MEN ARE SUCH FOOLS

US, 1938, 69 minutes, black and white.
Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Humphrey Bogart, Hugh Herbert.
Directed by Busby Berkeley.

Men of Such Fools is a very slight comedy of 1938. It is screwball comedy, Warner Bros. style. It was directed by famed choreographer, Busby Berkeley.

The film is a star vehicle for Priscilla Lane. It is also star vehiclel for Wayne Morris. Lane and Morris appeared in Brother Rat and Brother Rat and a Baby in 1938 and 1940.

Priscilla Lane works in an advertising agency run by Hugh Herbert. She is quite ambitious. She gets opportunities to promote a tea and rises with promotions in her company. Morris also plays an advertising agent. However, audiences will be put off by his courting of Lane, quite a boorish, almostl stalking, and, in the light of 21st century standards, sexist. It is surprising how easily Priscilla Lane falls in love with him.

Hugh Herbert is idiosyncratic as the manager of the company. Mona Barrie effectively plays a woman of the world who advises Priscilla Lane. Also in the cast is Humphrey Bogart. He plays a light romantic lead, losing out on the girl.

The film raises issues of working wives, careers, in the light of the 1930s. At first, there is an emphasis on career and success. Then follows romance, marriage, life in the suburbs, being subordinate to the husband, tiring of this kind of life, leaving the husband.

However, this is a romantic comedy and, despite the difficulties, the husband and his success in his company, and Bogart’s ex- fiancée flirting with him, there is a quick happy ending with Lane and Morris reunited.

The film is moderately entertaining, but is more interesting in its portrayal of the career woman, marriage, possibilities for separation and divorce in the 1930s.