mark.waltz Homicide detective Melvyn Douglas is determined to make good in his chosen career, but his long-time girlfriend Joan Blondell would rather him retire and push baby carriages, the thought of which makes him wince. She is tired of his being pulled away from their romantic evenings out on the town, so she begins plotting ways of getting him to either be fired or resign. "I'm more interested in making Kenny a good cop rather than a good husband", police chief Clarence Kolb tells Blondell after she inquires if he's been fired. But once a cop, always a cop, and even after he does resign, circumstances change which keeps him working much to Blondell's frustration.A funny subplot involves an ill-fated romance between Blondell's co-worker Ruth Donnelly whom Douglas sets up with Edward Brophy. All would be fine if Brophy didn't have a 40 year sentence waiting for him upstate. "Age before beauty", he tells her, allowing her to go in front of him. Blondell comments, "Your friend doesn't waste much time" to which Douglas replies, "He hasn't got much time to waste". Brophy proves to be a rather dashing dancer, hoofing with both Blondell and Donnelly, promising her, "I'll never look at another dame as long as I live." It seems that the biggest challenge in police chief Kolb's job is to find a police officer willing to dress in women's clothing to trap a killer. Guess who ends up in drag! "Good grief, you look like my Aunt Nellie!", Blondell exclaims upon seeing him. Of course, he doesn't remove his mustache, covering it instead with a flowered see-through veil. Blondell follows him, is attacked, and through guilt, Douglas promises to marry her, much to Kolb's dismay. A smart and funny script keeps the wisecracks flowing, while the action comes fast and furious, giving enough mystery both for the murder and whether or not Douglas will ultimately commit."Congradulations! I hope all your kids have flat feet!", Donnelly tells Douglas after he stands Blondell up at their city hall marriage for police business. Eventually, like Nick and Nora (and many other "Thin Man" knock-off couples), Blondell joins Douglas in helping him in his investigation in order to save him from going to jail, and this leads to a more serious last quarter. Even though Blondell may seem a bit one sided in her determination to grasp onto Douglas and take him away from his career, she does seem to come around and understand why he has to do for a living what he does. So in the end, this is less about a clinging, manipulative woman, but about two people in love coming to an understanding and how they deal with their differences.

MartinHafer This is the third of three films Melvyn Douglas made with Joan Blondell in 1938 and 1939. It seemed that Columbia Pictures was trying to generate some momentum with the two but it apparently didn't take. It's too bad, as I really liked the two together--at least in the two films I saw (this one and "There's Always a Woman"). They seemed to have good chemistry.This one begins with Douglas as a police lieutenant. For some odd reason, the Captain seems to want to destroy Douglas' love life with Blondell. Every time they plan a date, the Captain insists that Douglas needs to respond--even on his off days. This puts Douglas in the dog house with his girlfriend and eventually it causes Douglas to do something really crazy. The Captain, again in an effort to break up Douglas and Blondell, sends Melvyn on an errand to escort a convict to prison. But, Douglas is afraid to tell Blondell that their date has been canceled--so he brings the convict with him on the date--figuring he can drop off the guy at the prison later! And naturally, it blows up in his face and the police end up looking pretty bad.Eventually, after many further indignities, Douglas has finally had enough. He knows the only way to get her back is to quit his job once and for all. But, like a retired fire horse, he just can't get it out of his system and despite telling Blondell he'd quit, he is tricked by the boss into investigating a murder/robbery. The notion of Douglas freeing a convicted murderer is just plain nuts. Why didn't he just let the guy stay in jail while he investigated instead of putting himself in jeopardy of a long prison term for such an act. And, sadly, at the point in the film the plot seemed to drag--mostly because it became more of a standard mystery film at this point. Like Nick and Nora Charles and Douglas and Blondell in "There's Always a Woman", the two pair up to solve a crime....and the film becomes all too ordinary Overall, I liked the characters and the story had some nice moments, but the final 1/2 of the film is a bit of a let-down. Not bad, but after such a nice start, not all that great either.

waldog2006 Melvyn Douglas once more gives a polished performance in which, this time, he inhabits the role of a detective who can't place love before duty and adventure, and the warmly beautiful Joan Blondell (who, far from being illiterate, as one reviewer suggested, wrote a novel about her early life) is as enjoyable as ever as his ever-suffering sweetheart.It's almost a screwball comedy, almost a Thin Man-type movie, almost a series, I guess, that didn't quite make it to a sequel. It doesn't quite reach classic status, but it has all the ingredients for a fun 85 minutes with an episodic but pacey script, fine character actors, and direction that keeps it all moving fast enough so that you nearly don't notice that Williams (Douglas) isn't exactly Columbo when it comes to detecting. I wish there were more films like this.

gmboothe The only other review of this movie as of this date really trashes the stars and the movie itself. I usually like to read the user comments to give me an idea of what to expect from a movie I don't know much about. It's unfortunate when there aren't many comments for a certain tile, because when there is only one review and it unreasonably trashes the movie and cast, you don't get an idea of what to expect. I read the review before watching this title and I don't know where all the venom for this movie and the stars came from. Douglas and Blondell were both very talented and attractive people who usually delivered, even when the material was not the greatest. I found the movie and the performances fun and enjoyable. It isn't one of the great all-time classics, but a pleasant and funny diversion-much more than you can hope for in most newer movies. If you are a fan of these stars, you will not be disappointed.