Such a frustrating disappointment

Admirable film.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Growing up, I knew Joan Bennett as the strong matriarch of the gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows", but in studying classic film, I have suddenly been drawn to her incredible career which seemed to constantly reinvent itself. This forgotten gem is one of the key moments in her career. After a decade of being a blonde and sometimes cast in bland heroine roles, Bennett got to change her look on screen and go from long suffering to femme fatale, here believing that she has killed Sidney Blackmer who badly disrespected her sister, causing the unseen woman to kill herself. The San Francisco police are instantly on her trail, following her to Hawaii and pretty much all over the world, searching for a blonde woman rather than the dark haired mysterious woman she has transformed herself into. With the dimwitted Ralph Bellamy initially on the case (and completely screwing it up by believing that she has driven into the sea to escape capture), head detective Thomas Mitchell brings the much craftier Frederic March (whom he had previously fired) onto the case. March's "Girl Friday" (Ann Sothern in a scene stealing supporting part) follows him all over, hoping to collect on the reward, and in a very funny sequence, is confused by Bellamy to be Bennett and handcuffed in order to be taken back to San Francisco.As the romance blooms between Bennett and March, it becomes unclear whether he is simply using romance to get her back to face justice so HE can collect the reward or if he is truly in love with her and biding time to find a way of getting her off. That is the intriguing element of this smoothly written caper, given some exotic locations to move their romance along. It would be easy to write off the twists at the end as a convenient way to wrap things up, but after thinking about it, I found it completely plausible. They have excellent chemistry, with Bellamy a delightful nitwit and Sothern superbly funny as the dame who wants to prove that anything that March can do, she can do better. This puts you completely in the hands of the writers who take you along on this journey. In many ways, it reminded me of "One Way Passage", although the circumstances are quite different, because the romantic mood really strikes when typical American tourists end up in settings we can only fantasize about. Bennett is a combination of tender, loyal, sultry, cynical and just plain charming. March, like his reporter in "Nothing Sacred", seems to be winking at the audience, and that adds a great deal to his character's charm even though at times, he appears to be like a snake in the grass. The fact that a film can mix artistic integrity in with typical elements of screwball comedy and romantic intrigue puts this a notch above many other similar films, a testimony to the brilliant script which none other than Dorothy Parker contributed to.

First, be sure to read the review by st-shot. His summary statement is a classic! How do I hate thee, oh movie? Let me count the ways: First, the first third of the film (after the murder) -- where they are trying to establish Frederick March as a playboy detective -- is about the worst waste of celluloid in the history of the American cinema. It makes him -- and women -- look like fools.Second, okay, so Joan Bennett went from blond to brunette. If that's the most notable thing about this film it tells you a lot about how bad this film really is.Third, Ralph Bellamy's part is so dumb. I'd blame the big studio for forcing such a dumb part on him, but this was an independent film. A shame, because as we all know, Bellamy was a fine actor.As st-shot points out, this film includes "some of the worst back projection in film history"...and what's more, that makes up a good half of the film.Frankly, when the cobra shows up, I was hoping it would somehow put an end to March and Bennett, and that we -- the faithful viewers -- would be put out of our misery.Now, in all fairness, this movie isn't all bad. The love scenes between March and Bennett are actually pretty decent. And Ann Southern is very pleasant on screen, although I'm not sure that her presence is at all logical. The last third of the film is decent and has an interesting plot twist, although how the right people show up at a party is rather bewildering; I guess it made sense to the screenwriters...too bad it was so confusing to the audience (as several of our reviewers have noted it).It would be easy to excuse this poor film by noting that it was made way back in 1938. But that's just a year before "Gone With The Wind" and "The Wizard Of Oz" and half a dozen other notable masterpieces. I give this one an "D". Don't waster your time.

This delightfully nutty movie was not well received in its day – and still has its detractors who take it all, both story and technique, far too seriously. In fact, Trade Winds takes some getting used to. The more you see it, the more it improves. You realize that the plot is supposed to be corny, even banal. It's not meant to be taken seriously. It's simply part of the overall zany fun.I'll admit that Rudolph Maté's attractively polished studio material doesn't tone in too well with Garnett and Shackelford's 16mm footage, but who cares? We soon fall in love with the dotty script and the tongue-in-cheek players: Ralph Bellamy, laughably overbearing and wonderfully funny as the dopiest of all flatfeet; Sothern, deliciously worldly-wise; Joan Bennett deftly acerbic; and March at his most charmingly roguish, playing the ladykiller with a delightfully over-rehearsed diffidence ("Business after pleasure!"), and hilariously throwing away such barbed lines as "I wonder what dope forgot to give her the note?"Topped with a deftly ingenious music score, Trade Winds is a movie buff's delight.P.S. Garnett and Shackleford shot the 16mm travelogue material on a yacht trip around the world in 1937. They had enough left over for another movie, but box office results for this one were not encouraging, and it never materialized.

In a time when the world was young and we were happy immortals and the good guys/bad guys demarcation was clearly drawn , there was an unearthly charm to the world. The portrayals by Joan Bennett, Frederick March, Joan Blondell and Ralph Bellamy charm and beguile the soul. The music of Chopin adds a touch of class and elegance.