1934 doesn't seem like it was a good year for Joan Blondell. So far I've seen her in "I've got Your Number," "Smarty," and "He Was Her Man," and they were all bad. And, as a tandem, this was the worst movie I've seen James Cagney and Joan Blondell paired in of the five I've now seen them headline.
In "He Was Her Man," a recently released convict named Flicker Hayes (James Cagney) was hired to crack a safe. Instead, he double crossed the guys and called the police on them. One was shot and killed while the other got away. Flicker beat it out of town and headed to California.
While he was holed up in a hotel in San Francisco Flicker met Rose Lawrence (Joan Blondell) who was on her way to Santa Avila, CA to get married to a Portuguese man named Nick Gardella (Victor Jory).
We could draw the conclusion that the two were intimate in that San Francisco hotel. They were in the same room together, a romantic soundtrack was playing and the scene faded to black with Flicker taking off Rose's jacket. Furthermore, the next time we saw the two of them, Rose was behaving very fidgety with Flicker like a guilty woman or like a conflicted woman who wanted to distance herself from the man causing her conflicted feelings.
All suspicions were confirmed later on when they reached Santa Avila. Nick (her fiance) had to go fishing and Rose wanted to go with him. It was a strange request because he was going to be working on a boat with several other men. Why was she so desperate to go with him?
If I'd learned anything from watching these early-thirties movies it is that a woman who begs to go with her man or begs him to stay with her, is a woman who doesn't trust herself alone.
Well, later that night she had sex with Flicker and fell in love with him (or maybe she fell in love then had sex). If it was merely a question mark before, it was a period now, and it only confirmed that women back then couldn't be trusted alone with another man. I can't count the movies in which a woman was left alone with another man and she either fell in love with him or was emotionally confused because of him.
Even though Rose chose the wrong guy, she would get a mulligan. Flicker went on to be killed while Nick went on to marry Rose even after she told him of her infidelity. Nick was one of those guys who was so happy Rose chose him that she could've done anything and he would've still married her. It's a happy ending today, but wait til the honeymoon period is over.
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In "He Was Her Man," a recently released convict named Flicker Hayes (James Cagney) was hired to crack a safe. Instead, he double crossed the guys and called the police on them. One was shot and killed while the other got away. Flicker beat it out of town and headed to California.
While he was holed up in a hotel in San Francisco Flicker met Rose Lawrence (Joan Blondell) who was on her way to Santa Avila, CA to get married to a Portuguese man named Nick Gardella (Victor Jory).
We could draw the conclusion that the two were intimate in that San Francisco hotel. They were in the same room together, a romantic soundtrack was playing and the scene faded to black with Flicker taking off Rose's jacket. Furthermore, the next time we saw the two of them, Rose was behaving very fidgety with Flicker like a guilty woman or like a conflicted woman who wanted to distance herself from the man causing her conflicted feelings.
All suspicions were confirmed later on when they reached Santa Avila. Nick (her fiance) had to go fishing and Rose wanted to go with him. It was a strange request because he was going to be working on a boat with several other men. Why was she so desperate to go with him?
If I'd learned anything from watching these early-thirties movies it is that a woman who begs to go with her man or begs him to stay with her, is a woman who doesn't trust herself alone.
Well, later that night she had sex with Flicker and fell in love with him (or maybe she fell in love then had sex). If it was merely a question mark before, it was a period now, and it only confirmed that women back then couldn't be trusted alone with another man. I can't count the movies in which a woman was left alone with another man and she either fell in love with him or was emotionally confused because of him.
Even though Rose chose the wrong guy, she would get a mulligan. Flicker went on to be killed while Nick went on to marry Rose even after she told him of her infidelity. Nick was one of those guys who was so happy Rose chose him that she could've done anything and he would've still married her. It's a happy ending today, but wait til the honeymoon period is over.
Free on YouTube.