SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

ksf-2 Quick, snappy script. Joan Blondell is "Angela", the daughter of the toothpaste king. Her dad refuses to let her work at the company, so she goes to work for the competitor. She and Glenda Farrell had both been in the biz for some years, along with Grant Mitchell (he has hair in this one!) and muttering, stuttering Hugh Herbert. Quite a coincidence with a writer and one of the actors - a writer is F. Hugh Herbert, and one of the actors is Hugh Herbert... not sure where that fits in; according to IMDb, they have different but close dates of birth. This plot seems to have been re-used in Carol Channing's first credited film role "First Traveling Sales Lady" in 1956, about 20 years later! That one is also a fun film. Watch for Hattie McDaniel here, in a quick 30 second bit part. The girls scheme and run end games around the men. They also mention that the Secretary of Labor is also a female, which was actually true. Frances Perkins actually WAS the secretary of labor from 1933 - 1945, under FDR and Harry Truman. the credits, the story, and the script has the feel of a pre-code film, but this was made in 1935. Bert Roach is in here in a small part - he had been around during the silents. Directed by Ray Enright, who had ALSO been around during the silents with Mack Sennett studios, so he was in Hollywood right from the beginning of the film industry. Check it out... it's a fun one! kind of an abrupt, quick end, but its still fun to watch.

mark.waltz Twitchell's toothpaste is in an uproar....There's a new flavor in town, and it's dropping Twitchell's sales like gangbusters. The reason? The breath freshener is flavored with cocktails! Yes, you can get rid of the onion smell from your morning omelet by covering it up with the smell of various cocktails. Prohibition is over, so anything goes, I guess, and guess who the sales lady is: Old man Twitchell's own daughter (Joan Blondell) who is furious with papa for not giving her a job. The old sexist (Grant Mitchell) doesn't believe that women belong in business, and Joan is out to prove dad wrong. While on the road, she meets Twitchell salesman William Gargan who is her rival by day, but after 8, business no longer matters, well so they tell each other.Then, there's drug store owner Glenda Farrell who earlier turned down the cocktail toothpaste and finds that Twitchell's is collecting dust on her shelves. It all culminates in Chicago at the latest drug store convention where rivals Blondell and Farrell go to to toe over Gargan with wacky inventor Hugh Herbert befuddled over all the toothpaste intrigue going on underneath his "woo-woo" spouting lips. Behind the scenes, Mrs. Twitchell (a delightful Ruth Donnelly making more out of a small part than what was originally there) encourages her daughter to give Mitchell the run for his money, something she's wanted to do for years.Of course, alcoholic toothpaste is in the minds of the writers, certainly not reality, and this really pushes the new production code to its maximum level. Still, even with the code on the script's tail, it's pretty raunchy stuff, with some hidden sexual innuendo adding a lot of fun to the fast-moving script. It's also fun, in this pre-women's lib era, to watch Blondell winning at every turn, and to see smug Gargan getting his from both the women in his life. Some fun character performances from Al Shean, Bert Roach, and an unbilled Hattie McDaniel add to the sparkle of this post-code comedy that almost seems like pre-code with a few elements that slipped by Mr. Hays' big ears.

Kittyman Nowadays movies portray business-persons as greedy, twisted, conspiratorial individuals. In the thirties, however, they generally were seen as at least useful, if not heroic. And perhaps I'm anachronistic, but that's still the way I think things really are.In this quasi-feminist film, the wonderful Joan Blondell seizes upon an inventor's idea for liquor flavored toothpaste. (Indeed, if you Google that term you'll find such a product actually exists today.) When her knuckle-headed father won't sell it through his company, however, she finds a way around him, and cuts a pseudonymous deal with his more foresighted rival.Then great fun results as she, the opposition's chief salesperson, and William Gargan, her father's chief salesman, try to constantly double-cross each other on-the-job, while falling for each other off-the-job.The picture's pace is swift, the dialog snappy, and the plot has no holes. I highly recommend it, and have only three caveats: 1. The script overlooks what I believe would have been "cocktail" toothpaste's greatest selling point—that of deniability. Neither your boss nor your spouse could ever prove you were drinking 'cause you could always claim they just smelled the toothpaste.2. While Gargan does a fine job with his role, his part itself has Jimmy Cagney written all over it. Had Cagney been Joan's opposition, "Traveling Saleslady" probably would have been considered a classic.3. Finally, I say quasi-feminist film because; at very end Joan, who clearly is the smartest person, and the best business mind in the picture reconciles with Gargan by telling him she wants to go to Niagra Falls and cook for him thereafter. What really should have happened, however, is this: she should have said "I want to go to Niagara Falls with you (a smiling reaction by Gargan) before taking over as your boss (a stunned Gargan promptly collapses to the floor in a faint)."

Ron Oliver A TRAVELING SALESLADY & a drugstore queen vie for the affection of a handsome toothpaste salesman.This was the sort of ephemeral comic frippery which the studios produced almost effortlessly during the 1930's. Well made & highly enjoyable, Depression audiences couldn't seem to get enough of these popular, funny photo dramas.Sassy & sweet, Joan Blondell & Glenda Farrell make perfect romantic rivals. This is really Blondell's picture - Farrell's part gets off to a slow start - but they are great together or apart and make the film zing.William Gargan gives a good performance as the fellow in the enviable position of being desired by both Blondell & Farrell. Wonderful, wacky Hugh Herbert, as the inventor of cocktail flavored toothpaste, leads a parade of character actors - Grant Mitchell, Al Shean, Ruth Donnelly, Johnny Arthur, Bert Roach, Mary Treen & Harry Holman - who all excel at milking laughs from every line.Movie mavens will recognize the marvelous Hattie McDaniel, uncredited in a tiny, hilarious, scene.While never stars of the first rank, Joan Blondell (1906-1979) & Glenda Farrell (1904-1971) enlivened scores of films at Warner Bros. throughout the 1930's, especially the eight in which they appeared together. Whether playing gold diggers or working girls, reporters or secretaries, these blonde & brassy ladies were very nearly always a match for whatever leading man was lucky enough to share equal billing alongside them. With a wisecrack or a glance, their characters showed they were ready to take on the world - and any man in it. Never as wickedly brazen as Paramount's Mae West, you always had the feeling that, tough as they were, Blondell & Farrell used their toughness to defend vulnerable hearts ready to break over the right guy. While many performances from seven decades ago can look campy or contrived today, these two lovely ladies are still spirited & sassy.