Woman Chases Man

Only faithful fans of MIRIAM HOPKINS or JOEL McCREA could possibly want to sit through this screwball comedy full of impossible situations and banal dialog.

Fast talking Hopkins is an architect (c'mon, that's what it says) full of pep talk when she schemes her way into CHARLES WINNINGER's office to sell him on her wonderful housing designs. (How many times has Winninger played a daffy millionaire in '30s endless parade of screwball comedies???).

He admits the plans look great--but the hitch is he's no longer a millionaire having lost all his money on crazy schemes. But wait. He's got a son (JOEL McCREA), more sensible than him who's got lots of money. All it's going to take is for someone (like Miriam maybe?) to separate him from it so they can go ahead with her plans to make Hopkins and Winninger rich.

That's about it for starters. But it gets even sillier once Winninger takes her to his home (after she's fainted a couple of times because the poor thing hasn't eaten in 49 hours). And once ERIC RHODES, BRODERICK CRAWFORD and ELLA LOGAN enter the scene, it gets sillier and more improbable with each dubious remark.

Hopkins is photographed attractively and puts a lot of spirit into playing a ditsy architect, but it's obvious from the start that this is not going to go down as one of the best screwball comedies of the '30s--not by a long stretch.

Winninger seems to be doing a warm-up for his other millionaire role in HARD TO GET ('38), again involved with an architect (DICK POWELL) and the scatterbrained daughter (OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND) who wants to get revenge on Powell for his mistreatment of her. He spent a lot of time in the '30s and '40s playing daffy millionaires who ruled over nutsy, filthy rich households.

Summing up: Not worth a peek.

Woman (Miriam Hopkins as Virginia) chases Man (Joel McCrea as Kenneth) for father (Charles Winninger as B.J.). Woman wants to get Man to invest some of deceased mother's money in father's business venture; but, father is notorious for losing money on hair-brained schemes. Little does anyone know, but real evil schemers are posing as Man's best friends in order to steal his fortune...

The production looks engaging, but the story fails to engage. The players don't play drunk well. Notable as Broderick Crawford's first appearance - as gopher "Hunk"; other than running errands, Mr. Crawford gets pinned to the floor by Mr. McCrea.

*** Woman Chases Man (4/28/37) John G. Blystone ~ Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Charles Winninger, Broderick Crawford

I'm not sure why this film doesn't work. It has everything I love about screwball comedies in it, and the wonderful Joel McCrea is gorgeous.

Where does it go wrong? I'm not quite as knocked out by Preston Sturges as the rest of the world because I think he's too prone to pointlessly noisy madcap chase scenes, and more often that not his endings suck a lot, but Preston Sturges' screwballs really work (apart from the chases and the endings) and this film doesn't. The difference, then, must be script. Sturges' scripts are superb, glittering things, that you just want to eat with a spoon, and Woman Chases Man is a fairly charming film with a lifeless script.

Miriam Hopkins is Virginia Travis, the starving, ambitious, headstrong architect trying to get an assignment from broke millionaire BJ Nolan (Charles Winninger). Joel McCrea is Nolan's sensible, conservative son, who must be convinced to help Virginia on a scheme. Note Erik Rhodes as "Henri Saffron".. .he does the same, silly foreign accent that he did as the interloper in all those Fred Astaire films. There are some clever lines in the script, but a lot of it is just over- the- top sight gags and three stooges-type pratfall humor. Much of the time, it feels like the timing is off, or something. Some bad editing in several places, where scenes are held out too long, right before or after a film cut. This was one of the last films directed by John Blystone - he died the next year. According to IMDb, there were numerous writers working on this (fixing it?), including Dorothy Parker and Ben Hecht. It's watchable, but can't give it very high marks.

"Woman Chases Man" is a very pleasant little comedy starring Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea. It begins when Virginia (Hopkins) approaches B.J. Nolan (Charles Winninger) for a job as an architect. He is VERY impressed with her designs but cannot help her--his son, Kenneth (McCrea) controls the family fortune and won't let him have much at all since he's known for throwing away money. So, Virginia comes up with a screwy idea--that B.J. should hide and they'll pretend that he's in Chicago on some big business deal and she'll entertain Kenneth when he arrives with his friends. However, things don't go well at all at first, as the friends Virginia has hired to pretend to be servants are idiots. Why did she hire them? Because B.J. has squandered the money Kenneth allotted him. It sounds very complicated--but turns out to be a decent little romantic screwball comedy. While I am not a huge fan of Hopkins, in this sort of film she seemed to be in her element. Cute and worth seeing. My only two complaints are small: sometimes the actors talk too fast and I HATE the fainting woman cliché--and this film uses it several times.