estherwalker-34710 Review of Traveling Saleslady

Traveling Saleslady (1935)

All about Champaign-flavored toothpaste, with Joan Blondell as Miss Fix-it.

[8/10 · 25 May 2021]

Delightful, unpretentious comedy, with well-constructed, complex, if much contrived, screenplay, that especially emphasized 4 intertwining personal conflicts..............First, there is the conflict between Joan Blondell, as Angela Twitchell, and her father, Rufus: president of Twitchell toothpaste, over his rejection of her request to be given a job in his company. Rufus says women belong at home, not in the work place. After Angela meets eccentric Elmer(Hugh Herbert)): ex-bootlegger, who has developed toothpaste with the flavors of various alcoholic drinks, she tries to convince Rufus to give this a try. But conservative old Rufus doesn't want to hear about it...........So, Angela goes to see the president of Schmidt toothpaste. Mr. Schmidt is like a friendly grandfather, and agrees to try it. Angela stipulates that he must hire her as a saleslady, and that she will initially give him an exclusive contract for only one year. To hide her identity as Rufus's daughter, Angela adopts a pseudonym: Miss Smith. Her chief rival in her travels is handsome, single, Pat O'Connor: Rufus's best traveling salesman. The two salespeople always seem to be bumping into each other, and Angela is winning the competition big time. Such that Rufus soon has to dismiss many of his employees. Although they are bitter rivals in business, of course, they gradually develop romantic feelings for each other............. Meanwhile, Pat is also dating Claudette(Glenda Farrell),: another beautiful blond,: head of a pharmacy that is one of his customers. At one point, Pat and Claudette hire a small open plane to take them to Chicago, to get there before Angela does. But, they don't know that Angela previously paid this pilot to skywrite 'Champaign-flavored toothpaste' over Chicago. During the skywriting, the passengers are shocked that sometimes the open plane flies upside down! Eventually, Angela meets Pat + Claudette, and the 2 women discover that Pat has been two-timing them. Hence, they both disown him., at least for the present............ Later, Angela proposes to Mr. Schmidt that her father's much diminished company merge with his. She reminds him that his contract expires after one year, and that she will only bestow a new contrast on a combined company. During negotiations, Pat serendipitously arrives,(no explanation why, but to finish the film, he has to) and discovers that Miss Smith is actually Rufus's daughter. Angela suggests that Pat make up with her and form a personal merger.