Ladies Should Listen

Cary Grant simply isn't good at silly. Maybe I have too many images of him being the lead man in dramas, so to see him playing in bad comedies like "Kiss and Make-Up" and "Ladies Should Listen" is off putting. With a title like "Ladies Should Listen" you have to expect it to not be good.

The is the second movie in which Cary Grant's character steals the significant other of Edward Everett Horton. Horton can't get a break. Whatever movie he plays in he's the square, the nerd, the geek there to play off of the leading man.

Cary Grant plays Julian De Lussac, a French inventor and ladies' man. He was interested in Marguerite Cintos (Rosita Moreno) while Susie Flamberg (Nydia Westman) and another woman was interested in him. All Julian wanted was Marguerite and he had to have her.

Marguerite had called Julian to end their relationship. In a ploy to keep her, Julian pretended to commit suicide while on the phone with her. Within the next minute a distraught woman ran into his room openly mourning his death like she was mourning a lost lover. When Julian got up from playing dead he found that the woman was not Marguerite but Anna Mirelle (Frances Drake), the switchboard operator for the building.

Here's one for you. Through overhearing just about all of Julian's telephone conversations (probably prompted by seeing him and being hopelessly attracted), Anna had come to know and love Julian. She was eavesdropping at the time he pretended to kill himself and was so overcome with grief that she ran up to his apartment to have a moment with him instead of calling emergency services.

She was an obsessed stalker, but she was pretty so it was OK. Right? Plus, this was a comedy so normal rules don't apply. Even still, she was like many women in films who fall for the philanderer. They know he's just looking to conquer one woman after the other, yet they believe that they'll be that woman that he'll settle down with. They do everything they can to gain his attention and prove that they are a better option than all the other hussies he sleeps with while he overlooks her until she does something so outstanding he finally sees her with a romantic eye.

Groan.

The title "Ladies Should Listen" didn't mean what I thought it meant; that ladies should heed their man. In this case it meant that they should listen in or even eavesdrop in order to uncover nefarious plots or be well-informed.

Anna listened and listened. She bent over backwards to protect her crush. Her job and her dignity were both worth sacrificing to give her unsolicited assistance to Julian. It was embarrassing and worse, it wasn't funny.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

As the Great Depression deepened during the mid-1930's, audiences sought escape from the grim realities of unemployment, bread lines, and Hoover Towns in dark movie palaces watching films. "Ladies Should Listen" is an ideal piece of escapist fluff for the period, and, surprisingly, the film retains some charm and appeal for contemporary audiences. The telephone operator at a posh apartment building has romantic designs on a handsome womanizer who lives there. The silly nonsense that ensues moves fast, which prevents any lapses in logic or credibility to register. Based on a play, the antics are still somewhat stage-bound, but some of the lines are quite funny, and the cast delivers them with skill.

Although the film was poorly received on release and star Cary Grant was thought miscast, the film remains a light entertainment, and Grant plays an early version of his romantic "Cary Grant" character. The supporting cast is fine, with Nydia Westman a standout as a young bespectacled heiress, who is starry-eyed for Grant. Fussy Edward Everett Horton plays his standard comedic character, and lovely Francis Drake is the designing switchboard operator, although she fails to register strongly.

Gadgets to create the sounds of thunder and rain or to spray the air with perfume aid Grant in his romantic pursuits and, mixed with nitrate options in Chile, a conspiratorial pair of South Americans, a love-lorn doorman, and an cleverly inventive butler, create a light farce with few pretensions beyond diversion. Short and breezily directed by Frank Tuttle, whose career began in the silent era, "Ladies Should Listen" is cute, silly fun, especially for fans of Cary Grant.

Watching Cary Grant in any movies usually means you can expect it to be enjoyable. This movie although short is fine as a funny type of movie from that era. The director of this movie is obviously following the Lubitcsh formula for comedy although not as good as Lubitcsh. You have to give the director credit however in making this short movie interesting. There was obviously budget constraints, but looking at the core supporting players, they actually do an excellent job. George Barbier plays a familiar role of a father who demands his wife is to be married. This is also the role he played however as king in "The Smiling Lieutenant" and he has that role down. What's amazing is the performance of Nydia Westman as Susie Flamberg. She plays and has dialog which is much like Claudette Colbert's role as the daughter seeking the love interest.

In the case of The Smiling Lieutenant, Maurice Chevalier is the love interest the daughter seeks, but in this case it's Cary Grant. When watching an old copy of this movie I actually thought for a moment based on the dialog that Nydia Westman was Caudette Colbert and had to do a double take at the credits.

These are probably formula roles for comedy by this time in the 30s, kind of a formula for haphazard comedy. Never the less, it's fun to watch and not bad. Wish I had a better sounding audio on the copy I saw. I wonder if there are even any good masters of this film available that could meet Turner's quality requirements for release. I give it a solid 7 perhaps it would rate a little better if there had been better audio.

I had low expectations of this post-code film after having watched Cary Grant in the previous, KISS AND MAKEUP. The entry credits for this film let everyone know that this is/was a Hays Code approved film (pretty much they started inforcing this around 1934ish). The 59/62 minute length should be the give away. If you are a quick study you can see where they have chopped this (by a startling change of scene), and likely severely edited it. During the film you can also see only one person in a bed, not two, (and fully clothed everyone.) Kisses get panned away as well. You can find a full list of the dos and don'ts on Wiki (gratis Hays in conjunction with his Jesuit accomplice.). One of the things that they did with these transition heavily edited films was to attach them to full length features either as a prelude or postlude.

A pity in this case, since the script - cut as it is - is surprisingly funny, and the lead actors managed to pull this off quite well. It perhaps also says something about the person who was tasked with the job of patching together what was left after the cutting room floor debris, since it does make a tidy little film. A delightful 1930s romp.

Julian de Lussac, an investor with an expiring option in Chilean mineral rights, is frolicking about with any and every beautiful woman in Paris. Unknown to Julian his current amore, Marguerite, is the scheming wife of a dangerous, scheming investor. Both are contriving to part Julian and his mineral option.

The woman who brings him to his senses is the switchboard operator of his apartment building, Anna. Anna knows every detail of Julian's many affairs and has fallen in love with him via listening in on his phone conversations. She knows why each love affair occurred and why each ended. She also knows from her connections with other operators, just what Marguerite and her husband are up to.

Julian is flattered by Anna's adoration, but in no way returns it. From the time that Anna's secret love is out in the open, Anna wages war against the evil couple who are trying to dupe Julian. Her weapon: the switchboard.

A man with the morals of an alley cat just needs the right woman to show him the path to true love.