Trade Winds (1938)

Thanks for the memories!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

First, be sure to read the review by st-shot. His summary statement is a classic! How do I hate thee, oh movie? Let me count the ways: First, the first third of the film (after the murder) -- where they are trying to establish Frederick March as a playboy detective -- is about the worst waste of celluloid in the history of the American cinema. It makes him -- and women -- look like fools.Second, okay, so Joan Bennett went from blond to brunette. If that's the most notable thing about this film it tells you a lot about how bad this film really is.Third, Ralph Bellamy's part is so dumb. I'd blame the big studio for forcing such a dumb part on him, but this was an independent film. A shame, because as we all know, Bellamy was a fine actor.As st-shot points out, this film includes "some of the worst back projection in film history"...and what's more, that makes up a good half of the film.Frankly, when the cobra shows up, I was hoping it would somehow put an end to March and Bennett, and that we -- the faithful viewers -- would be put out of our misery.Now, in all fairness, this movie isn't all bad. The love scenes between March and Bennett are actually pretty decent. And Ann Southern is very pleasant on screen, although I'm not sure that her presence is at all logical. The last third of the film is decent and has an interesting plot twist, although how the right people show up at a party is rather bewildering; I guess it made sense to the screenwriters...too bad it was so confusing to the audience (as several of our reviewers have noted it).It would be easy to excuse this poor film by noting that it was made way back in 1938. But that's just a year before "Gone With The Wind" and "The Wizard Of Oz" and half a dozen other notable masterpieces. I give this one an "D". Don't waster your time.

Several years before anyone thought of the film Trade Winds, director Tay Garnett did a round the world tour and took a camera crew with him. They shot miles of beautiful travelogue type footage and Garnett had it in his mind to use it. According to the Citadel Film Series book The Films of Fredric March, Garnett sold the idea to independent producer Walter Wanger. Who thereupon commissioned a story to be written around these films and naturally it would be starring his wife Joan Bennett. All that background you see in Trade Winds is what Garnett shot years earlier.Trade Winds is a strange film it can't quite make up its mind to be a mystery, comedy, or drama it truly defies classification. One thing we do know is that right away we're given information regarding the forensics that Joan Bennett is innocent. If she had not run, but stayed behind she'd have known right away and we'd have had no film.But run she does and private detective Fredric March is put on her trail. He sure needs the money as well as he and secretary Ann Sothern owe a lot of bills. The weakness of the plot is made up for a lot by the supporting performances of both Ann Sothern and Ralph Bellamy. Sothern is not in the tradition of private eye secretaries like Effie in The Maltese Falcon. She turns out to be just as good a gumshoe as March and she's a person of shifting loyalties.Which is unlike Ralph Bellamy who might easily qualify for being the dumbest cop the movies ever portrayed. I could have seen him being commandant of the Police Academy forty years later. He's so earnest in such a Dudley Doo-Right manner he's positively hilarious. Sothern and Bellamy really do carry this film.March is a charming rascal and Bennett a beautiful and vulnerable victim, but if you watch Trade Winds I know you'll enjoy Sothern and Bellamy most of all.

I like romantic comedies, mysteries, and adventure films. Trade Winds is a combination of all three. Fredric March plays a San Francisco private detective who is hired by the police department to follow and arrest Joan Bennett,who is believed to be guilty of a murder and has fled across the Pacific Ocean. She is very good looking so they send a department detective, Ralph Bellamy, with him to make sure he brings her back when he catches up with her. Ralph Bellamy never knows quite what is going on and supplies some comical moments through out the picture.In one scene, at a race track, he asks Fredric March, would you like to see your sister bet on a horse? Fredric March replied, my sister is a horse. Fredric March of course falls in love with Joan Bennett and then has to prove her innocent.

TRADE WINDS is supposed to be a film starring Fredric March and Joan Bennett, and certainly they get most of the film's major scenes. But while March was a good actor in comedy (NOTHING SACRED and I MARRIED A WITCH show that) his "Sam Wye" is snowed under by his three co-stars, Bennett, Ann Southern, and Ralph Bellamy - in particular Ralph Bellamy for his performance as "Ben Blodgett" the assistant to March on this case. Bennett made film history here for a film trick that was the reverse of her sister Constance's trick four years earlier in MOULIN ROUGE. There Connie had to play dual roles as Franchot Tone's wife (a brunette) and a French entertainer named "Raquel" (a blonde). For the part of the wife Connie had to have her natural blonde hair dyed black (but at the conclusion, supposedly wearing her film's natural color dyed "blonde", she is wearing her hair blonde. Here fellow blonde sister Joan (for reasons of the plot) changed her hair to black as a disguise. But the new hairstyle found favor with the public. Up to 1938 Constance Bennett was the better regarded (as a film star) of the two sisters. When the public saw Joan as a brunette she looked a bit like Hedy Lamarr, and got more attention. So Joan remained a film brunette for the rest of her career (including the series of great films directed by Fritz Lang like SCARLET STREET, and the films with Spencer Tracy FATHER OF THE BRIDE and FATHER'S LITTLE DIVIDEND).TRADE WINDS is about a murder, and the leading suspect is Bennett. She flees and is crossing the Pacific with pal Southern. But they are being pursued by March, a detective who is known for his brains, his lack of ethics, and his chasing women. In a kind of twist to the plot strands in ONE WAY PASSAGE, March is determined to catch Bennett, but is falling for her. Soon he begins to wonder if he should let her escape. Bellamy (who for all his marvelous thick-headedness respects March's detective abilities) is appalled and starts working against him. Of course that is not much of a problem. Southern starts interfering with Bellamy and a second romance begins.SPOILER COMING UP:March does bring in Bennett, who faces trial and possible execution in California for the murder. While March re-evaluates the evidence to see if she really was responsible, she is visited in prison by Bellamy and Southern who try to comfort her. Bellamy is fine form saying, "Don't worry Miss Kerrigan. In the entire history of California jurisprudence only five women have been executed. FIENDS IN HUMAN FORM MA'AM!!" You can imagine how Bennett reacts to that comment (Southern trying to shut him up).Bless the film gods for giving us Bellamy and his array of choice boobs!