Trade Winds (film)

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.

Trade Winds
Directed byTay Garnett
Produced byTay Garrett
Walter Wanger (executive)
Screenplay byDorothy Parker
Alan Campbell
Frank R. Adams
Story byTay Garnett
StarringFredric March
Joan Bennett
Music byMusical director
Alfred Newman
CinematographyRudolph Mate
Foreign exterior photography James B. Shackelford
Edited byOtho Lovering
Dorothy Spencer
Production
company
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]

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 ocean, 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 a brown wig, 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

Production

Principal photography on Trade Winds took place from August 22 to early-October 20, 1938.[2] The film was a "labor of love" for Tay Garnett. Reviewer Frank S. Nugent in his review for The New York Times, described the process. "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]

Release

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]

References

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

Citations
  1. Bernstein 2000, p. 439.
  2. "Original film information: 'Trade Winds' (1938)." TCM, 2019. Retrieved: August 1, 2019.
  3. 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.

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

Streaming audio

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