She's Got Everything (1937)

With classic films there is always one guarantee: the main actress and actor will come together at the end despite whatever obstacles come their way. Sometimes that plot gets a little tedious to watch over and over again especially with comedies. With comedies things can get too silly and too out of hand with the obstacles or even the plot is too much and too silly. She’s Got Everything is one of those types of comedies.

            Carol Rogers (Ann Sothern) has just come back from Europe to find her house in complete chaos. Her father has just died and all the people he owed money to from the grocer to the dressmakers to the furniture store are all packed in her house taking their things back. She scares them out of the house so she can be alone. Carol tells her aunt Jane (Helen Broderick) that she wants to get a job so she can start paying some people back. She feels bad that she never asked her father if he needed help instead she ran off to Europe.

            A man named Waldo Eddington (Victor Moore)snuck into the house and stayed when everyone else left. He talks to Jane about a rich miner in South America that was crazy about Carol but she did not like him. Waldo owned some horses that her father had kept and wants her to marry the miner so he can be paid as well. To do this, he says, they must get backing from a few people just so that Carol has some money.  Jane likes the idea but neither of them want to tell Carol of their plan. Waldo goes to three of the people who the father owed money to and they are suckered into giving five hundred dollars each.

            Waldo puts in a call to Fuller Partridge (Gene Raymond) who owns a coffee company. He wants to sell one of the horses to him but Fuller does not want a horse. Fuller happens to mention he needs a secretary and this gives Waldo the idea to tell him about Carol. Carol gets the job as Fuller’s new secretary. One of her job requirements is that she will have to test the coffee the company makes so Fuller can have an idea of what women think of it. The only problem Carol hates coffee. After her taste testing Fuller takes Carol out for a walk in the park. It starts to rain and he immediately comes down with a cold. Over a few days she helps him to get better.

            A few days later at work Carol faints. A doctor tells her and Fuller that she is overworked and underfed. She needs a vacation. Fuller sends her away for a while to get better. The three backers follow Carol, Waldo, and Jane on their vacation. Waldo finds out that Fuller is worth more than the minor and now their plans change to trying to bring Fuller and Carol together. Waldo calls Fuller with the story that Carol is so sick she is delusional and keeps asking for him. Now the problem is trying to get Carol to look delusional and sick and call out Fuller’s name. He happened to meet an illusionist and hypnotist. The hypnosis does not work on Carol but it does somehow work on Jane.

            Waldo and Jane have fun dancing and spending time together. He wants to marry her but that all changes when he reads the newspapers the next morning and thinks Carol was just setting him up. Instead of coming straight out with the situation with her, Fuller tries to get her to be the one who walks away. He orders weird things for breakfast, wants to buy her clothes and picks the ugliest ones, and even goes out in the rain and gets them both a little sick. She gets fed up with him and he finally tells her what is wrong. Carol swears she had nothing to do with what was said in the papers. When he gets back to the hotel Fuller sees Waldo talking to the press and realizes he is the one who spilled to the papers.

            Waldo explains everything to Fuller. Fuller tries to call Carol to talk to her bust she does not want to. He goes to her house and asks her to marry him. She says yes but she is not too happy. The next day Carol leaves Fuller jilted at the altar which was her plan the whole time. He finds out that Carol and Jane are leaving for Europe. He manages to get his trucks to block the car Carol is in and needless the say that they fall back in love and get married.

            She’s Got Everything was alright. This was a B movie for RKO. It was made very well and the cast was very good. You can tell the story was definitely a subpar B movie story. Ann Sothern was wonderful she is always a delight to see in a film. Gene Raymond just does nothing for me but I will say he was better and more entertaining than in some of his other films I have seen. Helen Broderick and Victor Moore are hilarious together. I did not really like the characters of Fuller, Waldo, and Jane. I found them annoying. They were all using and wanting Carol for their own purposes and that I did not like… probably because I like Ann Sothern a lot and I did not like seeing her taken advantage of. The entire plot got too out of hand with the supporting characters they were too silly and, I felt, barely moved the story along.  She’s Got Everything I only suggest watching if you like Ann Sothern or the other three leads. 

Sadie McKee (1934)

“I'm kind of sick of men.”

“Oh, you're crazy. They've got what we want, all of it. And every gal has her price. Yours ought to be high.”

            Sadie McKee is the name of a woman who did everything in this film out of concern for the men she loved. She knew what was right and what was wrong. Her heart was often broken by the men she loved but she never gave up on them.

            Sadie (Joan Crawford) grew up in the Alderson house. Her mother is the cook for the rich family. Growing up Sadie was best friends with the Alderson Michael (Franchot Tone). Michael returns home for the first time in two years and Sadie comes home to help her mother since there are extra guests at the house to welcome Michael home. Normally Sadie works in a shop.

            Sadie and Michael’s friend Tommy Wallace is in trouble again. Michael wants Tommy to go to jail instead of his father giving Tommy a job. Sadie gets mad at Michael and says something about the situation in front of the other guests. Tommy leaves for New York City and tells Sadie he will call for her once he gets there. She is so upset at him leaving without her she gets on the train to the city with him. At the train station they meet someone that knows where they can rent rooms. At the boarding house their neighbor is a woman named Dolly Merrick. Dolly is a performer in a show. She hears Tommy singing and playing his ukulele and tells him she can get him a spot in the show. Tommy was supposed to meet Sadie at the courthouse to get married. He never shows and she does not hear from him.

            Sadie gets a job dancing at a night club. One night Michael goes there with his boss Jack Brennan (Edward Arnold). Jack wants to see Sadie again. She walks over to the table and she sees Michael. They talk about what has happened since she left the night of the party. Michael tries to get Sadie away from Jack but it is too late they are all stuck at the night club until very early in the morning. Jack brings Sadie and Michael back to his place. He is completely drunk and keeps asking Sadie to marry him. Michael is furious with her for thinking about marrying him just for his money. She does marry Jack and on that day he buys her clothes and a ring. He is completely unaware of what is going on. At the end of the day they both go back to the house drunk.

            Tommy’s act with Dolly is very successful. Sadie keeps track of him in Variety and goes to see one of his shows. He sees her in the crowd from the balcony where he performs and he sings to her. When Sadie arrives home Michael is there with a doctor. The doctor says that the way Jack keeps drinking he will be dead within six months. The problem is Jack has been everywhere to try to sober up in the past and nothing has worked. Sadie really does love him and wants to help Jack. She wants Michael to help him as well but he does not want to. Sadie takes thinking into her own hands. Michael thinks Sadie is going to kill Jack and take his money and run off somewhere with Tommy. The next morning she finds a bottle the butler Finnegan brought up to Jack. Sadie is furious with him and fires him. Finnegan calls Michael to come over. She overhears Finnegan call her a tramp to the other servants and fires them all. She tells them all she wants to do is help Jack she does not want him to die so she can get his money she does not care about the money. Jack comes out of his room and falls down the stairs hurting his neck.

            After some time Jack is much better and sober. They go out to a night club where Dolly happens to be performing. Sadie notices Tommy is no longer with her. Dolly has no idea where Tommy is she dumped him in New Orleans. Jack had planned on taking Sadie to Europe. Now that Tommy cannot be found she does not want to go. She tells her husband about Tommy and how she still loves him. She still loves Jack and he knows that but he also knows that Sadie loves Tommy more. He offers to help her.

            Michael finds a very sick Tommy in a bar. He tells his friend that Sadie still loves him. Tommy is brought to a hospital and is not doing well at all. With Sadie and Michael by his side Tommy dies.

            A few months later Sadie has a job and her own apartment and her mother living with her. Michael comes over often for visits.

            The cast was very good. This was my favorite performance of Joan Crawford’s I have seen so far. Sadie was a strong, emotional, good willed person and Crawford did a great job balancing all those characteristics. Poor Franchot Tone, it seems like he never gets the girl in the films I have seen him in so far. I would have rather to have seen him in Gene Raymond’s role where he gets the girl’s love and affection. Gene Raymond was alright he does nothing for me as an actor. He does his own singing and he sings “All I Do is Dream of You”. Yes, it is one of the songs from Singin’ in the Rain. I love this version of the song Raymond sounds fantastic. Edward Arnold actually plays a nice guy. In the films I have seen him in he is always playing a mean person. His character was a nice man. Arnold played the part so well you could see that Jack really loved Sadie.

            Sadie McKee was a typical 1930s drama. The story was decent but boring. It was nice to see the issue of alcoholism taken seriously rather than it being used as a comedic device. Sadie McKee is available on DVD in a pack of Joan Crawford’s films. It is not available on Youtube. I caught the film when it was on TCM some time ago.