Women Are Trouble (1936)

One of the wrost movies I have ever seen

Not even bad in a good way

Dreadfully Boring

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Prohibition may be over but the city's racketeers are still terrorizing liquor dealers with a protection racket. When eager would be reporter Florence Rice is a witness to the murder of a state liquor board inspector that other reporters have written up as an automobile accident she gets her job at Paul Kelly's newspaper in Women Are Trouble.The trouble they can be is that Rice becomes a romantic football tossed between Kelly and reporter Stu Erwin. That relationship is taken right from The Front Page.Woman Are Trouble is an interesting product from MGM's B picture unit and stealing the show is Kitty McHugh the feisty wife then widow of murder suspect Raymond Hatton. I wish we saw a lot more of her in this film, she really steals it.This is an amusing film, glad I got see it this morning.

MGM has Florence Rice try to crack the newspaper racket while racketeers are trying to regain control of the liquor industry. Unfortunately MGM uses Stu Erwin as one of the leads and I have never enjoyed his low-key aw-shucks delivery, Basically the story is too scattergun for MGM. The trio is completed with Paul Kelly as their women-hating editor who keeps flirting with Florence and wrangling with ex-wife Margaret Irving. Or possibly it's director Errol Taggert, newly graduated from from the ranks of assistant directors and who never got out of MGM's short subjects and lesser features.Oliver Marsh' high-key photography -- the house standard at MGM -- doesn't add much to the proceedings. In the end, though, most of the blame is due to Michal Fessier's script. His dialog is ill-humored. As Dorothy Parker once noted, "Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words." this movie is only calisthenics.

It's the battle of the sexes in this story of girl reporter against guy reporter. Prohibition has JUST ended, and the newspaper reporters are looking into shady murders. They both try to get a possible eye-witness to talk, but that doesn't work. Matt Casey (Stuart Erwin) is pitted against Ruth Nolan (Florence Rice) in this MGM shortie short - only 58 minutes. Erwin was a low key actor, and was nominated for Pigskin Parade in 1937. Later in the film, our stars both go to a costume party, and they fiddle diddle around for about ten minutes, without really accomplishing anything. Lot of ex-wife jokes. Excellent restoration, even if there are a film film quality issues here and there. Directed by Errol Taggart. Looks like he started in the silents, and continued directing into the 1930's talkies. Not a lot about him in wikipedia.org . Not a graceful ending to this thing, but it'll do for now. Only ten votes on IMDb as of today, so this one must have been kept in the closet. Not bad... but not great.