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Trade Winds (film)
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Wikipedia article
'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 story by Tay Garnett. The film stars Fredric March and Joan Bennett, with a supporting cast featuring Thomas Mitchell, Ralph Bellamy and Ann Sothern. Distributed by United Artists, 'Trade Winds' was released on December 28, 1938.
Plot
Socialite Kay Kerrigan (Joan Bennett) is accused of fatally shooting millionaire cad Thomas Bruhme II (Sidney Blackmer). 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" Blodgett (Ralph Bellamy) and George Faulkner (Robert Elliott) 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 (Thomas Mitchell) knows that Kay is alive and puts former detective Sam Wye (Fredric March) 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 (Ann Sothern), an old flame who also wants to collect a $100,000 reward now being offered by Bruhme's father.
On a boat sailing to Saigon, 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 (Richard Tucker), a jealous husband whose wife was having an affair with Bruhme. Kay is thus cleared and free to marry Sam.
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 as Commissioner Blackton
* Robert Elliott as Detective George Faulkner
* Joyce Compton as Mrs. Johnson
* 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.[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. 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 ...
Release
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 ordera travestery comiromance, or a dramalogue of travesty."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.
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
* Bernstein, Matthew. 'Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent'. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. .
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