Traveling Saleslady (1935) User Reviews

A breath of fresh air ...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 22 November 2018]

... among the usual constrained unfunny comedies of the early production code era. Angela Twitchell (Joan Blondell) is the only child and go-getter daughter of toothpaste tycoon Rufus Twitchell (Grant Mitchell). The problem is, Mr. Twitchell won't let Angela go get anything. He has prehistoric ideas about women being too emotionally unstable and just not smart enough to be involved in business of any kind.

Angela meets up with an ex-bootlegger who has discovered how to get the flavor of his various bootleg formulas into toothpaste, but has been futile at his efforts to get Mr. Twitchell to talk to him - Elmer, played by Hugh Herbert. So Angela decides to get back at dad and take Elmer to dad's competitor. She tells the competitor that she will "rent" Elmer's formulas and labor to him for one year, providing she is allowed to be on the sales staff and get a percentage of her sales as income. The competitor agrees.

So Angela is out on the road, in competition with Pat O'Connor (William Gargan), representing Twitchell, who seemed like a big sleaze bag to me at first. For example, Angela gets no consideration from the first sales call she makes, which is on Glenda Farrell playing Claudette the buyer for a drugstore concern. O'Connor is leading Claudette on and thus Claudette only deals in Twitchell products. O'Connor is there when Angela strikes out, and is condescending and arrogant to her, amused by the idea of a saleslady. But he is not amused long. The rest of the picture is basically a battle of wits between Angela as a figurative Bugs Bunny and O'Connor as a figurative Daffy Duck. And we all know how cartoons go that have those two in them. A rare feminist situation in 1935 American films, compounded by the fact that O'Connor does not know Angela's true identity.

Hugh Herbert is portioned out in small doses, and that makes him work in this film as too much of his typical confused and inane act can get old fast. The double entendres don't come fast and furious as they would have in the precode era, but a few do get through if you listen carefully enough. Even our two feminist characters in this film show a bit of prejudice. Before their first meeting - Angela as saleslady and Claudette as the head of buying for her drugstore - both women assume the other is a man and are putting on their face assuming that will help them with the man they are assuming they will be dealing with.

And who can't help like a film that shows the sales route of the two rival toothpaste salespersons as lines of toothpaste meandering across a map of the U.S? Highly recommended.

fun, fast script. great cast.

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 4 September 2016]

Quick, snappy script. Joan Blondell is "Angela", the daughter of the toothpaste king. Her dad refuses to let her work at the company, so she goes to work for the competitor. She and Glenda Farrell had both been in the biz for some years, along with Grant Mitchell (he has hair in this one!) and muttering, stuttering Hugh Herbert. Quite a coincidence with a writer and one of the actors - a writer is F. Hugh Herbert, and one of the actors is Hugh Herbert... not sure where that fits in; according to IMDb, they have different but close dates of birth. This plot seems to have been re-used in Carol Channing's first credited film role "First Traveling Sales Lady" in 1956, about 20 years later! That one is also a fun film. Watch for Hattie McDaniel here, in a quick 30 second bit part. The girls scheme and run end games around the men. They also mention that the Secretary of Labor is also a female, which was actually true. Frances Perkins actually WAS the secretary of labor from 1933 - 1945, under FDR and Harry Truman. the credits, the story, and the script has the feel of a pre-code film, but this was made in 1935. Bert Roach is in here in a small part - he had been around during the silents. Directed by Ray Enright, who had ALSO been around during the silents with Mack Sennett studios, so he was in Hollywood right from the beginning of the film industry. Check it out... it's a fun one! kind of an abrupt, quick end, but its still fun to watch.

All's Fair in Love And Business

[boblipton · 7/10 · 8 August 2023]

Joan Blondell wants a job in the toothpaste firm owned by her father, Grant Mitchell. Hugh Herbert has developed a line of flavors for toothpaste and he wants to sell them to Mitchell. Mitchell is a fuddy-duddy and turns them both down without listening. So Miss Blondell goes to Mitchell's competitor, Al Shean, who is delighted with the idea, agreeing a a penny per tube, a place in the lab for Herbert, and a saleslady job for her. Soon she is tangling with Mitchell's top salesman, William Gargan, and the lady doesn't play fair, especially with her husband, George Barnes, in charge of the camera.

Director Ray Enright keeps the pace up, and added Glenda Farrell as a drugstore-chain owner who dates Gargan, so the words fly as as fast as the situations. Keep an eye out for Ruth Donnelly, Johnny Arthur, Bert Roach..... well, the usual cast of fine character comedians that Warners could draw on in this period.

Snappy Joan Blondell

[drednm · 5 January 2006]

Joan Blondell stars as the daughter of a tooth paste baron (Grant Mitchell) who doesn't believe in women in the workplace or in embracing modern advertising. Blondell is bored and wants a job but daddy says NO! So she goes to a competitor with a new idea from a nutty professor (Hugh Herbert) with the proviso that she gets to be the traveling saleslady.

Blondell immediately runs into competition from daddy's crack salesman (William Gargan) and the two spend the rest of the film sparring and falling in love. Glenda Farrell also stars as the head of a drug store chain, also in love with Gargan.

Lots of fun, fast pacing, and many snappy lines make this a top B comedy of the 30s.Very modern in its view of women, big business, etc.

Ruth Donnelly is the mother, Al Shean is the competitor, Bert Roach (very funny) as the male wallflower, Mary Treen is a secretary, and Johnny Arthur is also a secretary.

Good roles for Blondell, Farrell, and Gargan---and all three underused by Warners.

It's fun, it's silly....it's a comedy about toothpaste!

[1930s_Time_Machine · 6/10 · 20 March 2023]

It's so nice to see Joan Blondell in something a little different from the usual regurgitated trash she was forced to do around this time. This is a great piece of harmless nonsense with a lovely upbeat feel. For a change Joan is playing a successful business woman - not that common in 1935! Although it's a comedy role, she makes her character seem real and almost believable whilst also being totally adorable.

The cameraman on this film was by George Barnes, her soon to be ex-husband which apparently led to quite an uncomfortable set. He would no longer photograph his wife in any immodest scenes. Her sexy curves were now for his eyes only, not to be shared with the likes of us anymore. Long gone are days when we had long, lingering shots of her taking off her stockings. Nevertheless she dazzles in this.

She dazzles with as much sexy fun, happiness and enthusiasm for life that any character can have whilst also coming across as an actual person. Her style of delivery still works just as well today and she's guaranteed to raise a few smiles. Even when she's not being funny, she'll also make you smile just by her lovely, cuddly niceness....even if only shown from the neck up!

It's much better than most of the Blondell-Farrell comedies from the mid thirties. Great fun!

Light and enjoyable....and a blow for feminism!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 9 September 2011]

Angela Twitchell (Joan Blondell) is the daughter of a rich owner of the country's biggest-selling toothpaste. Her father, unfortunately, is a bit of a blow-hard and refuses to let her have any involvement with the company because 'it's men's work'! When a goofy inventor (Hugh Herbert) also finds himself frustrated with her father because he won't even talk to him about his invention, he shows it to Blondell and she is VERY impressed. You see, instead of antiseptic tasting paste, he's come up with flavors that taste like booze. She sees a great future for the products but since her father won't talk business with her at all, she takes the idea to one of his competitors and she is hired as a saleslady on the spot.

During the course of her cross-country travels, she is VERY successful and soon the tiny company she works for is putting her Dad's out of business. But, because she's using a false name, he has no idea she's the brains behind this turnaround. Along the way, she meets a salesman for Twitchell's (William Gargan) and although they are bitter rivals, their is a romantic spark between them. Can Blondell manage to make everyone happy AND get the guy? The film is quite charming and enjoyable. Sure, it's not especially deep, but the excellent writing and acting make this one to see. Clever.

Oh, and by the way, though the scene on the telephone is very short, that's Hattie McDaniel in this cameo.

Two Stars Shine In Depression Era Comedy

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 16 May 2001]

A TRAVELING SALESLADY & a drugstore queen vie for the affection of a handsome toothpaste salesman.

This was the sort of ephemeral comic frippery which the studios produced almost effortlessly during the 1930's. Well made & highly enjoyable, Depression audiences couldn't seem to get enough of these popular, funny photo dramas.

Sassy & sweet, Joan Blondell & Glenda Farrell make perfect romantic rivals. This is really Blondell's picture - Farrell's part gets off to a slow start - but they are great together or apart and make the film zing.

William Gargan gives a good performance as the fellow in the enviable position of being desired by both Blondell & Farrell. Wonderful, wacky Hugh Herbert, as the inventor of cocktail flavored toothpaste, leads a parade of character actors - Grant Mitchell, Al Shean, Ruth Donnelly, Johnny Arthur, Bert Roach, Mary Treen & Harry Holman - who all excel at milking laughs from every line.

Movie mavens will recognize the marvelous Hattie McDaniel, uncredited in a tiny, hilarious, scene.

While never stars of the first rank, Joan Blondell (1906-1979) & Glenda Farrell (1904-1971) enlivened scores of films at Warner Bros. throughout the 1930's, especially the eight in which they appeared together. Whether playing gold diggers or working girls, reporters or secretaries, these blonde & brassy ladies were very nearly always a match for whatever leading man was lucky enough to share equal billing alongside them. With a wisecrack or a glance, their characters showed they were ready to take on the world - and any man in it. Never as wickedly brazen as Paramount's Mae West, you always had the feeling that, tough as they were, Blondell & Farrell used their toughness to defend vulnerable hearts ready to break over the right guy. While many performances from seven decades ago can look campy or contrived today, these two lovely ladies are still spirited & sassy.

The Power of Women

[sambase-38773 · 8/10 · 11 September 2023]

This movie was ahead of its time. It's all about the power of women. That's something we're very familiar with these days, but they were not quite as familiar with back in the 1930's. But that's okay, it was the 1930's not 2023. So I cut them a little slack. There is no need to cut this movie any slack because it's marvelous.

This is a comedy full of wit and energy. It's extremely well-written and never backs down. The actors never back down either. They play it with all the energy they can muster. All the players are wonderful.

Basically, two toothpaste companies are battling it out. A salesman for one and a saleswoman for the other are also battling it out, face to face. Both of them are extremely ambitious and extremely ruthless. They are also attracted to each other.

The fun never stops in this non-stop fun fest. Feast your eyes and ears on this fabulous comedy from the 1930's, a decade that has never been topped for screwball comedies. This one is a gem.

An Early Feminist Statement

[Handlinghandel · 5/10 · 28 January 2006]

The character played by Joan Blondell wants to make it in a man's world and boy, does she! Her pompous father tells her women don't belong in business when she asks for a job -- any job. So she goes to work for his rival. And work she does! Her father is a stuffy toothpaste manufacturer. She hooks up with dizzy inventor Hugh Herbert and comes up with a plan to revolutionize the world of toothpaste. And she leases her and Herbert's services to her father's rival for a year. And then she goes to work in the title capacity.

William Gargan is likable as the salesman who is both her romantic interest and her rival. (He works for her father's company. Needless to say, she is not using her real name; so to him, she is The Enemy.) It is far from a masterpiece. But Blondell is always a delight and it's a brassy, entertaining story.

Very enjoyable family picture

[Kittyman · 8/10 · 19 May 2011]

Nowadays movies portray business-persons as greedy, twisted, conspiratorial individuals. In the thirties, however, they generally were seen as at least useful, if not heroic. And perhaps I'm anachronistic, but that's still the way I think things really are.

In this quasi-feminist film, the wonderful Joan Blondell seizes upon an inventor's idea for liquor flavored toothpaste. (Indeed, if you Google that term you'll find such a product actually exists today.) When her knuckle-headed father won't sell it through his company, however, she finds a way around him, and cuts a pseudonymous deal with his more foresighted rival.

Then great fun results as she, the opposition's chief salesperson, and William Gargan, her father's chief salesman, try to constantly double-cross each other on-the-job, while falling for each other off-the-job.

The picture's pace is swift, the dialog snappy, and the plot has no holes. I highly recommend it, and have only three caveats:

1. The script overlooks what I believe would have been "cocktail" toothpaste's greatest selling point—that of deniability. Neither your boss nor your spouse could ever prove you were drinking 'cause you could always claim they just smelled the toothpaste.

2. While Gargan does a fine job with his role, his part itself has Jimmy Cagney written all over it. Had Cagney been Joan's opposition, "Traveling Saleslady" probably would have been considered a classic.

3. Finally, I say quasi-feminist film because; at very end Joan, who clearly is the smartest person, and the best business mind in the picture reconciles with Gargan by telling him she wants to go to Niagra Falls and cook for him thereafter. What really should have happened, however, is this: she should have said "I want to go to Niagara Falls with you (a smiling reaction by Gargan) before taking over as your boss (a stunned Gargan promptly collapses to the floor in a faint)."

All about Champaign-flavored toothpaste, with Joan Blondell as Miss Fix-it.

[estherwalker-34710 · 8/10 · 25 May 2021]

Delightful, unpretentious comedy, with well-constructed, complex, if much contrived, screenplay, that especially emphasized 4 intertwining personal conflicts..............First, there is the conflict between Joan Blondell, as Angela Twitchell, and her father, Rufus: president of Twitchell toothpaste, over his rejection of her request to be given a job in his company. Rufus says women belong at home, not in the work place. After Angela meets eccentric Elmer(Hugh Herbert)): ex-bootlegger, who has developed toothpaste with the flavors of various alcoholic drinks, she tries to convince Rufus to give this a try. But conservative old Rufus doesn't want to hear about it...........So, Angela goes to see the president of Schmidt toothpaste. Mr. Schmidt is like a friendly grandfather, and agrees to try it. Angela stipulates that he must hire her as a saleslady, and that she will initially give him an exclusive contract for only one year. To hide her identity as Rufus's daughter, Angela adopts a pseudonym: Miss Smith. Her chief rival in her travels is handsome, single, Pat O'Connor: Rufus's best traveling salesman. The two salespeople always seem to be bumping into each other, and Angela is winning the competition big time. Such that Rufus soon has to dismiss many of his employees. Although they are bitter rivals in business, of course, they gradually develop romantic feelings for each other............. Meanwhile, Pat is also dating Claudette(Glenda Farrell),: another beautiful blond,: head of a pharmacy that is one of his customers. At one point, Pat and Claudette hire a small open plane to take them to Chicago, to get there before Angela does. But, they don't know that Angela previously paid this pilot to skywrite 'Champaign-flavored toothpaste' over Chicago. During the skywriting, the passengers are shocked that sometimes the open plane flies upside down! Eventually, Angela meets Pat + Claudette, and the 2 women discover that Pat has been two-timing them. Hence, they both disown him., at least for the present............ Later, Angela proposes to Mr. Schmidt that her father's much diminished company merge with his. She reminds him that his contract expires after one year, and that she will only bestow a new contrast on a combined company. During negotiations, Pat serendipitously arrives,(no explanation why, but to finish the film, he has to) and discovers that Miss Smith is actually Rufus's daughter. Angela suggests that Pat make up with her and form a personal merger.

They say pop always pays, and this time he does...in spades!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 19 September 2014]

Twitchell's toothpaste is in an uproar....There's a new flavor in town, and it's dropping Twitchell's sales like gangbusters. The reason? The breath freshener is flavored with cocktails! Yes, you can get rid of the onion smell from your morning omelet by covering it up with the smell of various cocktails. Prohibition is over, so anything goes, I guess, and guess who the sales lady is: Old man Twitchell's own daughter (Joan Blondell) who is furious with papa for not giving her a job. The old sexist (Grant Mitchell) doesn't believe that women belong in business, and Joan is out to prove dad wrong. While on the road, she meets Twitchell salesman William Gargan who is her rival by day, but after 8, business no longer matters, well so they tell each other.

Then, there's drug store owner Glenda Farrell who earlier turned down the cocktail toothpaste and finds that Twitchell's is collecting dust on her shelves. It all culminates in Chicago at the latest drug store convention where rivals Blondell and Farrell go to to toe over Gargan with wacky inventor Hugh Herbert befuddled over all the toothpaste intrigue going on underneath his "woo-woo" spouting lips. Behind the scenes, Mrs. Twitchell (a delightful Ruth Donnelly making more out of a small part than what was originally there) encourages her daughter to give Mitchell the run for his money, something she's wanted to do for years.

Of course, alcoholic toothpaste is in the minds of the writers, certainly not reality, and this really pushes the new production code to its maximum level. Still, even with the code on the script's tail, it's pretty raunchy stuff, with some hidden sexual innuendo adding a lot of fun to the fast-moving script. It's also fun, in this pre-women's lib era, to watch Blondell winning at every turn, and to see smug Gargan getting his from both the women in his life. Some fun character performances from Al Shean, Bert Roach, and an unbilled Hattie McDaniel add to the sparkle of this post-code comedy that almost seems like pre-code with a few elements that slipped by Mr. Hays' big ears.

More than anything, this flick constitutes an . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 18 December 2018]

. . . ahead-of-its time reflection upon the 2016 POTUS Election Campaign by the always eponymous Warner Bros. After all, who better epitomizes a TRAVELING SALESLADY than a dame running for President of the United States? Warner Bros.' team of clairvoyant prognosticators miss nary a detail of our recent Real Life rigged election debacle, as all of the back-stabbing dirty tricksters show up here. People campaign throughout TRAVELING SALESLADY under assumed names such as "Martha Smith" and "Elmer Niles," the precursors of "Pocahontas, Lying Ted, and Little Marco." More sinister yet, "Cocktail Toothpaste" (flavors include Scotch, Brandy, Bourbon, Rum, Champagne, Vermouth, and Gin Fizz) sweeps America as plausibly as a tax-dodging, bankrupt failed game show host might be expected to. Moreover, Warner's prophets foresee the lady with more talent in her lipstick smear than any savvy residing within her opponent's entire noggin happy to give up and retire to her kitchen once the fix is in. Warner uses TRAVELING SALESLADY to warn We Americans of (The Then) Far Future that when the toothpaste has squirted out of its tube, you can never stuff it back in, no matter how much you try.

A good idea for comedy just doesn't deliver the laughs

[SimonJack · 5/10 · 31 March 2020]

When her father refuses to give her a job in his toothpaste company, Angela Twitchell sets out on her own in "Traveling Saleslady." She's going to prove him wrong, that the business world is not place for a woman. And does she ever in this film.

Joan Blondell plays Angela and Grant Mitchell plays her dad, Rufus. While billed as a comedy romance, this film hardly has any of the latter, and very little of the former. Angela teams up with Elmer, played by Hugh Herbert, who has invented unique flavored toothpastes. She then offers the product to her dad's competitor, with the proviso that she still owns the product and gets to go on the road to sell it.

That she does, much to the consternation of her dad's top salesman, Pat O'Connor (played by William Gargan), for whom Angela has eyes. A very good supporting cast of various characters contribute to this film. It was a glowing tribute to "women's lib" long before that movement of the late 1960s. Indeed, Hollywood made any number of movies ahead of that time in which women were cast in business and professional roles. Some were comedies - much better than this one, and others were dramas, mysteries and other genres.

As a comedy, "Traveling Saleslady" just isn't very funny. It has very little humorous dialog. And the funny situations are light at best. Part of the problem may be with Blondell herself. She was a favorite for lead roles at Warner Brothers during the Golden Era, especially comedy. But in this genre she always seemed to have one face - a wide-eyed, perky, smiling, agreeable, go get-em persona. So, when the dialog, action or scene doesn't mesh with that persona, what otherwise would be funny is a thud or just a pass over.

Here are a couple of the few good lines in this film.

Harry, "Is that you, Claudette?" Claudette, "Errr, ya got me. How are ya, Harry?" Harry, "Oh, me, I'm pretty OK, uh, except I caught cold last Tuesday. No, maybe it was Wednesday." Claudette, "Well, try to remember. I must know." Harry, "Let me see. My birthday was on Tuesday..." Claudette, "You sure?" Harry, "No.... no, when did I catch cold?" Claudette, "Listen, Harry, when you do remember, telephone me."

Martha, "Pat, pat!" Pat, "What do you want?" Martha, "I wanna go to Niagara Falls." Pat, "Can you swim?" Martha, "No, but I can cook."