It is always a treat for me to see a film with
both Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell together. They were part of a group
of actors in the first part of the 1930's at Warner Brothers who kept showing
up in the same films and were good friends off the set. Blondel and Farrell
were nicknamed the "Gimme Girls" for often being cast as single women on
the prowl for a man - hopefully a rich one. In other words Gold-diggers.
Some of the others in the group were Allen Jenkins, Hugh Herbert, Frank McHugh
and Guy Kibbee - all comic character actors with a well-known comic personality
and style of patter. Warners knocked off a load of films ranging usually
from 60-70 minutes to play the second feature. They even had writers who
specialized in the dialogue of a specific actor. Jenkins was the fast talking
lunkhead, Herbert was the forgetful eccentric with the mangled syntax, Kibbee
was the older one with a lecherous eye for the ladies and McHugh was the
best friend who gets the shaft. One of the main directors of these B films
was Ray Enright who helms this one and many of the films that Blondell and
Farrell were in during this period.
Blondell and Farrell were similar in style - working class girls - always
on the outs with money - sassy with comeback lines like barbed wire. Blondell
was the bigger star getting the guy if anyone did with her kewpie face, big
eyes, bubbly personality and a willingness to be a bit racy in her fashions
or in the bathtub. Farrell was generally the best friend in films to a bigger
star but got the occasional lead and then got the Torchy Blane series. Both
had reputations as hard working professionals often doing multiple films
at the same time. Blondell was used to working hard. Her parents had been
in vaudeville and Joan was brought into the act when she was three years
old. When vaudeville began to fade out in the late 1920s as films took over
the vaudeville theaters she made a move to Hollywood. In a 1930 film Sinners'
Holiday she and Cagney were in the second ranks but their back and fort snappy
dialogue so impressed Warners that they were signed up. She and Cagney shared
the screen a number of times. At that point Blondell supported her parents.
This is a rollicking comedy that approaches screwball but doesn't quite get
there. It should have been funnier than it is. It has plenty of good lines
but they are often so understated that you may miss them. Blondell and Farrell
are roommates in San Pedro with the rent due and nothing that isn't already
in hock. They are Broadway chorus girls and want to get back to New York.
The fleet is in town with 83,000 lonely sailors and the girls run a ring
toss game but one of the sailors Allen Jenkins never misses and cleans them
out. He also has eyes for Blondell but she would rather date a snake. A poisonous
one. But he convinces her to enter the Miss Pacific Fleet contest being put
on by business man Hugh Herbert. Lots of frantic comedy follows - some funny,
some not. Probably too much Herbert who is great in small doses and not enough
sarcasm so sharp it can cut cheese from our two girls. Even though this is
a second feature, it doesn't really look cheap - it is still Warners and
there are hundreds of extras in a few scenes. 66 minutes.
