mark.waltz
The Rosalind Russell stereotype of the high hat business executive/lady boss gets probably its most tiresome plot. There's the macho man she despises (Brian Aherne), the cultured man she respects (Willard Parker) and the one she falls in love with. Who could that possibly be? It takes over 90 minutes for her to get to the final choice, and along the way, she cracks wise, dresses glamorously and fights the stereotype of what a war era woman should be. Even if women got to run things while the men were "over there", something tells me that the Rosalind Russell archetype was an overachiever long before women on the swing shift flexed their muscle and insisted, "We can do it!"Russell works as a publishing executive who discovers that mild mannered college professor Parker is a best selling author using a pseudonym. Fellow publisher Aherne keeps stalking them, gives Rosalind the worst of times, and makes smoke come out of her ears due to his insensitivity. But where there's smoke, there's fire, reuniting the stars of "My Sister Eileen" and keeping them working in the same industry. So Aherne and Russell talk fast, fight over the silliest things, and yet as well intended as it is, it just isn't all that funny, proving that lightning doesn't always strike twice. Roz has a great outburst towards the end, but that doesn't change the fact that the story is stale, unbelievable and mostly dull
edwagreen
What a whirlwind of a movie! Rosalind Russell portrays a fast-talking movie-agent who discovers that a meek college professor wrote a racy book and that he looks like the major character depicted in the book and she gets him to try out for the part in the film.While this is going on, Brian Aherne, as a magazine writer, pursues Russell continuously.The best part of the film is when after being at a Turkish bath with Aherne, the college professor experiences a total change in personality and goes after Russell since he has really fallen for her.Movie made during World War 11. What a great way to get everyone's mind off,if but temporary, from the real world.
gudpaljoey-78582
I don't know how anyone cannot like 'What a Woman.' I thought it was a very funny, delightfully insane romp, made possible by the wonderful Roz Russell playing the role of a powerful comedic woman, a role that she plays better than anyone else, and that included Mss. Shearer, Harlow, and Stanwyck. The rest of the cast had a hard time keeping up with her, but mostly did. I had to suspend belief over the rush to the wedding near the end of the flic, and I needed a few more hints as to why Mr. Ahearn was falling in love with her. There were enough good lines for all concerned to make me give a hoot about the writing of a genre film hat had not quite become a genre.
boblipton
This mildly preposterous riff on the by now standard Rosalind Russell comedy -- high powered woman executive meets easy-going, mildly contemptuous bohemian and falls into frilly love by the end of the fifth reel -- winds along its well-greased way in a mildly bemused fashion. Long-time pro, Irving Cummings directs this well enough, but only Miss Russell puts any oomph into her role and the visuals mainly seem concerned with her head, making sure that she has an odd looking hat or hairdo that seems to change with every scene. She wears some dynamite dresses also; credit Travis Banton for the dresses. He seems to have specialized in gowning Carole Lombard in her movies.Everyone seems to be giving it the old college try, but by now the formula had grown pretty tired, sustained only by war time movie attendance and some hope that all those Rosies out there, busy riveting together planes and battleships would be able to spend their times in silly hats once the war was over and men like Brian Aherne would be free of the restrictions of bow ties.
AD
