Women Are Trouble (1936) User Reviews

From Prohibition to Protection

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 9 May 2014]

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.

kind of a gangster who-dunnit.... but not really

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 9 May 2014]

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.

not the worst

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 20 May 2023]

It's post-Prohibition. Gangster Tim Gleason has moved into the protection racket. He harasses small merchants with help from corrupt officials and a few useful murders. He has the gumption to complain to police Inspector Matson while veteran reporter Matt Casey is in his office. Matson is waiting for a whistleblower. Small town reporter Ruth Nolan is desperate to get a big city newspaper job, but the boss Bill Blaine won't hire another woman after the last one. She decides to investigate on her own.

I don't know anything about Casey, Crime Photographer. I've never heard of this long-running franchise character. I like the sassy girl newbie and the buddy-buddy veteran combination. This seems to be dismissed by most. I can see this duo becoming a fun investigative team although I don't want them coupling. I can do without Bill Blaine getting too involved. It's not high praise, but this is not the worst.

MGM flops at Screwball

[boblipton · 4/10 · 9 May 2014]

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.

No trouble here in the big city, only by chauvinistic editors.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 23 June 2022]

When a young journalistic hopeful, Florence Rice, tries to get a job on a big city newspaper, she's turned down flat simply because she's a woman and the editor doesn't want to end up paying alimony to someone else he's hired that ends up becoming his wife. Stupid excuse, but she scoops him by going out and getting the big story in regards to racketeers who have turned the end of prohibition into a money making scheme in creating protection rackets. Stuart Erwin and Paul Kelly support Rice who proves herself to be more adept, able to become a part of the big boys club and show that she's just as tough as them.

An enjoyable but predictable programmer, giving a nice twist to crime films, and a generously liberal viewpoint to women in the workplace, and not just being secretaries, nurses or baby doctors. Rice after getting hired since around patiently waiting for the big story to come, and when that doesn't happen, she sets out to make it happen and get the big scoop. She's actually pretty good at her job too, coming a full four years before Rosalind Russell did a twist on "The Front Page" with "His Girl Friday" and showing that female journalists could do more than just be sob sisters. The MGM gloss helps his rise above the normal B programmer, but it should have been a bit more detailed and given Rice something more juicy to do even though she proves in character that she's worth the trouble.

Casey, Crime Photographer: Your Question Answered!

[tobian85 · 5/10 · 22 May 2023]

One of the reviews of "Women Are Trouble" mentions never hearing of "Casey Crime Photographer". Perhaps that's because the show was not a movie or TV series. It was a fixture on RADIO and played on and off for the better part of a decade. You can find episodes of it on YouTube, on such "Old Time" radio shows as the Nostalgia Digest Channel.

The movie was entertaining, with a bright performance by Florence Rice. Paul Kelly, future felon, gets off some memorable zingers, and the movie offers a reliable supporting cast. I must confess that I have never understood the appeal of Stuart Erwin. He is competent...but not interesting.