For those of us who are interested in how telephones work – or at any rate, used to work – this is the perfect film. True, Pat O'Brien is at his bumptious best – or worst, depending on your point of view – but there's a fair bit of action along with all the instructional material, plus the presence of blonde Joan Blondell and blonde Glenda Farrell. And for comic relief, here comes Allen Jenkins and – to a lesser or greater extent depending upon your point of view – Eugene Palette. Some striking stock footage helps out too! Directed at a fast clip by Ray Enright and edited at a super-fast pace by Clarence Kolster, you need to be quick on your toes to catch many members of the support cast, including the lovely Loraine Marshall as a Clayton's girl friend – along with the more sassy Rita La Roy, she's the girl friend you have when you're not having a girl friend – plus Bess Flowers as the switchboard supervisor, and many others, too numerous to list, including Hobart Cavanaugh as Happy Dooley and Selmer Jackson – of all people! – on the wrong side of the law! And it's all wrapped up in just 69 minutes. I'd rate it at least 7+. Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.

I've Got Your Number (1934)*** (out of 4) Extremely entertaining gem from Warner about phone repairman Terry Riley (Pat O'Brien) who falls for a beautiful blonde (Joan Blondell) but soon gets caught up in a robbery. I'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER turns into a crime picture for the final fifteen-minutes but the rest of the running time is basically a romantic comedy and it's a very good one at that. I think it's pretty clear that the egotistical maniac, fast talking lead character was meant to be played by James Cagney but for whatever reason he didn't do the part so O'Brien stepped in. It seems whenever the Cagney-O'Brien team couldn't do a picture, the studio gave the lead to O'Brien and then they'd bring in either Allen Jenkins (as they did here) or Frank McHugh. O'Brien and Jenkins makes for a very good pair as the two work well off one another and make for a highly entertaining and very fast little picture. The two of them can mix it up extremely well and Jenkins certainly manages to bring a lot of laughs. Blondell is also very good in her role as she's certainly easy on the eye but she also manages to make you believe her in the part. Glenda Farrell has a brief but very funny part as a fake psychic and we also get a good supporting performance by the always entertaining Eugene Palette. There are countless highlights to this film but I think the greatest thing are the various pre-code elements with most of them dealing with sex. O'Brien's character, in today's world, would be called a stalker or sexual harasser because of the way he talks to women, pretty much follows them and forces them to go out with him. It's certainly played for jokes here and it gets plenty of laughs especially one scene early on where two sexually charged women invite him into the house and all sorts of innuendo is thrown around. These pre-code sex jokes are without question hilarious and help keep this film moving at a great pace.

This one looks like it was originally planned as another inexpensive vehicle for Cagney, like THE PICTURE SNATCHER (in which he played a photographer) or TAXI!: ordinary Joe roles that the men in the audience could identify with, and when Jimmy snaps into action, they can imagine themselves doing it. After all, what's he got that I don't? But he again threatened to walk, so they tried O'Brien out in the role. He's an Irish sort of actor too. Maybe the audience won't notice.Unfortunately, I noticed and it became something of a chore to make my way through this movie when the top-billed actor doesn't get much screen time. As often happens in lesser Warner Bs, it's the supporting players that kept me watching, particularly Eugene Palette. But you can skip this one.

Joan and Glenda together in a scintillating comedy - or so I thought but, as usual, I was disappointed (just as I was with "Havana Widows"). I suppose the idea of them starring together looks good on paper but Joan Blondell was a more conventional leading lady with a zippy mouth for a wise crack. Glenda Farrell was zany and sassy and I just adore her and unfortunately she was never going to be the star when Joan was around. To see Glenda in a snappy comedy I recommend "Girl Missing" - unfortunately she didn't get the leading man ( pastel pretty Mary Brian was around for that) but she did get to show off some of her mile a minute speeches.Not in "I've Got Your Number" unfortunately. In this movie, for all her co-star billing she had one scene as a zany phoney medium and another small one where she was Allen Jenkins rather drunk date!!! She and Joan shared no scenes together. The real star was Pat O'Brien, in the sort of part he was perfecting in the early 30s - Terry, a wise cracking ladies man who knows all the answers. Along with Allen Jenkins as John, they play a couple of trouble shooting telephone repairmen who are the despair of their boss, Joe Flood (Eugene Palette). In this inconsequential story, Terry meets Marie (Blondell) a telephonist who has just had to resign due to some unsavoury gossip linking her to a betting scandal. She needs employment and Terry remembers Mr. Schuyler (Henry O'Neil) and his promise to help if Terry was ever in a jam. Marie is soon efficiently working the switchboard but Nicky (her friend's boyfriend and the originator of the betting scam) turns up like a bad penny and once again Marie is up to her ears in a bonds theft - completely innocent of course!!! It finishes very quickly, Terry is captured but with his inside knowledge of telephone wiring methods is, unbeknownst to the crooks, able to alert his office and have help on the way.Just a so-so movie, good for a rainy afternoon but not memorable.