Tonight's Movie: Women Are Trouble (1936)

WOMEN ARE TROUBLE (1936) is an engaging little 58-minute "B" movie starring Paul Kelly, Florence Rice, and Stuart Erwin.

The film is your typical fast-paced newspaper room movie with reporters and cops trying to bring racketeers to justice in the months after the end of Prohibition. The story isn't anything which will be long remembered, but the actors make the film congenial company.

Kelly is perfectly cast as the newsroom editor who doesn't want to hire a woman reporter because he married the last one he hired (Margaret Irving), and now that they've split she's busy collecting alimony out of his paychecks.

Stuart Erwin is the folksy reporter who helps get Rice in the newsroom door, then spends most of the movie trying to beat her out of scoops.

The charming Rice, who brightened many a movie between 1934 and 1943, plays the quick-witted young reporter who combines a fair share of luck and some hardworking pluck into a steady job.

It's over and done in under an hour, but it's a pleasant time-passer, as both the editor and the reporter come to appreciate their smart and attractive colleague. This film will particularly be enjoyed by those who share my love for newsroom movies of the era.

The supporting cast includes Cy Kendall, Harold Huber, George Chandler, Raymond Hatton, and Kitty McHugh.

This was the first film directed by Errol Taggart, a former editor and assistant director. He directed Florence Rice again in his very next film, THE LONGEST NIGHT (1936), costarring Robert Young. Taggart directed four other films but sadly, he died in 1940; he was only 45 years old.

Additional Florence Rice movies previously reviewed at Laura's Miscellaneous Musings: DOUBLE WEDDING (1937), MARRIED BEFORE BREAKFAST (1937), FAST COMPANY (1938), FOUR GIRLS IN WHITE (1939), PHANTOM RAIDERS (1940), and STAND BY ALL NETWORKS (1942).

WOMEN ARE TROUBLE has not had a release on DVD or VHS. It's been shown on Turner Classic Movies.