Hold That Woman! (1940)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Boring

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Jimmie Parker, an easy going, affable, likable guy is just not very good at his job as a skip tracer. Skip tracers either get the cash owed on a product or repossess the product and return it to the store. Parker's completion rate is very low and he is in danger of losing his job. His boss likes to point out how very good Miles Hanover (Dave O'Brien) is as a skip tracer. Given how smug and smarmy Hanover is, the audience can eagerly anticipate his being given his comeuppance by Jimmy. In addition to being a nice guy, Jimmy also has incredible good luck. In one afternoon he gets married to a beautiful woman (who is fortunately also easy going), buys a house, buys furniture, moves into the house, catches jewel thieves and helps a colleague repossess a car. There are a couple of snags along the way like getting arrested and buying the furniture from a crooked old lady who sold it (cheap) to Jimmy right before the skip tracers came for it. Somehow this convoluted plot works and is actually entertaining and a pleasant way to spend an hour.

James Dunn was a complete actor. He could play anything from crime to comedy. He first came to public notice as Eddie Collins in "Bad Girl" (1931) - a tale of the ups and downs of a young married couple in New York. After a couple of other films with the beautiful Sally Eilers, he was then teamed with cute Claire Trevor in "Jimmie and Sally" (1933). After yet another pairing with Trevor in "Baby Takes a Bow" (1934) he was then teamed with the film's star - Shirley Temple. "Hold That Woman" (1940) was made during a time when he was down on his luck and battling the bottle. Even with all his problems he still makes the film completely enjoyable. His leading lady was the beautiful Frances Gifford, who was his wife at the time.Jimmy Parker (James Dunn) is a "skip tracer" - a repossession agent. When he is given the job of repossessing a radio - things get complicated. The lady, Lulu Driscoll (Rita La Roy) refuses to relinquish it and everyone ends up at the police station. She has hidden some jewels that were stolen from a famous actress, in the back of the set. The famous actress, Corinne Hill (Anna Lisa) has problems of her own - she has just discovered that her fiancé is a thief and is mixed up in the robbery of her jewels.When Jimmie goes back to retrieve the radio, he finds Lulu has moved and all her furniture, including the radio, has gone into storage. He goes to the warehouse but the radio is not there. In the meantime he has proposed to Mary (Frances Gifford) and they go to see a widow who is selling a houseful of furniture for a song. Needless to say she is pulling a "swifty" as all her furniture is due to be repossessed!!! Everyone heads to Marble Cliff Drive where Lulu is living, along with her radio and the jewels. Miles Hanover (Dave O'Brien), the skip - tracer's "golden haired boy", goes to the house to make a deal - if Lulu hands over the jewels to him, he will leave - no questions asked. He comes to a sticky end, much to Jimmie's amusement.It was a very enjoyable film and Frances Gifford proved she was a talent sadly wasted. Recommended.

The accent is on comedy capers rather than mystery and noir in this remarkably involved yet fast-paced and light-hearted gangster yarn about stolen diamonds which a sleazy blonde has hidden in a cheap portable radio.Although this movie was made right in the middle of a down cycle in James Dunn's remarkable up-and-down movie career (he would bounce back with a vengeance in 1945 when he won universal praise for his brilliant performance under Elia Kazan's tutelage in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), it's quite an entertaining little offering, despite the actor's haggard appearance in some shots. It's also of interest to see the lovely Frances Gifford (Dunn's wife at the time) and a fine collection of support oddballs including Dave O'Brien and Rita La Roy.For once, director Neufeld/Newfield (alias Sherman Scott here) has handled the proceedings with pace and even occasional flair, making deft use of a large number of real (if not particularly picturesque) L.A. locations. The director also manages the difficult feat of balancing many disparate plot elements in an extremely complicated screenplay so neatly and with such finesse that even a backward audience can always follow the plot.Mind you, a farcical script that creates such a frantic fuss over a portable radio set that looks as if it's worth ten bucks at the most, is hardly believable. But with players like Dunn, Gifford, O'Brien and company, who cares?

Originally titled SKIP TRACER. this very entertaining, briskly paced comedy adventure features James Dunn, cast as Jimmy Parker, an agent for Skip Tracers, Ltd., who with his girl friend Mary (Dunn's real life wife Frances Gifford) find themselves embroiled in the midst of a burglary case concerning diamonds stolen from a movie star, bringing about their being arrested, shot at and chased by the thieves, yet finding opportunity to be wed and set up housekeeping, all during one frenetic day, thanks to a snappily penned script that neatly ties together disparate plot elements. A small budgeted production from producer Sigmund Newfield's PRC studio, the work is ably directed by his brother Sam, an old hand at such poverty row action pieces, assisted here as often by Holbrook Todd, editor, and cameraman Jack Greenhalgh who is accustomed to thinking quickly for this type of film, the trio joining to create smooth montage effects. That aspect of acting called "business", prominent from the 1930s into the 1950s, particularly in U.S. cinema, benefits this production, especially that employed by Dunn (who ad libs effectively) in conjunction with beautiful Gifford whose natural graces earn for the future star of serials the acting laurels here, although her native athleticism is sublimated for her role, while able turns are to be appreciated from Rita LaRoy, Paul Boyar and George Douglas as members of the gem thieving gang, and from Dave O'Brien as a skip tracer in competition with Parker. The DVD release from Alpha offers adequate sight and sound, with no extras.