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Best movie of this year hands down!

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Just perfect...

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I saw this on TCM and regretted not recording it because it was such a good movie. It is not great theater, but it is totally enjoyable, and the home movie quality of the backgrounds adds to the fun. It begins with a passionate Kay Kerrigan (Bennett) shooting the heartless man whose indifference drove Kerrigan's beloved sister to suicide. Pursued by the police, Kerrigan flees the country. The police send Sam Wye (Frederic March) a private detective who spends more time chasing women than bad guys to catch Kerrigan. Wye's secretary (Ann Southern), and a moronic policeman (Ralph Bellamy) join in the chase. Dorothy Parker was one of the writers and there are plenty of fun exchanges between the principals that are typical of the witty Ms. Parker. There are twists and turns to the plot, and the scenery is great (the technical quality is not great). The movie has not been released by whoever produced it (Wanger, the long time real life Mr. Bennett's estate?), but it is not copyrighted and I finally found a non-professionally made CD on ebay. Fun, good, late 1930's movie. Southern and Bellamy are hysterical.

This is a very entertaining movie on more than one level. Not only is there a twist at the end, love prevails, and we get to see glimpses of Asia. The dialog sparkles even 70 years after it was made, and we see the flaws in money as the only motive for a chase. I have lived in or visited many of the places seen in the background of this film, and enjoyed the visual hint that these wealthy travelers are living in a world of their own, unconnected with local people or places. Not all the backgrounds are convincing, as I think the filmmakers took artistic license, but the clothes! the manners! the relationships! are lots of fun. And nary a word about the humidity! I got a special kick out of Wye's pith helmet, a total cultural borrowing from the English in India.

I like romantic comedies, mysteries, and adventure films. Trade Winds is a combination of all three. Fredric March plays a San Francisco private detective who is hired by the police department to follow and arrest Joan Bennett,who is believed to be guilty of a murder and has fled across the Pacific Ocean. She is very good looking so they send a department detective, Ralph Bellamy, with him to make sure he brings her back when he catches up with her. Ralph Bellamy never knows quite what is going on and supplies some comical moments through out the picture.In one scene, at a race track, he asks Fredric March, would you like to see your sister bet on a horse? Fredric March replied, my sister is a horse. Fredric March of course falls in love with Joan Bennett and then has to prove her innocent.

I must say Joan looked like Hedy Lamarr, and that is the ultimate compliment in this movie. In fact, the comics of the day, usually made jokes about her and Hedy...something like this..."Hedy so fair...why does she make Joan Bennett wear all her old hair". Years later, in an interview Joan said that she didn't think Hedy appreciated the joke..but I read otherwise, Hedy couldn't stop laughing..go figure. Anyhow, the movie was so-so, Ann Sothern, my favorite, had the usual barbs. I also read that since Joan did her Hedy turn, she got more popular than as a blond and apparently made movies that Hedy couldn't do because of her foreign accent and so Joan made a lot more movies and some pretty good ones...and yet, she never became the super star that Hedy became. Please take note..in 1950 she replaced Hedy in the "Father of the Bride". cause Hedy was too young to be Elizabeth's mother...Joan was 4 years older than Hedy.