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{{short description|1938 film by Tay Garnett}}
{{Infobox film
{{Infobox film
|name=Trade Winds
| name = Trade Winds
|image=TRADE WINDS 1938.jpg
| image = TRADE WINDS 1938.jpg
| alt =
|caption=Theatrical poster
| caption = [[Film poster|Theatrical poster]]
|director=[[Tay Garnett]]
| director = [[Tay Garnett]]
|producer=Tay Garnett<br>[[Walter Wanger]] (executive producer)
| producer = Tay Garrett<br>[[Walter Wanger]] <small>(executive)</small>
|writer=Dorothy Parker<br>Alan Campbell<br>Frank R. Adams<br> Tay Garnett (story)
| screenplay = [[Dorothy Parker]]<br>[[Alan Campbell (screenwriter)|Alan Campbell]]<br>[[Frank R. Adams]]
⚫
|music=[[Alfred Newman (composer)|Alfred Newman]] (uncredited)
| story = [[Tay Garnett]]
|cinematography=[[Rudolph Maté]]
|editing= [[Otho Lovering]]<br>[[Dorothy Spencer]]
| starring = [[Fredric March]]<br>[[Joan Bennett]]
⚫
| music = Musical director<br>[[Alfred Newman (composer)|Alfred Newman]]
|runtime=93 min
| cinematography = [[Rudolph Mate]]<br>Foreign exterior photography [[James B. Shackelford]]
⚫
|distributor=United Artists
| editing = [[Otho Lovering]]<br>[[Dorothy Spencer]]
|released=28 December 1938
| studio = [[Walter Wanger Productions, Incorporated]]<br>[[A Tay Garnett Production]]
|country=USA
⚫
| distributor = [[United Artists]]
⚫
|language=English
| released = {{Film date|1938|12|28}}
⚫
| budget = $738,733<ref name="wagner">Matthew Bernstein, ''Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent'', Minnesota Press, 2000 p439</ref>
| runtime = 93 minutes
⚫
| gross = $964,404<ref name="wagner"/>
| country = United States
⚫
| language = English
⚫
| budget = $738,733<ref name="wagner">Bernstein 2000, p. 439.</ref>
⚫
| gross = $964,404<ref name="wagner"/>
}}
}}
'''''Trade Winds''''' is a 1938 comedy film distributed by [[United Artists]]. It was directed by [[Tay Garnett]], and starred [[Fredric March]] and [[Joan Bennett]]. The screenplay was written by [[Dorothy Parker]], [[Alan Campbell (screenwriter)|Alan Campbell]] and [[Frank R. Adams]], based on story by Tay Garnett.
'''''Trade Winds''''' is a 1938 American [[comedy film|comedy]] murder mystery film directed by [[Tay Garnett]] written by [[Dorothy Parker]], [[Alan Campbell (screenwriter)|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. {{TOC limit|limit=2}}


==Plot==
==Plot==
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.
The night that San Francisco socialite Kay Kerrigan has to identify the body of her younger sister in the morgue, she confronts millionaire playboy Thomas Bruhme II in his apartment. Kay blames her sister's suicide on the callous Bruhme, who hands her his gun and blithely tells her to shoot. Enraged and humiliated, Kay shoots at Bruhme's stomach and he falls dead. After Kay hastily leaves, police detective Ben "Homer" Blodgett sees Bruhme's body with a fatal bullet in the back of his head and, finding Kay's handbag, deduces that she is the murderer. When an all-points bulletin is issued for her arrest, Kay drives her car into the bay, making the police believe that she is also a suicide victim. Some time later, in Hawaii, Kay pawns a unique piece of her jewelry, and Police Commissioner Blackton knows that she did not die. Not trusting the bumbling Homer's capacity to track Kay down, the commissioner contacts former policeman Sam Wye, a brilliant detective who specializes in finding, and romancing, women. Sam leaves his creditors and his fuming secretary Jean Livingstone behind and heads for Hawaii, accompanied by Homer. After charming some hairdressers, Sam discovers that Jean changed from blonde to brunette and sailed for Japan. Homer and Sam then search for Kay throughout the Orient. While Homer looks at tobacco shops asking if a woman has purchased Kay's special brand of Egyptian cigarettes, Sam goes to cafes trying to see if a woman has been playing Frédéric Chopin's "Andantino in A Flat Major," Kay's favorite melody, on the piano. When Homer thinks he has found the woman, it turns out to be Jean, who followed Sam to rekindle their old romance and collect a $100,000 reward now being offered by Bruhme's father. Jean also has a photo of Kay and the tip that she is travelling on a British passport as "Mary Holden." On a boat sailing toward Saigon, Sam finally meets Kay, and immediately falls in love with her. He doesn't let her know that he is a detective, and she falls in love with him as well. Now jealous as well as miffed over Sam's attempts to keep her from collecting part of the reward, Jean poses as a missionary's daughter and becomes friendly with Kay herself. She also helps Kay when she thinks that Sam secretly wired for the reward. Travelling from port to port, Jean, who is now very fond of Kay, helps her get away, then when Sam finds them again, she goes with them on a slow boat back to San Francisco after Kay decides that she no longer wants to be a fugitive. In order to help Kay avoid capture from rival police detective George Faulkner, Sam makes Faulkner believe that Jean is Kay, long enough for him to take Kay to a distant island. When Faulkner does track them down, Sam intends to shoot him, but Faulkner wounds him instead and Sam suddenly says that he has captured Kay for the reward. Back in San Francisco, the press calls Sam a "heel" for turning in his sweetheart, and even Homer and Jean, who have fallen in love with each other, think that Sam is a cad. After collecting the reward, Sam buys Bruhme's apartment and invites all of Bruhme's old girl friends to a party. During the party, he reveals to Homer that he has discovered that Kay's gun actually had blanks in it and thinks that Bruhme was killed from behind by a jealous lover. By rigging up a phony radio broadcast, Sam makes the real killer, Mr. Johnson, think that Kay has been found guilty of murder, and coerces him into confessing that he killed Bruhme for having an affair with Mrs. Johnson. Now free from the murder charge, Kay marries Sam, who finally has shaken his image as a cad.


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.
==Principal cast==
⚫
*[[Fredric March]] as Sam Wye
⚫
*[[Joan Bennett]] as Kay Kerrigan
⚫
*[[Ralph Bellamy]] as Ben Blodgett
⚫
*[[Ann Sothern]] as Jean Livingstone
⚫
*[[Sidney Blackmer]] as Thomas Bruhme II
⚫
*[[Thomas Mitchell (actor)|Thomas Mitchell]] as Commissioner Blackton
⚫
*[[Robert Elliott (actor)|Robert Elliott]] as Detective George Faulkner


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.
==Release==

The film earned a profit of $71,129.<ref name="wagner"/>
==Cast==
⚫
* [[Fredric March]] as Sam Wye
⚫
* [[Joan Bennett]] as Kay Kerrigan
⚫
* [[Ralph Bellamy]] as Ben Blodgett
⚫
* [[Ann Sothern]] as Jean Livingstone
⚫
* [[Sidney Blackmer]] as Thomas Bruhme II
⚫
* [[Thomas Mitchell (actor)|Thomas Mitchell]] as Commissioner Blackton
⚫
* [[Robert Elliott (actor, born 1879)|Robert Elliott]] as Detective George Faulkner
* [[Joyce Compton]] as Mrs. Johnson
* [[Richard Tucker (actor)|Richard Tucker]] as John Johnson
* [[Dorothy Comingore]] as Ann (credited as Linda Winters)
* Wilma Francis as Judy

==Production==
Principal photography on ''Trade Winds'' took place from August 22 to October 20, 1938.<ref>[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/95803/The-Wife-Takes-a-Flyer/original-print-info.html "Original film information: 'Trade Winds' (1938)."] ''TCM'', 2019. Retrieved: August 1, 2019.</ref> 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..."<ref name="Nugent" />
==Critical response==
[[Frank Nugent]] in his contemporary review of''Trade 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."<ref name="Nugent">Nugent, Frank S. [https://www.nytimes.com/1939/01/13/archives/the-screen-tay-garnetts-trade-winds-brings-a-world-cruise-to-the.html "The screen; Tay Garnett's 'Trade Winds' brings a world cruise to the Music Hall."] ''The New York Times'', January 13, 1939.</ref> {{#tag:ref|''Trade Winds'' earned a profit of $71,129.<ref name="wagner"/> |group=N}}

''[[Variety (magazine)|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."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=21 September 1938 |title=Trade Winds |journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=14}}</ref>

''[[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.&nbsp;... It's all frankly hoke, but surefire stuff for mass emotional appeal, since it has colorful and sympathetic characters"<ref>{{Cite journal |date=12 January 1939 |title=Trade Winds |journal=[[Kine Weekly]] |volume=236 |issue=1656 |pages=21}}</ref>

[[Leslie Halliwell]] opined: "Smartly written mixture of comedy, drama, mystery and travelogue which comes off only in spots; it needed a firmer hand "<ref>{{Cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0-586-08894-6 |edition=7th |location=London |pages=1046}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=[[Immediate Media Company]] |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=954}}</ref>


==References==
==References==
===Notes===
{{reflist}}
{{Reflist|group=N}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
* Bernstein, Matthew. ''Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent''. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0-52008-127-7}}.
{{Refend}}


==External links==
==External links==
*{{tcmdb title|id=93758|title=Trade Winds}}
* {{tcmdb title|id=93758|title=Trade Winds}}
* {{IMDb title|0030888|Trade Winds}}
* {{IMDb title|0030888|Trade Winds}}
* {{AFI film|id=6089|title=Trade Winds}}
*[http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/114250/Trade-Winds/overview ''Trade Winds''] at [[Allmovie]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110520081618/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/114250/Trade-Winds/overview ''Trade Winds''] at [[Allmovie]]
⚫
* [http://thenedscottarchive.com/hollywood/films/trade-winds-movie.html Still Photos from 'Trade Winds'] by [[Ned Scott]]
'''Streaming audio'''
'''Streaming audio'''
*[http://ia700504.us.archive.org/13/items/Lux05/Lux_40-03-04_Trade_Winds.MP3 ''Trade Winds''] on [[Lux Radio Theater]]: March 4, 1940
* [https://archive.org/download/Lux05/Lux_40-03-04_Trade_Winds.MP3 ''Trade Winds''] on [[Lux Radio Theater]]: March 4, 1940
*[http://ia600308.us.archive.org/31/items/ScreenDirectorsPlayhouse/SDP_49-05-29_ep021-Trade_Winds.mp3 ''Trade Winds] on the [[Screen Directors Playhouse]]: May 29, 1949
* [https://archive.org/download/ScreenDirectorsPlayhouse/SDP_49-05-29_ep021-Trade_Winds.mp3 ''Trade Winds''] on the [[Screen Directors Playhouse]]: May 29, 1949
⚫
*[http://thenedscottarchive.com/hollywood/films/trade-winds-movie.html Still Photos from 'Trade Winds'] by [https://en.wikipedia/wiki/Ned-scott Ned Scott]


{{Tay Garnett}}
{{Tay Garnett}}
{{Walter Wanger}}
{{Walter Wanger}}

[[Category:1938 films]]
[[Category:1938 films]]
[[Category:American films]]
[[Category:1930s comedy mystery films]]
[[Category:Black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American comedy thriller films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American detective films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Alfred Newman]]
[[Category:Films directed by Tay Garnett]]
[[Category:Films directed by Tay Garnett]]
[[Category:1930s comedy films]]
[[Category:Films set in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Screenplays by Dorothy Parker]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Dorothy Parker]]
[[Category:United Artists films]]
[[Category:Films produced by Walter Wanger]]
[[Category:1938 comedy films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:English-language comedy mystery films]]

Latest revision as of 13:22, 22 December 2024

Trade Winds
Theatrical poster
Directed byTay Garnett
Screenplay byDorothy Parker
Alan Campbell
Frank R. Adams
Story byTay Garnett
Produced byTay Garrett
Walter Wanger (executive)
StarringFredric March
Joan Bennett
CinematographyRudolph Mate
Foreign exterior photography James B. Shackelford
Edited byOtho Lovering
Dorothy Spencer
Music byMusical director
Alfred Newman
Production
companies
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • December 28, 1938 (1938-12-28)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
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.

Plot

[edit]

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.

Cast

[edit]

Production

[edit]

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]

Critical response

[edit]

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]

References

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Trade Winds earned a profit of $71,129.[1]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Bernstein 2000, p. 439.
  2. ^ "Original film information: 'Trade Winds' (1938)." TCM, 2019. Retrieved: August 1, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Nugent, Frank S. "The screen; Tay Garnett's 'Trade Winds' brings a world cruise to the Music Hall." The New York Times, January 13, 1939.
  4. ^ "Trade Winds". Variety. 13 (2): 14. 21 September 1938.
  5. ^ "Trade Winds". Kine Weekly. 236 (1656): 21. 12 January 1939.
  6. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 1046. ISBN 0-586-08894-6.
  7. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 954. ISBN 9780992936440.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Bernstein, Matthew. Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-52008-127-7.
[edit]

Streaming audio

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