Men Are Such Fools (1938) *1/2

Release Date: July 16, 1938

Running Time: 69 minutes

Cast: Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Hugh Herbert, Humphrey Bogart

Directed by: Busby Berkeley

On the surface this film is attempting to present a story about female empowerment in a competitive working environment. On the surface. When you dig further into it it is a failure on that front by painting everyone in very broad strokes and moving the plot along through a series of happenstances and coincidences, some of which go completely unexplained and serve no purpose other than to advance the story.

Linda Lawrence (Priscilla Lane) is a lovely assistant to executive Mr. Bates (Hugh Herbert) at the advertising company Americo. She is interested in moving up in the company and has no interest in settling for a hourly position or becoming a housewife. To make this happen she has come up with an idea for one of their clients that she wishes to pitch to her boss but he is more interested in taking her out on the town. Reluctantly she agrees on the date thinking she can use the opportunity to get her ideas heard. Also interested in her is Jimmy Hall (Wayne Morris), an ex football player working for the firm who professes his love for her and won’t take no for an answer. Eventually he wears down her defenses and she falls for him but is afraid the relationship will interfere with her aspirations. After the two wed his love turns to jealousy as her career begins to soar and another man, Harry Galleon (Humphrey Bogart), a radio man who can help her career even more, begins to make moves on her.

The remainder of the story is very predictable but might have been tolerable had it not painted the men, all of them, as lusty misogynists who look at women as nothing more than pursuits to conquer. On top of that the men come across as childish caricatures that cross the border into offensive. For instance Mr. Bates hoots and giggles nervously like a toddler. This was a character Hugh Herbert created after he left the Vaudeville circuit and went into movies. It is not humorous or endearing and when paired with his advances towards Linda it makes him into a creepy and annoying character. 

Jimmy is playing charming until he gets what he wants, then changes into a man who is domineering and possessive, unwilling for his wife to be successful outside the home and jealous when any man shows a single bit of interest toward her, innocent or not. It gives us no one to route for in this relationship and when we have that situation we have no vested interest in their drama. 

The women don’t escape this film unscathed, either. Linda is portrayed as driven, yet easily swayed by Jimmy’s advances. Her rise in stature at Americo is based solely on her one great idea and we see nothing of how this plays out, just some dialogue and newspaper headlines telling us she is suddenly a big deal. The other women in the picture, Wanda, Bea and Nancy are nothing more than generic caricatures with no real depth. 

The finale of the film is reliant entirely on our commitment to Linda and Jimmy’s relationship. For that reason it fails. There is nothing here to latch onto and nothing for us to care about. For this to have worked we would have needed to genuinely care for these two but there is nothing here for us to care about. It is all so shallow and obvious and lacks any real emotional stakes needed to make it of any real interest. The film wants us to be invested in the film about a woman who wants it all but fails to provide a lead worth following in that journey.