There's Always a Woman

Director: Alexander Hall Alexander Hall

Overview

In this film, Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell are the married proprietors of an unsuccessful private eye business. Douglas is given a $300 retainer by Mary Astor for a seemingly-simple trackdown job. He turns the case over to his wife -- but reenters the scene when a murder occurs.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/02/2013
UPC:	0043396421981
Original Release:	1938
Rating:	NR
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Sales rank:	43,014

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Melvyn Douglas	William Reardon
Joan Blondell	Sally Reardon
Mary Astor	Lola Fraser
Frances Drake	Anne Calhoun
Jerome Cowan	Nick Shane
Robert Paige	Jerry Marlowe
Thurston Hall	District Attorney
Pierre Watkin	Mr. Ketterling
Walter Kingsford	Grigson
Lester Matthews	Walter Fraser
Rita Hayworth	Ketterling's Secretary
Wade Boteler	Sam
Arthur Loft	Radio Patrolman
William H. Strauss	Rent Collector,Rent Collector
Marek Windheim	Head Waiter
Bud Jamison	Jim
George Davis	Waiter
Robert Emmett Keane	City Editor
John Gallaudet	Reporter
Eddie Fetherston	Photographer
Joseph De Stefani	Cigar Stand Clerk
Ted Oliver	Cop
Gene Morgan	Officer Fogarty
Tom Dugan	Detective Flannigan
Bud Geary	District Attorney's Assistant
Billy Benedict	Bellhop
Lee Phelps	Police Broadcaster
Eddie Dunn	Cop
George McKay	Cop
Eddie Fetherstone	Photographer
Morris Stoloff	Composer

Technical Credits

Gladys Lehman

Alexander Hall	Director
William Perlberg	Producer
Gladys Lehman	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Everyone in Hollywood was trying to come up with their own answer to MGM's "Thin Man" series, and this was Columbia Pictures' first entry in an abortive two-picture series -- and abortive it should have been. Where the Thin Man movies and most of the competition freely mixed romantic comedy and banter with some cracking good murder mysteries, There's Always A Woman stretches credibility a little too far in the conception of the character portrayed by Joan Blondell -- Melvyn Douglas's quietly brilliant sleuth is just fine in his wry, low-keyed way, but Blondell's character is given antics and dialogue that cross over into farce, and the two never mesh as a believable couple on-screen. Indeed, her Sally Reardon seems almost more in need of medical (or psychiatric) help -- or a sock on the jaw, to use vernacular of the era -- than respect and understanding for most of the picture. And it is those antics that make this much rougher going than any of the Thin Man movies, or pictures such as Night To Remember or even The Mad Miss Manton; Barbara Stanwyck could pull off the dizzy same routine a lot more effectively than Blondell, who seems lost in a good part of this picture, game player though she is. The result is a curio in the careers of all concerned, as well as an entertaining Manhattan-based murder mystery.