Goodbye Again (1933) User Reviews

Perhaps I would have liked it better if I saw it before its remake...

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 10 February 2022]

... but instead I have seen several times what I now realize is the remake, "Honeymoon For Three", with George Brent and Ann Sheridan in the roles that Warren William and Joan Blondell have here. Warren William is a famous author, and one day an old flame, Julie, comes to him when he is on a book tour and proclaims her love even though she is married and even though William obviously does not remember her at all. And yet he goes along with them rekindling their romance even though he seems reluctant every step of the way as his long time secretary (Joan Blondell) tries to rescue him from himself.

I never thought I'd see a production code remake of a code era film that I prefer over the original, but that is the case here. Warner Brothers remade films a lot. Some of them are improvements over the original - They Drive By Night (1940) versus the rather weird Bordertown (1935) - but in this case the remake is almost a word for word version of the original. And I am surprised WB even made a remake as the original just seems truncated, as I really don't get what is going on with the characters. If I didn't know better I'd think that this was a production code era film because it pulls all of its punches. The one thing that is really a treat is seeing Wallace Ford in a change of pace as a stiff humorless attorney. That must have taken some expert direction by Michael Curtiz.

I'd never pass up a chance to see Warren William or Joan Blondell in anything, but if it were not for them I would just say to pass on it.

Pretty much what you'd expect from a Pre-Code Warren William movie.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 22 September 2015]

During the Pre-Code era, pretty much anything went in Hollywood films. Plots involving adultery, fornication, abortion, extreme violence, prostitution and many other topics were far from taboo...they were celebrated! Girls DID enjoy sex in these films and so did guys. And, of all the Pre-Code guys, none was more enthusiastic in his films than Warren William!! Again and again, he played lecherous cads, lecherous playboys and lecherous lawyers or private eyes. He was simply a sex machine of the early 30s. Now they never SHOWED anything salacious...but they sure did talk about it and seemed to be really enjoying themselves. Because this was so typical of Williams' films, I wasn't the least bit surprised when I saw "Goodbye Again"...as William plays a real sexy scoundrel!

When the film begins, Ken Bixby (William) and his secretary Anne (Joan Blondell) are traveling the country on a book tour, as he's a very famous author. An old forgotten flame, Julie (Genevieve Tobin) happens to be in the town he's now visiting and she's convinced that he STILL wants her. Ken's completely forgotten who she even is when they meet again...but he knows one thing, this married lady is very hot to trot. And, being a Lothario, Ken is more than happy to take her up on her offer for a little hot sex. But Ken is treading on this ice...this lady has matrimony on her mind. Additionally, his long-suffering secretary who secretly loves him has just about had enough. What's worse...Julie's husband is more than willing to give her up and wedding bells seem to be in the air! How can Ken get out of this mess? Or, can he?

This is a cute little sex comedy--nothing more, nothing less. It gets more interesting near the end and the film seems to convey the message that a little messing around is just fine...just make sure the girl isn't married! Well acted and worth a peek to see just how sexy these Pre-Code pictures could be.

okay love triangle caper

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 10 April 2018]

The awesome Joan Blondell is assistant to popular writer Kenneth Bixby (Warren William). Bixby and Julie (Genevieve Tobin ) had dated way back when... which could be a problem, as Julie is now married to Harvey (vaudeville guy Hugh Herbert). William would probably best be known from the "Lone Wolf" films and the detective Philo Vance films. and the incredible Joan Blondell would go on to do How to Marry a Millionaire and Desk Set. The story is so-so. the picture and sound quality are quite good, for such an oldie. The plot is pretty lighweight and flimsy, but ah well. Herbert is quite understated in this one; in some of his films, he plays the mumbling, absent-minded cluck, and goes over the top. Not so much in this one. It's more of a love-triangle farce. must have been made JUST before the enforcement of the film production code... story of a married woman running after a single man wouldn't be considered proper pretty soon. and a son in addition! Blondell had started right about when the talkies were invented, but she's stuck in a light little caper here. Another Michael Curtiz production, but nothing on the level of Casablanca, which he would make ten years later.

Nice Guys Finish With Joan Blondell

[boblipton · 7/10 · 8 February 2022]

Warren William is a successful romance novelist with Joan Blondell his ever-loving secretary. Up pops Genevieve Tobin, who promised to wait for him and didn't, asking for his forgiveness. He has no clear memory of her, so he does, and now he has to explain to his Miss Blondell, Miss Tobin's husband Hugh Herbert, and then dodge Miss Tobin, who is intent on making up for his broken heart, all without giving offense to anyone.

It's an amusing pre-code comedy, and probably closer to William in reality than the satyr-like heels he was usually called on to play in this era. He was married to one woman for 25 years until his death. They avoided the Hollywood scene, and he was an amateur inventor when not playing Perry Mason or the Lone Wolf. Miss Blondell, as she so often was, is acerbically funny in her role. Keep an eye out for Jay Ward, long before he thought of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Excellent screwball precursor

[brianina · 9/10 · 8 May 2001]

Made a year before the film "Twentieth Century" that is supposed to have started the screwball comedy, "Goodbye Again" has almost all the ingredients that would feature in the screwball classics to come. On top of this is more bawdiness than any screwball until "Kiss Me Stupid" 31 years later. Warren Williams is a famous author on a book tour with his secretary/lover Joan Blondell. In Cleveland he is pursued by his old college flame Genevieve Tobin who believes she's the inspiration for one of his books, and both are pursued by her husband, her sister and her sister's stuffed-shirt husband (Wallace Ford in a great performance wearing "Harold Lloyd" glasses exactly like Cary Grant's in "Bringing Up Baby"). The author sleeps twice with the wife, once being forced to at the unknowing insistence of the family ("Did you sleep well Mr. Bixby?" "Yes...on and off.") All ends in exactly the sort of high-speed farce that Hawks, McCarey and Wilder would make famous in the next few decades.

Mediocre

[dougdoepke · 29 January 2015]

A popular author and his gritty secretary have trouble when a still smoldering old flame and her addled husband show up unannounced.

I'm in a minority, but I found this Pre-Code farce both strained and talky. In fact the gab rarely lets up, which would be okay if the lines were snappier. But too much of the dialog is stagy and pedestrian. Then too, the estimable Warren William almost shouts his lines as though this makes them and him funny. It doesn't. The towering William is much better when presiding ruthlessly over empires. Unfortunately, the film can't seem to decide whether to madcap or not. Too bad also, that the humorously addled Hugh Herbert is largely wasted in an oddly recessive role.

And though this is minor, I had trouble telling the three blonde ladies apart since the resemblances are rather striking. Blondell is, of course, Blondell, perfectly cast as the take-charge secretary. She's a sassy treasure from that era, regardless of the material. Then too, Pre-Code means the screenplay can play fast and loose with mores of the time, which it does, adultery and wedlock paternity getting tossed off like gum wrappers. In fact, such is the main reason I tuned in.

Anyhow, a more apt leading man and a snappier script might have made the 65-minutes less forgettable. Unfortunately, farcical material was done much better in the same time frame, e.g. One Hour With You (1932), Trouble In Paradise (1932).

Goodbye and good riddance

[1930s_Time_Machine · 4/10 · 29 December 2021]

About halfway through I realised I'd seen this before - only about a year ago but I'd instantly forgotten it. Kind of sums this nondescript nonsense.

Although we've got Michael Curtiz in the chair and Joan Blondell in full cuteness mode, what we haven't got is fun or drama or indeed entertainment.

Two problems: the studio and the cast.

Obviously WB made all sorts of movie genres back in the early 30s but those which stand the test of time are those in tune with the people struggling to get by as a result of the depression. This movie isn't about those people, it's about people we don't really care about. This type of movie needs more gloss so might have been better had it been made by Paramount etc. Who were used to that more superficial style.

Second problem - William Warren and Joan Blondell were the unlikely couple who just clicked a few months earlier in the fantastic Gold Diggers of 1933 - they're here again playing not too dissimilar roles but in this one they just don't click, there's zero chemistry between them. When we watch these types of romantic comedies (although this one isn't funny) we're hoping that the boy and the girl get together and live happily ever after. That doesn't happen in this, it just makes us annoyed that lovely Joan throwing herself someone whom we have no empathy for and clearly doesn't deserve her. There are quite a few underlying themes in this which, if better written, could have been explored more, maybe turning it into a more dramatic film rather than a weak comedy but as it is, it's a waste of everyone's talent.

Miss Blondell & Mister William Invite You To Join Them In A Bit Of Comic Relief

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 8 June 2001]

It's GOODBYE AGAIN as a loyal secretary tries to help her weak-willed, philandering boss out of the romantic complications caused by an old girlfriend, now married.

This was the sort of ephemeral comic frippery which the studios produced almost effortlessly during the 1930's. Well made & highly enjoyable, Depression audiences couldn't seem to get enough of these popular, funny photo dramas.

Joan Blondell & Warren William are perfectly matched as a memorable comedy team. She was the great Hard Times sassy, brassy blonde who always got her man, no matter what travail or comic bumps she encountered along the way. Nearly forgotten now, William is best remembered for the hard-boiled, cynical tycoons & shysters he played to perfection. It is great fun to see him essay light comedy.

Wacky, whimsical Hugh Herbert appears as a blithely unconcerned cuckold. Whether stalking his faithless spouse through trains & hotels or gleefully pushing for a divorce, he is equally hilarious. Behind him comes a rank of character actors - Genevieve Tobin, Wallace Ford, Helen Chandler, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ruth Donnelly - all equally adept at catching the comedy in the story line.

Much of the dialogue & plot is vintage pre-Production Code material.

A waste of Blondell and William

[gbill-74877 · 5/10 · 22 March 2022]

The premise to this film, its cast, and pre-Code status all made it promising, but unfortunately it fell short for me. Warren William is at it again as a suave yet unscrupulous author, his secretary is the plucky Joan Blondell, and the love interest who emerges from his past (despite now being married) is Genevieve Tobin. The film then follows the author's attempts to overcome his libido and say "goodbye again" to her, helped along by a chorus of characters who serve as his conscience (her husband, played by Hugh Herbert, her sister, her brother-in-law who is also a lawyer, and of course, his secretary).

The opening scene is amusing in that it shows the author's novels in the window of a bookstore, and we see such titles as The Boudoir Cloister (with a book cover that has a woman in lingerie reclining back on her bed, arms thrown back), A Saint in Scarlet (which has a woman with a fashionable bob and low-cut dress looking pensive), Ecstasy (flowers splaying out wildly), The Woman Who Gave (a close up of a woman's face, perhaps as she's about to give or receive), Purple Passion - a Novel of Burning Love in the Tropics (with a woman beneath a palm tree in an exotic place), and Miriam (with a woman clutching a pillow while lying on her stomach smiling joyously). Naturally, women in the bookstore are all clamoring to get copies.

There are also some wonderful little moments with William and Blondell, who were at the height of their pre-Code powers. Seeing William singing a camping song in closet, mocking the lawyer by repeating what he says as he says it, and hopping up on a window ledge and maniacally threatening to jump make the film worth seeing if you're a fan of his, and it's only 66 minutes anyway. Blondell slapping him in the face with tears welling up in her eyes, after earlier being the no-nonsense type who bargained with the hotel porter over the price of a bottle of rye, showed her wonderful range. Towards the end the film seemed like an early version of a screwball comedy, which may hold some appeal as well.

However, for me the film lacked that certain pre-Code sizzle, suffering from a weak script and some uneven storytelling from director Michael Curtiz. There's not enough passion between William and Tobin's characters, and when the weak nothing of a husband and the extraneous characters of the sister and her husband show up, it led to a lot of talking and hashing things through instead of the emotions and passion that would have made this interesting. There are a couple of clever little lines with inuendo, such as when the author says he slept well but "on and off," when we know his lover has been with him on the train, but there's not enough of this sort of thing.

It's clear to the audience that they've had sex in the past, though a portion of his recollection about a night he spent with her in college was censored, with a noticeable skip in what he says about it. That may have been by a local censor board from which the print survives (before the Production Code was enforced, different cities routinely had films hacked up according to what they believed best for their community), or been an edit required by Joseph Breen after 1934, when the film was considered for re-release. It's hard to know if other scenes were excised, though we know from the breakfast scene, that clear pre-Code signal to the audience, that they've had sex in the present too. The trouble is, it just doesn't seem like there was a lot of fire here, maybe because Tobin was miscast, maybe because of edits, or maybe because the script just wasn't daring enough.

It's not too surprising where this film is heading, and it was even a direction I'm usually a sucker for, that of the "she was right next to me all along, what a fool I've been," but even then it didn't feel natural here. Maybe I'm being a little harsh in my review score as it's not all bad, but I just thought this one was a bit of a waste of Blondell and William, who are so great elsewhere.

If you love screwball, you'll love this--sublime!

[secondtake · 9/10 · 21 June 2014]

Goodbye Again (1933)

A rollicking, smartly written, snappily acted comedy farce. Yes, I loved it.

Joan Blondell is the famous leading woman here, but it is really the witty, sharp performance by Warren William that lifts this great comedy to a true high. Add the very canny direction by none other than Michael Curtiz and you can see why this is a must see. You might even call this a screwball comedy, though coming a year before screwball's more official inception with "It Happened One Night."

The first real scene here might lead you to think it was going to be one kind of comedy, filled with subtle playacting and a kind of mismatched couple sparring. Hugh Herbert is a quirky character actor at his subtle best here, with mannerisms that surprise every time I see him, and he plays the bewildered husband perfectly. His wife, played well by Genevieve Tobin, is a ditzy but not stupid woman with a crush on an old flame who is now a famous author.

But wait for the real wit and cleverness to begin when this very author (Warren William) comes to town and she goes to seduce him. William is a perfect cad. He's without scruples, which makes you love him even if you might (might) disagree with his actions. (No one is ever actually hurt in these matters.) Blondell plays his secretary, supremely capable and devoted and yet independent. You suspect they should be the real couple in the movie, but they aren't.

Things only compound and get more zany with each scene, ending with exactly the fast, laugh out loud conclusion you kind of wanted all along. This is true pre-Code comedy, with adultery barely veiled (or not veiled at all if you're awake), and with no required justice for "crimes" committed along the way. Which makes it all terribly fun and funny and just slightly naughty. For all these reasons this is a movie not to miss.

The Stuff That Passes for Romance

[view_and_review · 1/10 · 4 January 2024]

Joan Blondell reprises her role from "Lawyer Man" (1933) in which she played a woman who was quietly in love with her boss. She didn't show it by doting, fawning, and attention seeking, she showed it by being upset with her boss, played by William Powell, whenever he lusted after other women. In "Goodbye Again" she does the exact same thing for her boss Kenneth Bixby (Warren William).

I've already mentioned in other reviews how Hollywood was fascinated with female employees falling in love with their bosses, especially secretaries. For reference see "Baby Face" (1933), "Beauty and the Boss" (1932), "Skyscraper Souls" (1932), "The Office Wife" (1930), "Morning Glory" (1933), "Jennie Gerhardt" (1933), "Behind Office Doors" (1931), "Lawyer Man" (1933), "Good-bye Love" (1933), and countless others. We're to believe that female employees fell in love with their bosses back then and not that they felt compelled to be romantically involved with them to keep their jobs.

In this First National Pictures movie Kenneth Bixby is a famous author who has to travel the country to give speeches and promote his book. Alongside him at every stop was his secretary Anne Rogers (Joan Blondell) who did just about everything for him including being his voice of reason.

His stop in Cleveland put him in contact with an old forgotten flame named Julie Wilson nee Julie Clochessy (pronounced claw-see), played by Genevieve Tobin. Julie was all over Ken (Warren William) like flies on you-know-what even though she was married. Ken put up a feeble resistance but eventually caved like a house of cards.

The movie devolved into a nonsensical mess where Julie Wilson was being pursued by her sister Elizabeth (Helen Chandler), a man named Arthur Westlake (Wallace Ford), and her husband Harvey Wilson (Hugh Herbert). For some inexplicable reason Arthur and Elizabeth were more concerned with Julie's infidelity than even her own husband, Harvey. And equally inexplicable was Ken's acting like a child for the last half of the movie. It was bizarre and cringeworthy.

At one point in the movie Harvey Wilson was ready and willing to give his wife up to Ken Bixby. Ken was such a coward that, even though he didn't want to marry Julie he didn't have the backbone to say no to her. Anne swooped in to save the day and prevent Ken from marrying Julie. Even though Ken was a cad and Anne was upset with him, you could see she still had feelings for him. After Anne made it so Julie (Genevieve Tobin) no longer wanted to marry Ken, Julie gave a command, and just like that Harvey was back at her beck and call like she didn't just cheat on him and try to leave him. It was one of the greatest acts of simping and cucking you'll ever see.

This movie was tripe. And you know that Anne stuck by Ken's side in the end which made the movie even worse. I really hated to see Joan Blondell in such a weak and pathetic role.

The crap that passes for romance. Go figure.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

Fiction confused with real life with hilarious consequences

[louiseculmer · 9/10 · 8 February 2019]

Delightfully absurd comedy in which Joan Blondell is the long suffering secretary to a bestselling author (Warren William) who is being pursued by his ex girlfriend (Genevieve Tobin) who is convinced she is the model for the heroines of his books. To add to the confusion, her sister and brother-in-law turn up, determined to avert a scandal, and her hapless husband also gets dragged into the perplexing situation. It is all very funny with Warren William particularly amusing as the egotistical but charming author. A treat for anyone who enjoys screwball comedy.

Great Pre-Code Comedy!

[cdale-41392 · 10/10 · 6 April 2019]

Warren William is the very successful romance novelist Kenneth Bixby. He is on a publicity tour for his new book "Miriam" with his assistant / lover (?) Anne Rogers (Joan Blondell).

They're in Cleveland for the usual round of radio interviews, lectures, and book signings when his old college flame shows up at his hotel. Julie Wilson (Genevieve Tobin) is a delusional dingbat married woman who is convinced that Kenneth never got over their brief romance and that she is the inspiration for many of his books. She shows up to renew their affair and isn't aware that Kenneth barely remembers who she is.

Kenneth, being true to his lothario nature, sees an opportunity to add another notch to his bedpost so he arranges to go out with her ... but assures Anne that he will be a perfect Cad with her to discourage any further delusions of romance. While he steps out to escort her downstairs to a taxi Julie's sister and brother-in-law show up at his room. They engage Anne in a plan to keep Kenneth away from Julie, because they know how crazy she is and how likely she is to throw herself at him. After they leave, Julie's husband arrives, but he's not upset or anything, he's just tired of hearing about Kenneth and simply wants to meet him in person.

The rest of the film revolves around this motley crew as they hound Kenneth from Cleveland to the train bound for Albany to his hotel room in Albany ... and there are some really funny moments!

Warren William shows that he's just as adept at playing comedy as he is playing the nefarious type, and Joan Blondell is fabulous as the world-wise wise-cracking assistant.

Recommended!

A very surprising delight. Totally wacko.

[sideways8 · 8/10 · 12 October 2003]

Warren William has to rank up there with the fine comic actors. He has the wrong face for it, but he brilliant in this one. He and Cagney and Blondell and Farrell did a of good things in the early 30s. The plot is completely zany and well written. The relationship with his ex-girlfriend(and her behavior) and her messed up family was fascinating in its complexity. The end with him standing on a widow ledge after faking suicide and proposing to Joan was clever. Early Curtiz work. Great!