As Good As It Gets

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Men Are Such Fools (1938) ** (out of 4) Predictable and rather boring melodrama about a hard working secretary (Priscilla Lane) who works her way to the top of her office when she meets and eventually marries an ex-football star (Wayne Morris). Soon afterwards she eventually gives up her career and then problems start to rise as his career takes off. This here is yet another Warner "B" film that has a pretty good cast but in the end it gets ruined due to a rather lackluster screenplay. I really didn't think too highly of anything here, screenplay wise, because I found the comedy to be over the top and silly and then the melodrama was just too predictable. I think the early "dumbness" of the characters really hurt the later drama because it's hard to take either character too serious considering some of the dumb situations they get into early on. When the second half of the film takes place the characters just go through various motions that really make no sense except to lead up to the predictable ending. Lane is charming enough in her role and I think she comes off the best as her wonderful energy is always going strong and this really keeps the film moving. Morris doesn't give the greatest performance but he too is good enough in the role. Humphrey Bogart gets third-billing and plays the boss who falls for Lane. Once again we see Bogie in a rather thankless role that even he can't do too much with. The movie runs a brief 68-minutes but it feels much longer because the screenplay drags in so many places and one can't help but feel they've seen this type of story one time too many.

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.

"Men Are Such Fools" pretty much tries to live up to it's title, as all the male leads are flawed characters, with Wayne Morris heading the list as former college football star turned ad agency wonder boy Jimmy Hall. Right out of the gate he's shown chasing pretty Linda Lawrence (Priscilla Lane), a secretary with dreams of her own about making it big. Working for the Americo Corporation, she has an idea for a product called Fruit Tea; had she waited a couple of decades she might have come up with Snapple.The boss at Americo is played by Hugh Herbert, the "woo woo" actor that I recall being caricatured in one of those Warner Brothers cartoons along with Bogey, Robinson and all the rest. His comical double talk contains some gems if you listen real close, and he even signs off a handwritten note with his woo woo trademark.Although he had already achieved starring roles in some minor films, Humphrey Bogart appears third billed as Henry Galleon, an ad agency exec with an eye for Miss Lawrence. Bogey's portrayal pretty much typifies a playboy and a cad, and his pursuit of Linda even after she marries Hall qualifies him as heal of the year.Jimmy Hall comes across as a self centered boob, usually embarrassing himself into the center of attention where Linda is concerned. His behavior at the Galleon party should have been enough to send Miss Lawrence packing, but somehow they wound up getting hitched. The film's habit of having the romantic leads fall in and out of character kept this viewer somewhat off balance, especially when Mrs. Hall abruptly decides that her comfortable life in the suburbs is no longer enough and leaves her husband because he's not more ambitious! Where did that come from? You'll be reminded by the film how long it took for married movie couples to be shown sleeping together; the first time we see the Hall's as newlyweds, they're in separate beds! By film's finale, the Hall's are reconciled after Linda leads Jimmy on a cross city chase following a radio broadcast in which she pitches her tea for Americo. By this time it's already been at least three years since her first ad proposal, just one more disjointed aspect of the story that came off as a bit odd. Well, if it didn't bother the writers, I guess I won't let it bother me."Men Are Such Fools" is a lighthearted diversion that has it's moments, worth a viewing if you can find it since it's not commercially available. You might have to source it from a private collector, otherwise it might be a long wait to catch it on a cable channel. Fans of Morris and Lane can also find them top billed together in "Love, Honor and Behave" and "Brother Rat"; the busy pair made all three films in 1938.

Being an unabashed 'Lane, Priscilla' (qv) fan, Men Are Such Fools would be a delight to watch if only for the wonderful Miss Lane alone. But as a neat little bonus you get 'Bogart, Humphrey' (qv) in a rare, at that time, non-gangster role.This combination makes for an enjoyable movie about a young woman determined to succeed in the advertising business.However, the one problem I have with this movie is Wayne Morris, or at least the character he plays.As in another movie Mr. Morris was in with Miss Lane, _Love, Honor and Behave (1938)_ (qv), there is this undercurrent that seems to imply that you can show a woman how much you love her by physically pushing her around.I understand that things were different back then, but it is still a bit difficult to watch any guy resort to physical contact with a woman in order to win her over. This is by no means a big part of this movie, but it is noticeable after seeing it happen over a series of films from that era.That being said, the positives far outweigh any of the negatives. With Priscilla Lane starring and Humphrey Bogart in support, you can't go wrong spending your time with Men Are Such Fools.