Trade Winds | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tay Garnett |
Screenplay by | Dorothy Parker Alan Campbell Frank R. Adams |
Story by | Tay Garnett |
Produced by | Tay Garrett Walter Wanger (executive) |
Starring | Fredric March Joan Bennett |
Cinematography | Rudolph Mate Foreign exterior photography James B. Shackelford |
Edited by | Otho Lovering Dorothy Spencer |
Music by | Musical director Alfred Newman |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $738,733 [1] |
Box office | $964,404 [1] |
Trade Winds is a 1938 American comedy murder mystery film directed by Tay Garnett written by Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, and Frank R. Adams, based on the story by Tay Garnett. The film stars Fredric March and Joan Bennett. It was distributed by United Artists, and released on December 28, 1938.
Socialite Kay Kerrigan is accused of fatally shooting millionaire cad Thomas Bruhme II. Kay blames the callous Bruhme for her sister's suicide but when he is confronted, he dismissively throws Kay a gun, but she angrily shoots him in the stomach.
Police detectives Ben "Homer" Blodget and George Faulkner find the body, with a gunshot in the back of Bruhme's head that is the fatal shot. After finding her handbag at the murder scene, the police are on Kay's trail. First she fakes a car accident, driving into the San Francisco Bay, then makes arrangements to go to Hawaii. When she pawns a unique piece of jewelry, Police Commissioner Blackton knows that Kay is alive and puts former detective Sam Wye on the case.
Kay with her hair dyed brown, and travelling on a British passport as "Mary Holden" has taken a ship to the South Seas. She is followed by Sam and his secretary Jean Livingstone, an old flame who also wants to collect a $100,000 reward now being offered by Bruhme's father.
On a boat sailing to Singapore, Sam finally meets Kay, and immediately falls in love with her. Along the way, Homer and Jean do the same. Sam eventually determines that the actual killer was John Johnson, a jealous husband whose wife was having an affair with Bruhme. Kay is thus cleared and free to marry Sam.
Principal photography on Trade Winds took place from August 22 to October 20, 1938. [2] The film was a "labor of love" for Tay Garnett. Frank Nugent described the process in his review for The New York Times : "Tay Garnett earned the distinction yesterday of being probably the first man in history with the temerity to invite 80,000,000 persons to pay to see the movies he took on a world cruise. Mr. Garnett went abroad a few seasons ago and, having a rough outline of a script, he shot doorways in Japan, barrooms in Indo-China, the race track at Singapore, a pier in Bombay, a fishing village in the Laccadives, a twisting street in pre-war Shanghai. Hollywood bridged the gaps, set up the process screen, placed Fredric March and Joan Bennett before it..." [3]
Frank Nugent in his contemporary review ofTrade Winds for The New York Times , said: "'Trade Winds', which blew gently into the Music Hall yesterday and may be remembered by posterity as the process shot that went 'round the world. It is not exactly a travelogue. As a mystery film it's a bit on the porous side. We hesitate to call it a romantic comedy, beginning as it does with a suicide, adding a murder and ending with a third body on the floor. And certainly it's not a straight drama. Maybe a new word is in order – a travestery comiromance, or a dramalogue of travesty." [3] [N 1]
Variety said: "All the elements that provide broad entertainment are present in this picture and it should reap healthy grosses. Story and adaptation are sound, production is handsome, direction is forceful and the acting is persuasive." [4]
Kine Weekly wrote: "Yarn is essentially a melodrama-romance built on the time-tested formula of the beauteous fugitive-from-justice and the demon hawkshaw who's sent to bring her back alive. ... It's all frankly hoke, but surefire stuff for mass emotional appeal, since it has colorful and sympathetic characters" [5]
Leslie Halliwell opined: "Smartly written mixture of comedy, drama, mystery and travelogue which comes off only in spots; it needed a firmer hand " [6]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Director Tay Garnett justified a tax-deductible sailing trip around the world by taking a cinematographer to record the sights and writing a story en route. The footage provided the backdrop for this lightweight tale of detective Fredric March's pursuit of high-class murder suspect Joan Bennett. The stars never had to leave the studio, as the film used a record amount of back projection. Predictably, this contributed to an air of tedium." [7]
The following is an overview of 1930 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film, and television actress, one of three acting sisters from a show-business family. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 films from the era of silent films, well into the sound era. She is best remembered for her film noir femme fatale roles in director Fritz Lang's films—including Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945)—and for her television role as matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in the gothic 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows, for which she received an Emmy nomination in 1968.
William Taylor "Tay" Garnett was an American film director and writer.
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Eternally Yours is a 1939 American comedy drama film produced and directed by Tay Garnett with Walter Wanger as executive producer, from a screenplay by C. Graham Baker and Gene Towne. The film stars Loretta Young and David Niven, and also features a strong supporting cast including Broderick Crawford, Billie Burke, Eve Arden, ZaSu Pitts, and C. Aubrey Smith. Composer Werner Janssen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Music.
She Couldn't Take It is a 1935 American screwball comedy film made at Columbia Pictures, directed by Tay Garnett, written by C. Graham Baker, Gene Towne and Oliver H.P. Garrett, and starring George Raft and Joan Bennett. It was one of the few comedies Raft made in his career.
One Way Passage is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic film starring William Powell and Kay Francis as star-crossed lovers, directed by Tay Garnett and released by Warner Bros. The screenplay by Wilson Mizner and Joseph Jackson is based on a story by Robert Lord, who won the Academy Award for Best Story.
Footsteps in the Dark is a light-hearted 1941 mystery film, starring Errol Flynn as an amateur detective investigating a murder.
Jigsaw is a 1962 British black and white crime film directed by Val Guest and starring Jack Warner and Ronald Lewis. The screenplay was by Guest based on the police procedural novel Sleep Long, My Love by Hillary Waugh, with the setting changed from the fictional small town of Stockford, Connecticut, to Brighton, Sussex, while retaining the names and basic natures of its two police protagonists and most of the other characters.
Hour of Decision is a 1957 British mystery film directed by C. M. Pennington-Richards and starring Jeff Morrow, Hazel Court and Anthony Dawson. It is based on the 1954 novel Murder in Mayfair by Frederic Goldsmith.
Double Confession is a 1950 British crime film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Derek Farr, Joan Hopkins, William Hartnell and Peter Lorre. The screenplay by William Templeton is based on the novel All On A Summer's Day by H.L.V. Fletcher, written under the pen name John Garden.
Adventure in Manhattan is a 1936 American screwball comedy thriller film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea. The screenplay was written by Sidney Buchman, Harry Sauber, Jack Kirkland, and John Howard Lawson. The story was written by Joseph Krumgold, suggested by the novel Purple and Fine Linen by May Edginton. The supporting cast features Reginald Owen and Thomas Mitchell, and the film was a Columbia Pictures production.
Saloon Bar is a 1940 British comedy thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan and Mervyn Johns. It was made by Ealing Studios and its style has led to comparisons with the later Ealing Comedies, unlike other wartime Ealing films which are different in tone. It is based on the 1939 play of the same name by Frank Harvey in which Harker had also starred. An amateur detective tries to clear an innocent man of a crime before the date of his execution.
Mystery House is a 1938 American mystery crime film directed by Noel M. Smith and starring Dick Purcell and Ann Sheridan as nurse Sarah Keate, and is based on the 1930 novel The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon G. Eberhart. Sheridan also played the same character in The Patient in Room 18, released in January 1938, while Aline MacMahon played her in While the Patient Slept in 1935.
Women in the Wind is a 1939 film directed by John Farrow and starring Kay Francis, William Gargan and Victor Jory. The plot concerns women pilots competing in the so-called "Powder Puff Derby", an annual transcontinental air race solely for women.
Serangoon Road is an Australian-Singaporean television drama series which premiered on 22 September 2013 on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and HBO Asia. It is a detective noir drama set in the 1960s, revolving around Serangoon Road in Singapore. The 10-part series is a collaboration between ABC and HBO Asia and was filmed largely in Singapore. It was created by Paul D. Barron and directed by Peter Andrikidis and Tony Tilse.
RichardRobert Elliott was an American character actor who appeared in 102 Hollywood films and television shows from 1916 to 1951.
The Murder of Dr. Harrigan is a 1936 American mystery film directed by Frank McDonald and written by Peter Milne and Sy Bartlett. The film stars Ricardo Cortez, Kay Linaker, John Eldredge, Mary Astor, Joseph Crehan and Frank Reicher. The film was released by Warner Bros. on January 11, 1936. A story by Mignon G. Eberhart was the basis for the film.
The Lady in the Morgue is a 1938 American mystery film directed by Otis Garrett and written by Eric Taylor and Robertson White. It is based on the 1936 novel The Lady in the Morgue by Jonathan Latimer. The film stars Preston Foster, Patricia Ellis, Frank Jenks, Thomas E. Jackson, Wild Bill Elliott, Roland Drew and Barbara Pepper. The film was released on April 22, 1938, by Universal Pictures.
Mrs. Pym of Scotland Yard is a 1939 British comedy-drama film directed by Fred Elles starring Mary Clare in her only title role and Nigel Patrick in his film debut. It is based on the Mrs Pym novels by Nigel Morland, and written by Morland, who re-used the title for a 1946 book.
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