mark.waltz Growing up, I knew Joan Bennett as the strong matriarch of the gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows", but in studying classic film, I have suddenly been drawn to her incredible career which seemed to constantly reinvent itself. This forgotten gem is one of the key moments in her career. After a decade of being a blonde and sometimes cast in bland heroine roles, Bennett got to change her look on screen and go from long suffering to femme fatale, here believing that she has killed Sidney Blackmer who badly disrespected her sister, causing the unseen woman to kill herself. The San Francisco police are instantly on her trail, following her to Hawaii and pretty much all over the world, searching for a blonde woman rather than the dark haired mysterious woman she has transformed herself into. With the dimwitted Ralph Bellamy initially on the case (and completely screwing it up by believing that she has driven into the sea to escape capture), head detective Thomas Mitchell brings the much craftier Frederic March (whom he had previously fired) onto the case. March's "Girl Friday" (Ann Sothern in a scene stealing supporting part) follows him all over, hoping to collect on the reward, and in a very funny sequence, is confused by Bellamy to be Bennett and handcuffed in order to be taken back to San Francisco.As the romance blooms between Bennett and March, it becomes unclear whether he is simply using romance to get her back to face justice so HE can collect the reward or if he is truly in love with her and biding time to find a way of getting her off. That is the intriguing element of this smoothly written caper, given some exotic locations to move their romance along. It would be easy to write off the twists at the end as a convenient way to wrap things up, but after thinking about it, I found it completely plausible. They have excellent chemistry, with Bellamy a delightful nitwit and Sothern superbly funny as the dame who wants to prove that anything that March can do, she can do better. This puts you completely in the hands of the writers who take you along on this journey. In many ways, it reminded me of "One Way Passage", although the circumstances are quite different, because the romantic mood really strikes when typical American tourists end up in settings we can only fantasize about. Bennett is a combination of tender, loyal, sultry, cynical and just plain charming. March, like his reporter in "Nothing Sacred", seems to be winking at the audience, and that adds a great deal to his character's charm even though at times, he appears to be like a snake in the grass. The fact that a film can mix artistic integrity in with typical elements of screwball comedy and romantic intrigue puts this a notch above many other similar films, a testimony to the brilliant script which none other than Dorothy Parker contributed to.

blanche-2 "Trade Winds" is a comedy-drama starring Joan Bennett, Frederic March, Ralph Bellamy, and Ann Sothern, directed by Tay Garnett.Bennett plays Kay Kerrigan, a young woman who is out to avenge her sister's death and goes after her sister's ex-boyfriend (Sidney Blackmer). When Kay says she wishes she could shoot him, he hands her a gun and she shoots. Then she starts running for her life. To change her appearance, she dyes her hair dark. This turned out to be a boon for Bennett, who took on an exciting new look with the dark hair.The police send one of their own after her, Ben Blodgett (Ralph Bellamy) and one of their ex-own, the womanizing, slippery Sam Wye (March), now a detective who spends a lot of time coming on to women. He's also romancing his secretary Jean (Ann Sothern). He agrees to search for Kay and manages to get away from from Jean and hop a boat. He gets a line on Kay, and when Jean next appears, she's an assistant to Kay. Then Sam finds out there's a $100,000 award on Kay's head. Small problem - he falls madly in love with Kay.Fun comedy that slows up in the middle, with good performances by a relaxed March, a very funny Sothern, a lovely Bennett, and Bellamy as an overblown police detective. Not the best, but not bad - except for some of the process shots.

theowinthrop 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!

kmk-3 Was there ever a more relaxed, charming rogue than Frederic March? He would have been a perfect James Bond, had the role been available to him in the '30s. As it is, he made do spectacularly with this one: he's Sam Wye, a former SFPD detective, hired to find and bring back the luminous Joan Bennett, who's suspected of murdering Sidney Blackmer... When her car goes into the Bay, she swims ashore and goes on the run... The action roves as the trade winds of the title, straying from the piers of the city by the Bay to Honolulu, Singapore, Tokyo, Hanoi, and Colombo, Ceylon. Ralph Bellamy,side-hick to March, sez: "Colombo? I thought that was in Ohio..." Ann Sothern is glamorous, and Joan Bennett sizzles. This is the movie in which she dyed her hair black -- and then kept it dark for the next 50 years...leaving the blonde Bennett roles to sister Constance. As a glimpse of pre-War Asia, and an insight into the world before terrorism, this is a charming and lovely memory. You'll yearn for the time when cruise attire was more than sweatsuits and sneakers...and all this with dialog by Dorothy Parker!