THERE'S THAT WOMAN AGAIN

US, 1939, 72 minutes, Black and white.
Virginia Bruce, Melvyn Douglas, Margaret Lindsay.
Directed by Alexander Hall.

There's That Woman Again is a second feature of the late '30s. It is a detective story, very similar to episodes of television series of the '70s and '80s. In fact, these second features ran only just over an hour, not much more than the time for the average episode of the series.

This is the second in a series of two where Melvyn Douglas plays a detective. His wife in the first filia was Joan Blondell. Here she is Virginia Bruce - one of the most scatterbrained and irritating wives in screen history. Douglas is tempted to murder her at times, so he says -and the audience is in agreement. Nevertheless,this husband and wife, especially the wife in her daffy way, solve the murder and robbery mystery. Margaret Lindsay, a star of the period, is the suave villainess.

The film was partly in imitation of the Nick and Nora Charles stories of Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man, popular at this time. Melvyn Douglas and Virginia Bruce are no match for William Powell and Myrna Loy.

The film seems particularly dated - and yet, if one overlooks the fashions, styles and manners of speaking, it is probably just the same as the television episode.

Direction is by Alexander Hall, a director of many romances and comedies at Columbia in the '30s and '40s.