There's Always a Woman & There's That Woman Again
 
There's Always a Woman
Director: Alexander Hall
Year: 1938
Rating: 6.5

The popularity of the Thin Man series naturally led to a few imitators. Columbia gives it a go here but it only lasted two films. MGM in fact who owned the Thin Man franchise had tried as well a few years earlier with the Sloane's - a husband and wife duo who solve murders. The problem with that one though was they had different actors in all three of the films playing the married couple. And in fact in the first it was Melvyn Douglas as the husband and here Columbia is trying again with him.  Douglas is a fine actor generally in light comedy or mystery roles. His acting feels similar to Powell's in his laid back low key urbane approach. He kept acting till he died at 80. To offset his laid back acting they team him with a bundle of energy - a high calorie drink - Joan Blondell who must have bounced off walls as a child. She always delights me with her manic energy and giant peek-a-boo eyes. She was a very popular actress at the time - generally in lower budget but not B films as a working class girl with attitude. She had made her career at Warners during the 1930s - a few Busby Berkeley films - the great Forgotten Man number. Maybe a loan out in this one. Here she gets the majority of the time and is a tornado running through the film.




This isn't Thin Man quality but they give it a run for its money. It is fast and funny and screwy. A few laugh out loud moments for me. The murder case itself takes a backseat to the mischief that Sally Reardon gets up to in her attempt to solve a murder before her husband does. Bill Reardon has set up his own detective agency and the only customers are flies and bill collectors. He decides to go back to his old job working for the District Attorney - as soon as he leaves a customer walks in. Mary Astor of the Maltese Falcon fame - though that was in the future. She thinks her husband is having an affair with a friend and wants her followed. Sally agrees. But does not tell her husband and when someone shows up dead, they both try and solve it. But not together. He wants to clobber her at times but all she has to do is kiss him. The scene in which the cops try and interrogate Sally as she files her nails and drives them nuts is a classic. I think my favorite part though may have been then they got to a high class restaurant with only $20 and she orders a filet mignon. You can't do that he says, we can't afford it. It cost $3.50.



The second film is titled There's That Woman Again which came out the same year with Douglas but without Blondell. I read that initially Rita Hayworth was going to get a large role in this film - hard to imagine where she would fit - but when they decided to make a series out of it they didn't want her tied up. She is in this for a a few seconds and I admit I didn't notice her. 

Up on YouTube in blurry condition.

There's That Woman Again
Director: Alexander Hall
Year: 1938
Rating: 4.5
This is the sequel to There's Always a Woman made in the same year. Returning is Melvyn Douglas as Bill Reardon and the director Alexander Hall. But Joan Blondell did a runner and they replace her with Virginia Bruce. I like Bruce a lot and come across her often. You could serve dinner on her cheek bones but she just isn't right for this role. She plays the role too dizzy, too frazzled, too silly. Think of Lucy Ricardo helping Rickey in a murder case. I am trying to think if I have seen her do comedy before. I don't think so - she isn't very good at it and it throws off any chemistry there might have been between her and Douglas. When William Powell came down with cancer at this time MGM announced Douglas and Bruce would star in the next Thin Man picture. Fortunately, Powell got better. The first one was fairly amusing but this is a good notch below. And the planned series came to an end.




Reardon is on a jewelry case. One piece of jewelry has been stolen from a number of stores. He thinks he has the thief nailed - Crenshaw (Gordon Oliver) -  but before Crenshaw is arrested he goes to Reardon's agency to hire him to find out who is following him - which is of course Reardon. But instead Sally is in the office and takes the case without telling her husband. Pure Lucy pre-Lucy. She acts like an idiot throughout the film till it gets irritating. In the first film it was Blondell who was the smart one, not so here. A couple murders come along. In the cast also is Margaret Lindsay as part owner of the jewelry stores. Lindsay actually would have been a better choice for Sally and vice versa. She was Ellery Queen's secretary in a bunch of films and would have done this role just fine. She is one of those forgotten actresses who never quite made it but appeared in nearly 100 films and every time I come across her I wonder why she never did become a star.