User Reviews

TRADE WINDS is supposed to be a film starring Fredric March and Joan Bennett, and certainly they get most of the film's major scenes. But while March was a good actor in comedy (NOTHING SACRED and I MARRIED A WITCH show that) his "Sam Wye" is snowed under by his three co-stars, Bennett, Ann Southern, and Ralph Bellamy - in particular Ralph Bellamy for his performance as "Ben Blodgett" the assistant to March on this case.

Bennett made film history here for a film trick that was the reverse of her sister Constance's trick four years earlier in MOULIN ROUGE. There Connie had to play dual roles as Franchot Tone's wife (a brunette) and a French entertainer named "Raquel" (a blonde). For the part of the wife Connie had to have her natural blonde hair dyed black (but at the conclusion, supposedly wearing her film's natural color dyed "blonde", she is wearing her hair blonde. Here fellow blonde sister Joan (for reasons of the plot) changed her hair to black as a disguise. But the new hairstyle found favor with the public. Up to 1938 Constance Bennett was the better regarded (as a film star) of the two sisters. When the public saw Joan as a brunette she looked a bit like Hedy Lamarr, and got more attention. So Joan remained a film brunette for the rest of her career (including the series of great films directed by Fritz Lang like SCARLET STREET, and the films with Spencer Tracy FATHER OF THE BRIDE and FATHER'S LITTLE DIVIDEND).

TRADE WINDS is about a murder, and the leading suspect is Bennett. She flees and is crossing the Pacific with pal Southern. But they are being pursued by March, a detective who is known for his brains, his lack of ethics, and his chasing women. In a kind of twist to the plot strands in ONE WAY PASSAGE, March is determined to catch Bennett, but is falling for her. Soon he begins to wonder if he should let her escape. Bellamy (who for all his marvelous thick-headedness respects March's detective abilities) is appalled and starts working against him. Of course that is not much of a problem. Southern starts interfering with Bellamy and a second romance begins.

SPOILER COMING UP:

March does bring in Bennett, who faces trial and possible execution in California for the murder. While March re-evaluates the evidence to see if she really was responsible, she is visited in prison by Bellamy and Southern who try to comfort her. Bellamy is fine form saying, "Don't worry Miss Kerrigan. In the entire history of California jurisprudence only five women have been executed. FIENDS IN HUMAN FORM MA'AM!!" You can imagine how Bennett reacts to that comment (Southern trying to shut him up).

Bless the film gods for giving us Bellamy and his array of choice boobs!

If you were paying attention during the early part of the movie, there's a major tip-off that Kay Kerrigan (Joan Bennett) didn't really kill Thomas Bruhme II (Sidney Blackmer), but not for lack of trying. She shot him in the chest, but the bullet that killed him went to the base of his skull. But if the authorities had left it at that, there would have been no story. So instead, we have a globetrotting tale in which detective Sam Wye (Fredric March) chases lovely Kay Kerrigan from country to country with more than a little romance on his mind when he catches up with her.

The main event is almost upended entirely by the presence of Sam's sidekick Ben Blodgett. I've never seen Ralph Bellamy in a more thankless role, as he layers on more ham than a deli sandwich. When he connects with Sam's secretary, Jean Livingstone (Ann Sothern), they form a second romantic pairing in the picture, more by accident than intentional, since starting out, Jean had the hooks out for her boss. For his part, Sam was an unabashed playboy who never met a dame he couldn't woo until the next one came along.

Though credibility is stretched throughout the picture, it's still a fun outing keeping tabs on the characters and marveling at the silliness of it all, especially Blodgett's complete ineffectiveness. He would have given Leslie Nielsen's Lieutenant Drebin a run for his money. I'm not convinced Kay Kerrigan would have gotten away scot-free with the Bruhme shooting since she did attempt to harm him, even if it was a blank placed in her gun. Which is another little discrepancy in the story, which if you have a keen eye, will jump right out at you when the whole thing is over.

The film can be an enigma as well as perplexing. It starts off with Joan Bennett,a socialite, discovering that her sister has committed suicide. She goes to the boyfriend of the deceased, a cad played by Sidney Blackmer and she proceeds to blast him. Fleeing the scene she is chased around the globe by detective Frederic March and his assistant Ralph Bellamy.

Believe it or not, Ann Sothern, March's wily secretary steals every scene she is in. She really displays a depth of comedy that would follow her throughout her career. Of course, she was the right fit to portray a secretary, as she did that years later up in television's "Private Secretary."

The picture succumbs somewhat to the endless back and forth chase, and the inevitable March falling for the accused murderer. When he suddenly turns on her after they both flee, it appears that something is up, and that something is suddenly trying to exonerate Bennett. This is not fully explained.

This is an amusing little trifle. No more or no less. A charming cast, a fast pace, snappy dialog, charming players, a very silly story and a naked and unexplained denouement. The film started with the footage Tay Garnett made during a round-the-world sail. Or at least as far as Bombay sail. What to do with this footage? Dorothy Parker and sometime husband Alan Campbell, and Frank Adams, an ex-reporter and music composer who co-wrote I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now concocted a story about a classy broad who thinks she shot and killed a man and escapes San Francisco by going west to Hawaii, Japan, China, etc. She is being chased by the World's Greatest Detective, the dumbest flatfoot on the force who never-the- less is high ranking, and said detectives secretary. So you see the background shots are used as the backgrounds of all the places they go. Miss Parker is responsible for some mighty clever lines, lines which gave Ann Southern a whole career.

This was produced by independent producer Walter Wanger who released through United Artists. Wanger could do what he wanted and obtained the services of Frederick March who had previously acted in a Parker script A Star Is Born for independent producer David Selznick. March's agent was David's brother Myron. Joan Bennett was married to Walter Wanger and perhaps the most famous or even important aspect of this film is that Joan went brunette in this film and never went back. As they say. Ralph Bellamy was stuck in the middle of a career where he would get scripts to read in which characters were described as "Ralph Bellamy type". His name in the film "Blodgett" was the same as the want to be star in A Star is Born. Getting failed "B" actress Ann Southern from nowhere was brilliant. No doubt the 4' 11" Parker used the 5' 1" Southern as an avatar for her whit, especially her smart-woman-in-a- man's-world be-bop. Blodgett is a direct rip off of Shakespeare's Dogberry from Much Ado About Nothing (which might be a title suitable for this film). Sidney Blackmer is featured and appears in one scene and is out of there faster than you can say Janet Leigh. Tommy Mitchell is in two scenes, both shot on the same set, and is also featured. Wanger padding out the cast for the price of two days work.

The ending is maddening. The murder is revealed to prove Bennett's innocence in the first ten minutes but the film just goes on as if nobody heard. Of course in those days people didn't worry about such things as extradition or jurisdictions so our detectives go off in pursuit. The put-upon secretary goes on after them. March and Bennett fall in love and Bennett is betrayed and sent to trial. A trap is set for the real murderer based on the idea that they will be the people who don't show up at a party. Only they do show up at the party or else there wouldn't be a climax. The thing is the murderer, the backstory, the motive or even who these people are is never explained. I guess its not really important as the story skims along purely on the surface, sort of like the drama skims in front the back projections from Garnett's journey. Everybody, that is movie goers, knew the context of film conventions. They could connect the dots. At one point March buys a ticket from a cabin on a departing ship under the name Mr. & Mrs. Jones and Bellamy and Southern are tricked into taking it. So they decide to get married. A Dorothy Parker joke.

The sets are by Alexander Toluboff and a young Alexander Golitzen and the cinematography by the matchless Rudolph Maté. Garnett never made a stupid film or directed a bad scene so Wanger did his job correctly and hired the best people for his film.

I guess today the film from the journey is more valuable than the negative and rights to Trade Winds. It shows a world which no longer exists and that is priceless.

This film begins with society girl, Kay Kerrigan (Joan Bennett), shooting a no-good rich guy for destroying her sister. She soon is on the run and leaves the US. Because the dead guy was very rich and had a well-connected family, they pay detectives to follow her around the globe to bring her to justice. One of them, Sam Wye (Frederic March) finds that instead of bringing her back, he's tempted to just take off with her. When she is caught, he acts like a heel to throw off suspicion and ends up capturing the real killers--even though this sure seems like we saw her kill the cad!

It's pretty amazing. You've got some fine actors (particular Frederic March and Ralph Bellamy) and yet here they look awful. I blame most of it on the dumb dialog but the direction certainly left a lot to be desired. Add to that an over-extensive use of badly realized rear projection, and you've got an amazingly disappointing film. Want an example of the bad dialog?

(talking about Colombo, Sri Lanka):"Colombo---that's in Ohio!"

Joan Bennett, a flaming platinum blond, is accused of murdering the scion of a rich California newspaper owner. The owner's name is Bruhm with an umlaut and sounds absolutely nothing like "William Randolph Hearst." Nevertheless, the murder puts the San Francisco Police Department in a tizzy.

The detective assigned to the case is the near-sighted and totally square Ralph Bellamy whose theories of the crime have the virtue of being consistently wrong. Bellamy doesn't drink, smoke, swear, or wear anything but neat tweeds and a boater. The police chief, Thomas Mitchell, having little confidence in Bellamy, also hires a private detective to work with him. The private detective is the suave Frederick March. It's always nice to see March in a white suit and pith helmet when he visits exotic places.

The pair of detectives, dogged by March's secretary, Ann Sothern, track Bennett all over Asia -- from Hawaii when it was still "T.H.", to Japan, to Shanghai, to Singapore, and finally Bombay. In each place, March pursues his quarry by getting to know the local belles, while Bellamy huffs and blows his cheeks with indignation. The sets are all in the studio but the rear projections are sometimes interesting. That Shanghai street manages to really look like the street that runs along the waterfront.

They catch up with Bennett somewhere along the way, but she's changed her hair color and Bellamy has no idea who she is, while March not only recognizes her but falls instantly in love with her, and the other way round. The romance is boring but the picaresque story has its slight charms.

Gee, this was shot in 1937 and Japan is still full of geisha girls. And Shanghai is not yet desolate. And Singapore is full of white guys in white suits, kind of running things.

Frederick March was always an underrated actor but I thought he was better in dramatic roles. Bennett -- well, I don't know where she picked up those faux English phones -- "I cahn't do it" -- when she was born just across the Hudson from New York.

Dorothy Comingore is buried somewhere in the cast. A few years later she was to make another movie about the death of an important newspaperman, in which she played Wife Number Two, Mrs. Charles Foster Kane.

Dorothy Parker is listed among the writers but she must have done it for the paycheck, or during off moments while visiting Robert Benchley in Los Angeles, because the script has few genuine tag lines and no acid or sophistication. Well, the dialog does give Ann Sothern a couple of hyperlearnedisms. "Whom is she?" I take it that getting drunk isn't a sign of sophistication. Unless, like me, the character becomes extremely witty and utterly winning.

First, be sure to read the review by st-shot. His summary statement is a classic! How do I hate thee, oh movie? Let me count the ways: First, the first third of the film (after the murder) -- where they are trying to establish Frederick March as a playboy detective -- is about the worst waste of celluloid in the history of the American cinema. It makes him -- and women -- look like fools.

Second, okay, so Joan Bennett went from blond to brunette. If that's the most notable thing about this film it tells you a lot about how bad this film really is.

Third, Ralph Bellamy's part is so dumb. I'd blame the big studio for forcing such a dumb part on him, but this was an independent film. A shame, because as we all know, Bellamy was a fine actor.

As st-shot points out, this film includes "some of the worst back projection in film history"...and what's more, that makes up a good half of the film.

Frankly, when the cobra shows up, I was hoping it would somehow put an end to March and Bennett, and that we -- the faithful viewers -- would be put out of our misery.

Now, in all fairness, this movie isn't all bad. The love scenes between March and Bennett are actually pretty decent. And Ann Southern is very pleasant on screen, although I'm not sure that her presence is at all logical. The last third of the film is decent and has an interesting plot twist, although how the right people show up at a party is rather bewildering; I guess it made sense to the screenwriters...too bad it was so confusing to the audience (as several of our reviewers have noted it).

It would be easy to excuse this poor film by noting that it was made way back in 1938. But that's just a year before "Gone With The Wind" and "The Wizard Of Oz" and half a dozen other notable masterpieces. I give this one an "D". Don't waster your time.

Surely this is a film as profoundly stupid as most of the films being foisted on us today. I think it was meant to be a screwball comedy -- a genre that flourished with enjoyable results in the late 30s -- but it develops into (spoiler!!) a flicker about whether the beautiful woman will go to chair, or gas chamber, or gallows (whichever was in use back then). March is playing an impossible game in which he knows that the pursuer will somehow show up at the unknown island and miss with his .38, knows Bennett will be convicted, and knows he can (spoiler!!) spot the real culprit with a (spoiler!!) phony radio newscast. Then the murderer (spoiler!!) is instantly plugged in a version of Dodge City justice. And no blood spills on the rugs! This is really awful, and one wonders why an actor as good as the great March agreed to take the script on. Bennett is a beauty though, so the thing to do is turn the sound off and just watch her whilst she is on-screen. Shame on TCM for not heading this one off before it disgraced the screen.