Homicide detective Melvyn Douglas is determined to make good in his chosen career, but his long-time girlfriend Joan Blondell would rather him retire and push baby carriages, the thought of which makes him wince. She is tired of his being pulled away from their romantic evenings out on the town, so she begins plotting ways of getting him to either be fired or resign. "I'm more interested in making Kenny a good cop rather than a good husband", police chief Clarence Kolb tells Blondell after she inquires if he's been fired. But once a cop, always a cop, and even after he does resign, circumstances change which keeps him working much to Blondell's frustration.A funny subplot involves an ill-fated romance between Blondell's co-worker Ruth Donnelly whom Douglas sets up with Edward Brophy. All would be fine if Brophy didn't have a 40 year sentence waiting for him upstate. "Age before beauty", he tells her, allowing her to go in front of him. Blondell comments, "Your friend doesn't waste much time" to which Douglas replies, "He hasn't got much time to waste". Brophy proves to be a rather dashing dancer, hoofing with both Blondell and Donnelly, promising her, "I'll never look at another dame as long as I live." It seems that the biggest challenge in police chief Kolb's job is to find a police officer willing to dress in women's clothing to trap a killer. Guess who ends up in drag! "Good grief, you look like my Aunt Nellie!", Blondell exclaims upon seeing him. Of course, he doesn't remove his mustache, covering it instead with a flowered see-through veil. Blondell follows him, is attacked, and through guilt, Douglas promises to marry her, much to Kolb's dismay. A smart and funny script keeps the wisecracks flowing, while the action comes fast and furious, giving enough mystery both for the murder and whether or not Douglas will ultimately commit."Congradulations! I hope all your kids have flat feet!", Donnelly tells Douglas after he stands Blondell up at their city hall marriage for police business. Eventually, like Nick and Nora (and many other "Thin Man" knock-off couples), Blondell joins Douglas in helping him in his investigation in order to save him from going to jail, and this leads to a more serious last quarter. Even though Blondell may seem a bit one sided in her determination to grasp onto Douglas and take him away from his career, she does seem to come around and understand why he has to do for a living what he does. So in the end, this is less about a clinging, manipulative woman, but about two people in love coming to an understanding and how they deal with their differences.

Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell co-star in "The Amazing Mr. Williams," a 1939 mystery/comedy that's quite good, although forgotten, probably due to the number of incredible films that came out in 1939.Douglas plays a talented police detective married to his job, while his girlfriend waits for a wedding that is constantly postponed. What happens in this film is no exception - he's called to a murder scene just as he's about to walk down the aisle yet again.Both stars were excellent at comedy, worked together well (and often), and help make this battle of the sexes fun. Edward Brophy and Donald McBride are on hand for excellent support.As you can read in other reviews, Melvyn Douglas doesn't make much of a woman.Entertaining if a little on the long side.One of the comments here trashed Melvyn Douglas, one of our greatest actors. He literally floated effortlessly through dozens of films as the other man and the best friend before coming into his own in films as an old man. He wasn't lazy, but rather, a very hard-working actor (who made it look easy) who had a Broadway career simultaneously with his film career. He just wasn't cast as a leading man in films or given very challenging roles under the studio system. I challenge anyone to see his devastating performances in "Hud" and "I Never Sang for my Father" and call him lazy or make reference to his smirk.

Delightful minor film, juggling comedy and detective, romance and drama genres as nimbly as Lt Kenny Williams (Melvyn Douglas) balances his devotion to his girl Maxine Carroll (Joan Blondell) and his duty to the force as an ace detective.This hodge-podge may not appeal to all viewers today, but in its day, it had something to offer every member of the movie-going family, and the resolution to the rather tired feeling-versus-duty plot is original and refreshing, and well worth the wait. "The Amazing Mr. Williams" contains what must be among the most outrageous blind dates in film history, and its bright comic repartee sparkles. Ludicrously frocked, Melvyn Douglas delivers some of the best lines: "I'd walk down Main Street in a Turkish towel before I'd let any woman control my life!" And the effervescent Joan Blondell lets her barbs fly with typical aplomb: "Good grief! You look like my Aunt Nellie!' The crime-solving here is standard fare, although a fine cast of character actors helps bring the material to life. From today's vantage point, "The Amazing Mr. Williams" is perhaps most interesting for its insightful commentary on gender as a socially defined construct, all the more malleable for its seemingly rigid boundaries. While much of the gender commentary takes place in a superficial battle of the sexes, at times it is both subtle and penetrating, playing out not only in some of the finer details of the film, but in the battle of genres that reaches its culmination in the final scene.

There's nothing amazing about 'The Amazing Mr Williams'. Part of this movie's problem is its lead actor Melvyn Douglas. He was a lousy actor and lazy with it. For most of his career, he allowed his good looks, a glib manner and (usually, but not in this movie) some fine scriptwriting to make up for his lack of acting ability. I disliked Douglas as an actor before I knew anything about him as a person; I've learnt enough about him to know that I also despise his politics. I'll give Melvyn Douglas credit for one thing: his chromosomes did produce the incredibly talented and sexy actress Illeana Douglas.Melvyn Douglas made this movie right after the brilliant 'Ninotchka' ... talk about a comedown! 'The Amazing Mr Williams' is allegedly a comedy, but I never laughed. Douglas plays a plainclothes detective on the homicide squad, named Kenny Williams. I never heard of a police detective named Kenny, but if they called him Kenneth Williams ... well, what a carry-on. The whole city is in a panic because a serial killer is going about, killing women. No motive is given for this; he just likes to kill women. The mayor (Jonathan Hale, better than usual) calls Williams on the carpet to account for his failure to catch the killer.SPOILERS APPROACHING. The cheap, vulgar, untalented and unattractive Joan Blondell plays the mayor's secretary. (She doesn't sound literate enough to file a letter, much less type one.) Blondell and Douglas squabble like a cat and a dog, so it's blatantly obvious they're going to end up together.At this movie's lowest point, Melvyn Douglas decides to draw out the killer by dressing up as a woman. You do NOT want to see Melvyn Douglas in drag! He's well over six foot, and he doesn't even shave off that annoying moustache. The similarly-'tashed William Powell was an actor very similar in type to Melvyn Douglas (but much more talented). When Powell disguised himself as a woman in 'Love Crazy', he had the integrity to shave off his moustache: a genuine sacrifice, as Powell needed it to grow in again for his next role. But Melvyn Douglas brings nothing whatever to his role in this movie, not even a razor. He plays his drag scenes with the same annoying smirk he used throughout the bulk of his career.On the plus side, 'The Amazing Mr Williams' has several of those splendid supporting players who made Hollywood's movies of the '30s so delightful. Edward Brophy is brilliant here, touching and funny as a criminal who gets an unlikely furlough from his life sentence. The dyspeptic Donald MacBride is fine as a cop who gets mistaken for the killer, and is nearly lynched by a mob. Ruth Donnelly is splendid: as usual for her, but here she gets a chance to show her talents away from her usual orbit on the Warner Brothers backlot. Jimmy Conlin, Luis Alberni and the grinning Dave Willock are all fine in small roles. Barbara Pepper (whom I usually dislike) is good here too. The grossly unpleasant Maude Eburne gets some screen time; I always loathe her, and she gives the same performance in every film ... but some audiences enjoy Eburne's one-note performance very much, for reasons I can't fathom.If you're familiar with Hollywood character actors of the 1930s, and the roles they tended to play, one glance at IMDb's cast list will tell you who the murderer is. That's the problem with 'The Amazing Mr Wiliams': everything is too obvious. I'll rate this movie 2 points out of 10.