Woman Chases Man

1937 "The most delightful de-nutty comedy you've seen in years!"
6.5| 1h11m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 07 May 1937 Released
Producted By: Samuel Goldwyn Productions
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

A pretty architect devises a wild scheme to convince a handsome millionaire to fund a new housing development project.

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Samuel Goldwyn Productions

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Reviews

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!
BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
mark.waltz With a den of wolves outside his office door, the aging Charles Winninger remains locked inside, that is until a pretty young architect (Miriam Hopkins) innocently gets rid of all the debt collectors who have been waiting for him to make an appearance. She has a letter of introduction (from herself) but unfortunately, as much as he'd like to, he can't hire her. His son (Joel McCrea) who is off on a cruise with his gold-digging fiancée (Leona Maricle) and the man claiming to be her uncle (Eric Rhodes) whom she really loves. When they get back, McCrea finds Hopkins as the absent Winninger's secretary and Broderick Crawford as a bumbling butler and feisty Ella Logan the cook/maid. He has no idea that Winninger is hiding out, hoping that Hopkins will get McCrea to sign a check so he can go ahead with a real estate project he promises Hopkins can design if she carries out her part of the deal.Oh, did I forget to mention that McCrea's practically a tea-totaler, having only one glass of champagne since more than one drink makes him a free-for-all with his checkbook? Revealing this innocently to both Maricle and Hopkins, this sets a scheme up for the two of them to get their hands on his John Hancock. Mixing both champagne and brandy sets McCrea up for a fall, and before long, he's lounging in a tree with Hopkins as the new servants and the gold diggers try to get to McCrea first. Sort of a reverse in screwball comedy since the heroine is usually the heiress, this shows Hopkins at her screwball best and is just another indication how much she resembled fellow former drama queen Constance Bennett who the same year as this was committing ghostly laughs in "Topper".Once again, McCrea shows his versatility, going from studious and serious to a delightfully seemingly sober drunk who still sees two fingers as three and is willing to buy everybody the world. Winninger is a delightful old codger whom you want to see get everything he desires from his son even if his inventions are wackier than Dick Van Dyke's in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". (Wait until you see the machine that helps you sign five checks at a time!) As for Maricle and Rhodes, the only love they seem to really have is the love of the green. Logan and Broderick are delightfully bumbling as the servants, and it is a great rare opportunity to see Logan who would go on to Broadway history as the originator of the Broadway standard "How are Things in Glocca Mora?" in "Finian's Rainbow".Although rather mild entertainment in the screwball comedy genre, "Woman Chases Man" speeds by at a frantic pace at just over 70 minutes. Even if her character does seem at times to be interested purely in McCrea's money, it is her you want to get it, not the obvious Maricle. When it comes to these classic comedy blonde heroines, all their methods of wacky schemes are worth it, even if nothing is sacred!
vincentlynch-moonoi I have mixed feelings about this film, and perhaps that can be explained mostly by somewhat of an aversion I have against Miriam Hopkins. Mostly I dislike her performances, although every once in a while she seems to be just right for a part. For example, "These Three", "The Children's' Hour", and some of her films with Bette Davis are the exceptions, when I enjoy her performances. In "Woman Chases Man", I think she did a decent job of playing a scheming woman who is out to bilk a man (Joel McCrea), but also protecting him (out of a growing love) from another woman is attempting to bilk him.Probably because of his preference later in his career to concentrate on Westerns, Joel McCrae is a much underrated actor, and demonstrated here...though this is hardly his best role (watch instead, for example, "Foreign Correspondent").Charles Winninger as the McCrae's father is quite good here, and it's a hoot seeing Broderick Crawford playing a slightly crooked butler.The story -- a former millionaire and his wealthy son have differences about how to spend the family fortune -- is funny, and occasionally a tad silly...but I guess that's what screwball comedies are supposed to be. Some of the dialog is pretty clever, other times it devolves into being foolish, but overall it's a pretty good story.Recommended for a watch, but it probably won't end up on your DVD shelf.
chipe My mouth was agape throughout this screwball comedy. The reason: this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I was about to say that there isn't a single good joke or scene in the entire embarrassing movie, by, Ah Ha, I thought of one: there is a scene where several process servers are looking for the hiding Charles Winninger. Outside his office in the hall is Miriam Hopkins reading a letter of recommendation addressed to Winninger. Hearing her speech, the process servers mistakenly race down the stairs, thinking Winninger went that way. Believe it or not, that is the only decent scene in the movie. Everything else makes one cringe -- implausible silly story, terrible pratfalls and scrambles in a tree, nothing dialog, childish drunken scenes, etc. To give a feeling as to how bad everything is, Joel McCrae is returning to his mansion from a trip abroad. Hopkins is pretending to be a friend of his father. She recruits two friends to be servants though they know nothing about how to act as servants. Broderick Crawford is in his old movie usher uniform that is supposed to be a butler's uniform, and Hopkins is cutting out the movie theater patches as McCrae is knocking on the door. Meanwhile, through most of the movie, Winninger is living in the mansion, though he hides from his son McCrae because Winninger is supposed to be away. Excruciating. As someone said, see it only if you are die-hard McCrae or Hopkins fans.
VLeung I'm not sure why this film doesn't work. It has everything I love about screwball comedies in it, and the wonderful Joel McCrea is gorgeous.Where does it go wrong? I'm not quite as knocked out by Preston Sturges as the rest of the world because I think he's too prone to pointlessly noisy madcap chase scenes, and more often that not his endings suck a lot, but Preston Sturges' screwballs really work (apart from the chases and the endings) and this film doesn't. The difference, then, must be script. Sturges' scripts are superb, glittering things, that you just want to eat with a spoon, and Woman Chases Man is a fairly charming film with a lifeless script.