There's That Woman Again
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''There's That Woman Again'' is a 1938 American
comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
mystery film A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, i ...
directed by
Alexander Hall Alexander Hall (January 11, 1894 – July 30, 1968) was an American film director, film editor and theatre actor. Biography Hall acted in the theatre from the age of four through 1914, when he began to work in silent movies. Following his milit ...
. It is the sequel to ''
There's Always a Woman ''There's Always a Woman'' is a 1938 American comedy mystery film directed by Alexander Hall and starring Joan Blondell and Melvyn Douglas. Seeing the potential for a series, Columbia Pictures quickly made a sequel, ''There's That Woman Again'' ...
'', released the same year. In both films,
Melvyn Douglas Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy ''Ninotchk ...
stars as a private investigator whose wife involves herself in his work.
Joan Blondell Joan Blondell (born Rose Joan Bluestein; August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years. Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on ...
played the wife in the first film, but that role went to
Virginia Bruce Virginia Bruce (born Helen Virginia Briggs; September 29, 1910 – February 24, 1982) was an American actress and singer. Early life Bruce was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As an infant she moved with her parents, Earil and Margaret Briggs, ...
in this one.


Plot

Private detective Bill Reardon (Melvyn Douglas) is awakened one morning by his dizzy wife, Sally (Virginia Bruce), who can't remember what the string tied to her finger is supposed to remind her of. While discussing the unfortunate financial condition of their private detective agency during breakfast, an executive of a jewelry story, Mr. Stone (Reardon's only client) calls him and demands to know why he hasn't shown up for an important meeting to discuss the recent robberies the store has experienced. Sally Reardon was supposed to give her husband a message about the meeting (which explains the string on her finger). Reardon hurries off to meet with Mr. Stone and Mr. Davis (the jewelry store executives), along with Mrs. Nacelle (the wife of the rich owner of the store). Reardon informs them that he has a solid suspect for the crimes, a clerk named Charles Crenshaw (Gordon Oliver). Meanwhile, Charles Crenshaw shows up at the Reardon Detective agency and wants to hire them to find out why he's being followed by an unknown man who recently searched his apartment. Sally Reardon pretends to be one of the agency's detectives, hoping to help her husband's failing business. She accepts Crenshaw's case. Crenshaw is unaware that the man who followed him and searched is apartment was actually Bill Reardon himself, since he thinks Crenshaw is the thief. That afternoon, Bill Reardon has lunch with the attractive Mrs. Nacelle (Margaret Lindsay), who informs him that her husband took over the jewelry store from Mr. Davis because he owed her husband money. Mrs. Nacelle thinks Davis resents losing the store, and she suggests that he might be the thief. Sally Reardon shows up at the restaurant and overhears her husband say that Charles Crenshaw (the agency's newest client) is also the chief suspect for the jewel thefts! Believing Crenshaw is innocent, Sally quickly leaves the restaurant so she can call the young clerk at the jewelry store and warn him. Soon afterwards, Bill Reardon and his agents apprehend Crenshaw. That evening the Reardon's join Mr. and Mrs. Nacelle for dinner at a posh nightclub. The jewelry store's manager and former owner (Davis) is seen leaving the nightclub, and he deliberated picks up a note at the hat check stand which was left for Tony Croy (Stanley Ridges), a known mob boss. Moments later Tony Croy arrives and asks the hat check girl if there's a note for him, but the girl says it was just picked up by another man who claimed to be Mr. Croy. Davis leaves in a cab, and Croy jumps into a cab to follow him. In the cab, Davis reads the note he stole, which gives the location of some unnamed object located in a specific filing cabinet at the jewelry store. Davis goes to the jewelry store to find out what the note refers to, but he's shot by an unseen assailant. Meanwhile, back at the nightclub, Sally devises a harebrained scheme to help clear Crenshaw of the robberies by stealing something from the jewelry store while Crenshaw is still in jail, which would prove he was not the culprit. Using the keys she takes from Mrs. Nacelle's purse, she goes to the jewelry store and steals several items from a display case. The next morning at the crime scene, the police detectives are busy collecting evidence. Bill Reardon secretly finds the note that Davis brought to the store the night before, and Reardon realizes that it's connected to the case. Bill and Sally Reardon eventually discover that Tony Croy and Mrs. Nacelle were married some years earlier, but never got divorced. Croy has been blackmailing Mrs. Nacelle with this info, forcing her to steal the jewelry from her husband's store. When Croy comes to Mrs. Nacelles mansion to collect the stolen jewels, Mrs. Nacelle tricks him by having him open a safe which is rigged to fire a gun attached to a device inside. Back at the jewelry store, Bill shows the police detectives that Mr. Davis was actually killed by a trick gun which fired from inside the file drawer when it was opened — the same trick Mrs. Nacelle used inside her home wall safe. The rigged filling cabinet drawer was meant to kill Croy, the man who was supposed to get the note which gave directions to that particular file drawer. Bill and Sally Reardon set a trap for Mrs. Nacelle, solve the case, and lead the police to the final showdown with the murderous wife.


Cast

*
Melvyn Douglas Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy ''Ninotchk ...
as William "Bill" Reardon *
Virginia Bruce Virginia Bruce (born Helen Virginia Briggs; September 29, 1910 – February 24, 1982) was an American actress and singer. Early life Bruce was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As an infant she moved with her parents, Earil and Margaret Briggs, ...
as Sally Reardon *
Margaret Lindsay Margaret Lindsay (born Margaret Kies; September 19, 1910 – May 9, 1981) was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive. She was noted for her supporting work in successf ...
as Mrs. Nacelle *
Stanley Ridges Stanley Charles Ridges (17 July 1890 – 22 April 1951) was an English-born, American actor who made more than 100 appearances in theatre and movies from 1917 to 1951. After his American film debut in ''Success'' (1923), he appeared in films s ...
as Tony Croy *
Gordon Oliver Gordon Oliver (April 27, 1910 – January 26, 1995) was an American actor and film producer. He appeared in more than 40 films and television shows between 1933 and 1972. Biography Oliver began working in films in 1936, eventually working ...
as Charles Crenshaw * Tom Dugan as Flannigan *
Don Beddoe Donald Theophilus Beddoe (July 1, 1903 – January 19, 1991) was an American character actor. Early years Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beddoe was the son of Dan Beddoe, a Welsh classical singer, and his wife Mary. He graduated from the ...
as Johnson * Jonathan Hale as Rolfe Davis * Pierre Watkin as Mr. Nacelle *
Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous '' The Rest ...
as Stone *
Lillian Yarbo Lillian "Billie" Yarbo (March 17, 1905 – June 12, 1996) was an American stage and screen comedienne, dancer, and singer. Early life Born Lillian Yarbough
as Ladies Room Attendant (uncredited)


Reception

In ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'',
Frank Nugent Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...
described it as "a crudely jointed mystery film", but conceded "it's a harmless way of killing time."


References


External links

* * * * {{Alexander Hall American black-and-white films American crime comedy films Columbia Pictures films Films based on short fiction Films directed by Alexander Hall 1930s comedy mystery films 1930s crime comedy films American sequel films American comedy mystery films 1938 comedy films 1938 films 1930s American films