulate, gullible and straight-faced often with a trademark laugh (though not so much here).


Blondell and Farrell are two manicurists in Kansas City looking for a wealthy man to take them out of their drab lives. Farrell is very aggressive about this but Blondell finds herself engaged to a poor big lug (Armstrong) on the shady side of the law who has a much bigger bark than a bite. When she loses his engagement ring to another man, she and Farrell decide they better hightail it out of town disguised as young girls. With Armstrong chasing after them. They all end up bizarrely on a liner to Paris where more hijinks take place and I assume passports were not needed. Herbert is a millionaire on the ship that Farrell tracks with her laser focused mercenary heart. Paris is more of the same. Very enjoyable film but much too short and rushed.

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