Woman Chases Man Reviews

Hopkins is an ambitious career woman, a promising architect, who feels that her career is threatened by gender discrimination. Winninger, a scatterbrained old land developer, becomes her target for success. She brings him a set of plans and convinces the old codger that his latest failing suburban development venture can be turned into a winner with her help. The bottleneck to the plan is that the carefree Winninger is deeply in debt, and must pay off his creditors before the project can begin. His stodgy, stingy son McCrea has millions, but has refused to invest in Winninger's erratic schemes. Determined to succeed, Hopkins recruits movie theater doorman Crawford (in his screen debut) and usherette Logan to pose as Winninger's servants so that son McCrea will think the old man has accumulated some money from his ventures. She then has to overcome the obstacle of fortune-hunter Maricle, who has set her cap for McCrea. Discovering that McCrea's Achilles' heel is a weakness for champagne, Hopkins proceeds to get him besotted. The bibulous boy loosens up and signs the contract that will bail out the housing project, and he and Hopkins discover love. Fine comic performances and producer Goldwyn's traditionally lavish production don't quite save a fundamentally defective script. Goldwyn had long sought another comic vehicle for his romantic pairing of Hopkins and McCrea (this is their fifth and final such film). His search turned into a producer's nightmare, running through a whole legion of screenwriters and directors. Reportedly, the project began with Ben Hecht--the highest-paid scripter of his time--two years previously. Goldwyn, unhappy with Hecht, hired Sam and Bella Spewack to doctor his product; they determined that their patient, Hecht's script, was dead. Instead, the Spewacks decided to adapt a story by putative authors Root and Fenton that Goldwyn had previously purchased. Goldwyn didn't like that script either, so he hired Dorothy Parker and her husband, Alan Campbell, who, along with Joe Bigelow, doctored the doctored script. A production schedule was established and director Edward Ludwig was called in. He wisely made himself unavailable before the cameras rolled, and the sorry script--already much patched and mended--was sent to a bat tery of studio hacks for more surgery. Director William Wyler was next called in. After reading the latest script, he returned the money he had been paid by Goldwyn--and paid more--to be taken off the project. Star Hopkins next tried to get out of the picture but decided to stay with it when Goldwyn threatened not to pick up her contract option (this was the last film she made for Goldwyn). Hopkins and Goldwyn compromised, with the star consenting to play her role if Gregory LaCava would direct. Like his predecessors in this parade, LaCava took a walk after he read the much maligned script. Goldwyn finally lined up Blystone to direct. Production had finally begun when contract player Andrea Leeds, signed to play the part of the fortune-hunting female, resigned the role. The producer put her on suspension and borrowed Maricle from Columbia at the last moment. The picture was made; Goldwyn's tenacity became the stuff of legend.