I've Got Your Number (1934)
*** (out of 4)
Extremely entertaining gem from Warner about phone repairman Terry Riley (Pat O'Brien) who falls for a beautiful blonde (Joan Blondell) but soon gets caught up in a robbery. I'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER turns into a crime picture for the final fifteen-minutes but the rest of the running time is basically a romantic comedy and it's a very good one at that. I think it's pretty clear that the egotistical maniac, fast talking lead character was meant to be played by James Cagney but for whatever reason he didn't do the part so O'Brien stepped in. It seems whenever the Cagney-O'Brien team couldn't do a picture, the studio gave the lead to O'Brien and then they'd bring in either Allen Jenkins (as they did here) or Frank McHugh. O'Brien and Jenkins makes for a very good pair as the two work well off one another and make for a highly entertaining and very fast little picture. The two of them can mix it up extremely well and Jenkins certainly manages to bring a lot of laughs. Blondell is also very good in her role as she's certainly easy on the eye but she also manages to make you believe her in the part. Glenda Farrell has a brief but very funny part as a fake psychic and we also get a good supporting performance by the always entertaining Eugene Palette. There are countless highlights to this film but I think the greatest thing are the various pre-code elements with most of them dealing with sex. O'Brien's character, in today's world, would be called a stalker or sexual harasser because of the way he talks to women, pretty much follows them and forces them to go out with him. It's certainly played for jokes here and it gets plenty of laughs especially one scene early on where two sexually charged women invite him into the house and all sorts of innuendo is thrown around. These pre-code sex jokes are without question hilarious and help keep this film moving at a great pace.
