jacobs-greenwood Directed by Busby Berkeley, it features Priscilla Lane as a secretary in an ad agency that wants to become a successful working woman. Unfortunately, the film gets pretty bogged down in some very dated stereotypes of women in the workplace and, especially, men's attitudes towards it. Linda Lawrence (Lane) shares an apartment with Nancy (Penny Singleton), who - for contrast - plays the more typical secretary who is only working until she can find a husband that will marry her and allow her to stay at home (which of course she does).In any case, Linda is so attractive that every man in the firm is trying to date (but not necessarily marry) her. As secretary to Mr. Bates, played by Hugh Harvey (with a very annoying "whoo hoo" throughout), a rather bumbling "first line manager his entire career" type, Linda quickly advances to a position as his assistant. A career woman named Beatrice Harris, played fairly convincingly by Mona Barrie, is initially reluctant to share her "queen bee" status with Linda. However, once she recognizes the same ambition in Linda as her own, Beatrice instead begins to mentor her, somewhat.Wayne Morris plays an ex-football jock from Princeton named Jimmy Hall; he is also very ambitious, especially in his rather obnoxious pursuit of Linda. In fact, it is his whole attitude and actions towards Ms. Lane's character throughout the film that will be most offensive to anyone (especially female viewers) watching the film these days. He exhibits a very physical "won't take no for an answer" approach to getting Linda to marry him, which she does. This is followed by him insisting she give up her very promising (more so than his?) career to be there for him when he gets home from work, especially after (with Beatrice's assistance) Linda starts working with the "top dog", Harry Galleon played by Humphrey Bogart. Harry, like every other man in the agency, can't resist Linda's looks and starts to intentionally sabotage her 3 month marriage to Jimmy, which precipitates his ultimatum.After six months of staying at home, and dealing with a daily routine which includes picking up her husband at the train station and carpooling home with Bill Dalton (Gene Lockhart plays another very annoying character), Linda decides to work a behind-the-scenes deal to further her husband's career. When he declines the offer, never knowing of her involvement, she walks out, accusing him of being not ambitious enough for her. This leaves room for Harry to get back into the picture. But, of course, everything works out in time (in this less than 70 minute film!) for a happy ending.A most unusual film for Bogart. The title comes from the last line spoken in the film, by Priscilla Lane's character incidentally.

csteidler Priscilla Lane does her best to keep afloat in this somewhat entertaining but maddeningly uneven B comedy. Roommate Penny Singleton just wants to get married but office worker Priscilla has ambition: "I'm going to be somebody in this advertising racket and I've got what it takes!"Standing in her way is co-worker Wayne Morris, who takes for granted that she should be more interested in him than in her job, despite the fact that he is both dense and obnoxious. Lane is perky but the relationship between her and Morris never seems believable, and a nice cast of character actors are sorely let down by a mediocre script. Hugh Herbert is fine as the company boss, apparently silly and absent-minded but not as dumb as he seems. Johnnie Davis is his usual blustery self as Singleton's fiancé then husband.Mona Barrie has most of the film's best lines as a successful but cynical ad writer who's had some ups and downs in the racket herself. Taking newcomer Lane under her wing, Barrie invites her to the lake for a weekend party—whether out of kindness or hoping to stir up mischief, it's not quite clear: "Bring your boyfriend along. Give you a chance to compare him with the other insects." Alas, Barrie's role is too small, and what might have been another fun role is simply too dull—young Humphrey Bogart as a playboy radio executive is mildly annoying but little else. This might be Bogie's most boring role ever. Priscilla Lane is very good and her character is smart and likable….but co-star Wayne Morris isn't her match here, and the standard plot just doesn't really work.

Bolesroor "Men Are Such Fools" is a Busby Berkeley comedy that made me so angry I almost drove knitting needles into my eyes just to end the pain. I am a HUGE fan of old movies, I've seen more films from the 30's than most people have seen in their entire lives, and I can safely say this is an absolute disaster. Where do I start?First, every actor in the movie shouts every line as fast as possible. No, they BARK every line at one another with their Energy levels set to 10 and not an ounce of thought or meaning behind a single delivery. The actors perform so quickly, so intensely, that no scene lasts longer than 45 seconds and the entire movie is over in 69 minutes. Was there cocaine being served on set?Secondly the absurd plot involves the brutish Wayne Morris trying to convince the adorable Priscilla Lane to marry him by physically abusing and threatening her. He bellows at her endlessly, parking their car in front of an oncoming train and holding her underwater until she almost drowns. According to the up-tempo soundtrack and hyper-speed direction this is all supposed to be hilarious! Personally I don't find spousal abuse to be a toe-tapping, gut-busting chuckle-fest, but that's just me.The story makes no logical sense, as our buxom and bangable Priscilla adjusts to married life until she one day- for reasons still unclear to me- walks out on her husband just so they can be reunited in the third act. Yuck! Avoid this terrible mess... the soundtrack alone will drive up your blood pressure and give you a headache. All involved have done much better... so will you.GRADE: F

MartinHafer Priscilla Lane begins the film as a secretary but because of her persistence and great ideas, she quickly moves up in the company and is a very well paid executive--something practically unheard of in 1938. However, when she marries Wayne Morris, their marriage is a very bumpy ride.This is a film where most of the actors simply needed a better written script. Now the overall idea of a working woman who has trouble balancing her high-paying job with marriage is very good, the execution looks like it needed an editing--with some dopey performances and logical errors that should have been cleaned up before filming began.One of the biggest problems I noticed was Wayne Morris' character. He wants to capture lovely Priscilla Lane's heart so he goes about it by being totally annoying and harassing the poor lady. Warner Brothers thought this was cute and romantic--to me it felt more like he was a stalker! Now it Lane had played a total ditz, perhaps this might have made some sense--but she was supposed to be a brilliant executive. He just seemed like a boorish jerk--yet she fell for him. So already I found myself hating one of the main characters from the start and having little respect for the other--not a good thing to say the least! In fact, throughout the film BOTH characters are really hard to predict or understand because there is no consistency with either of them. Morris is initially an obnoxious boob, then he is a rather sexist but loving husband with no great ambitions and then he becomes a HUGE high-powered executive. The dumbest part of this was his falling for an ambitious and talented Lane and then insisting, after they are married, that she drop everything to be his stay at home wife. If this is what he wanted, of the millions of women to choose from in America, he probably picked the very worst one!! Lane is a high-powered exec but falls hard to Morris' crude and obnoxious advances. When they marry, she seems pretty happy but then dumps her hubby over practically nothing--as if she were doing this purely as a plot device. It was as if her character couldn't decide if she wanted to be a corporate climber or June Cleaver! Oddly, in this film it seemed that you couldn't be a little of each.As for the supporting cast, most come off pretty well except for Hugh Herbert and Humphrey Bogart. Herbert is a "one trick pony"--a guy whose sole talent in films is giggling and fidgeting with his hands. One-dimensional, of course, but also seeming so stupid that you wonder how he could be such an important and rich man. As for Bogie, unfortunately, this film was made during his "limbo days" at Warner--when he was under contract but they had no idea what to do with him. Here, he seems rather bland and bears no similarity to the rugged character he would be in the 1940s.Overall, the film is mildly interesting in spots. The folks at the studio tried, in their own way, to create a film about women's liberation and equality--though by today's standards it seems incredibly sexist and silly. Also because neither of the leads seemed consistent or believable, the film is more of a curiosity than a good film.