recommended
... View MoreOk... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
... View MoreThe movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
... View MoreIt’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
... View MoreFor those of us who are interested in how telephones work – or at any rate, used to work – this is the perfect film. True, Pat O'Brien is at his bumptious best – or worst, depending on your point of view – but there's a fair bit of action along with all the instructional material, plus the presence of blonde Joan Blondell and blonde Glenda Farrell. And for comic relief, here comes Allen Jenkins and – to a lesser or greater extent depending upon your point of view – Eugene Palette. Some striking stock footage helps out too! Directed at a fast clip by Ray Enright and edited at a super-fast pace by Clarence Kolster, you need to be quick on your toes to catch many members of the support cast, including the lovely Loraine Marshall as a Clayton's girl friend – along with the more sassy Rita La Roy, she's the girl friend you have when you're not having a girl friend – plus Bess Flowers as the switchboard supervisor, and many others, too numerous to list, including Hobart Cavanaugh as Happy Dooley and Selmer Jackson – of all people! – on the wrong side of the law! And it's all wrapped up in just 69 minutes. I'd rate it at least 7+. Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.
... View MoreThis one looks like it was originally planned as another inexpensive vehicle for Cagney, like THE PICTURE SNATCHER (in which he played a photographer) or TAXI!: ordinary Joe roles that the men in the audience could identify with, and when Jimmy snaps into action, they can imagine themselves doing it. After all, what's he got that I don't? But he again threatened to walk, so they tried O'Brien out in the role. He's an Irish sort of actor too. Maybe the audience won't notice.Unfortunately, I noticed and it became something of a chore to make my way through this movie when the top-billed actor doesn't get much screen time. As often happens in lesser Warner Bs, it's the supporting players that kept me watching, particularly Eugene Palette. But you can skip this one.
... View MoreWatching this, if you didn't know, you would think that a telephone repair man back in the day could do anything. That's what makes this film so laughable.A tops in his field telephone repair man goes throughout his workday solving telephone related problems. Along the way he tries his suave ways on the lady clients he meets. In the midst of all this he meets a girl who finally falls for his lame charms. She in turn gets unwittingly involved with a scumbag who uses her to rob her boss of some bonds. Then...telephone repair man to the rescue.Words can't describe how lame this film is. Pat O'Brian didn't have much range as an actor and it shows in this. There are so many laughable moments I can only mention a few cause it would ruin for anyone who wants to watch this lame time piece.First off, what telephone repair man has the skills to cut any kind of live electrical wires? One scene has a building burning and for some reason they need him to get to the top of a burning building and cut telephone wires. Who knows what purpose this serves but in the process he decides there are live electrical wires and he just takes some pliers/snips and cuts them. This is beyond ridiculous. Not gonna happen folks unless he intended to make himself a charcoal briquette in the process.. After this he jumps off the building and lands in a fireman's net to safety. With this act he's the king of the day. LOL..what a joke.The funniest of all is the end fight scene. It could very well be the worst fight scene in film history. To set up this fight I'll start off with..they kidnap the repair man and are dragging him back to their car to leave and the whole of the telephone repairmen from the company come to his rescue. Mind you, all these crooks trying to take him away are all armed. When the repairmen arrive and decide to try and save him, all these crooks just run at em like it was WWI. I mean, these guys have guns and they decide to fight? Gimme a break. The fighting in this is so funny it's worth watching just for that. It's so bad you'll spit up you soda and chips while watching it. I will say this was an early 30's film so they hadn't gotten the realistic look of fighting by then but if your a filmmaker and want to do a film with fighting, watch this and see what not to do.For me, this was a real joke of a film. Not even funny or believable at any point. Bad script, stupid premise and 65 minutes of my life I'll never get back.
... View MoreJoan and Glenda together in a scintillating comedy - or so I thought but, as usual, I was disappointed (just as I was with "Havana Widows"). I suppose the idea of them starring together looks good on paper but Joan Blondell was a more conventional leading lady with a zippy mouth for a wise crack. Glenda Farrell was zany and sassy and I just adore her and unfortunately she was never going to be the star when Joan was around. To see Glenda in a snappy comedy I recommend "Girl Missing" - unfortunately she didn't get the leading man ( pastel pretty Mary Brian was around for that) but she did get to show off some of her mile a minute speeches.Not in "I've Got Your Number" unfortunately. In this movie, for all her co-star billing she had one scene as a zany phoney medium and another small one where she was Allen Jenkins rather drunk date!!! She and Joan shared no scenes together. The real star was Pat O'Brien, in the sort of part he was perfecting in the early 30s - Terry, a wise cracking ladies man who knows all the answers. Along with Allen Jenkins as John, they play a couple of trouble shooting telephone repairmen who are the despair of their boss, Joe Flood (Eugene Palette). In this inconsequential story, Terry meets Marie (Blondell) a telephonist who has just had to resign due to some unsavoury gossip linking her to a betting scandal. She needs employment and Terry remembers Mr. Schuyler (Henry O'Neil) and his promise to help if Terry was ever in a jam. Marie is soon efficiently working the switchboard but Nicky (her friend's boyfriend and the originator of the betting scam) turns up like a bad penny and once again Marie is up to her ears in a bonds theft - completely innocent of course!!! It finishes very quickly, Terry is captured but with his inside knowledge of telephone wiring methods is, unbeknownst to the crooks, able to alert his office and have help on the way.Just a so-so movie, good for a rainy afternoon but not memorable.
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