Angela Twitchell (Joan Blondell) is the daughter of a rich owner of the country's biggest-selling toothpaste. Her father, unfortunately, is a bit of a blow-hard and refuses to let her have any involvement with the company because 'it's men's work'! When a goofy inventor (Hugh Herbert) also finds himself frustrated with her father because he won't even talk to him about his invention, he shows it to Blondell and she is VERY impressed. You see, instead of antiseptic tasting paste, he's come up with flavors that taste like booze. She sees a great future for the products but since her father won't talk business with her at all, she takes the idea to one of his competitors and she is hired as a saleslady on the spot.During the course of her cross-country travels, she is VERY successful and soon the tiny company she works for is putting her Dad's out of business. But, because she's using a false name, he has no idea she's the brains behind this turnaround. Along the way, she meets a salesman for Twitchell's (William Gargan) and although they are bitter rivals, their is a romantic spark between them. Can Blondell manage to make everyone happy AND get the guy? The film is quite charming and enjoyable. Sure, it's not especially deep, but the excellent writing and acting make this one to see. Clever.Oh, and by the way, though the scene on the telephone is very short, that's Hattie McDaniel in this cameo.

Nowadays movies portray business-persons as greedy, twisted, conspiratorial individuals. In the thirties, however, they generally were seen as at least useful, if not heroic. And perhaps I'm anachronistic, but that's still the way I think things really are.In this quasi-feminist film, the wonderful Joan Blondell seizes upon an inventor's idea for liquor flavored toothpaste. (Indeed, if you Google that term you'll find such a product actually exists today.) When her knuckle-headed father won't sell it through his company, however, she finds a way around him, and cuts a pseudonymous deal with his more foresighted rival.Then great fun results as she, the opposition's chief salesperson, and William Gargan, her father's chief salesman, try to constantly double-cross each other on-the-job, while falling for each other off-the-job.The picture's pace is swift, the dialog snappy, and the plot has no holes. I highly recommend it, and have only three caveats: 1. The script overlooks what I believe would have been "cocktail" toothpaste's greatest selling point—that of deniability. Neither your boss nor your spouse could ever prove you were drinking 'cause you could always claim they just smelled the toothpaste.2. While Gargan does a fine job with his role, his part itself has Jimmy Cagney written all over it. Had Cagney been Joan's opposition, "Traveling Saleslady" probably would have been considered a classic.3. Finally, I say quasi-feminist film because; at very end Joan, who clearly is the smartest person, and the best business mind in the picture reconciles with Gargan by telling him she wants to go to Niagra Falls and cook for him thereafter. What really should have happened, however, is this: she should have said "I want to go to Niagara Falls with you (a smiling reaction by Gargan) before taking over as your boss (a stunned Gargan promptly collapses to the floor in a faint)."

The character played by Joan Blondell wants to make it in a man's world and boy, does she! Her pompous father tells her women don't belong in business when she asks for a job -- any job. So she goes to work for his rival. And work she does! Her father is a stuffy toothpaste manufacturer. She hooks up with dizzy inventor Hugh Herbert and comes up with a plan to revolutionize the world of toothpaste. And she leases her and Herbert's services to her father's rival for a year. And then she goes to work in the title capacity.William Gargan is likable as the salesman who is both her romantic interest and her rival. (He works for her father's company. Needless to say, she is not using her real name; so to him, she is The Enemy.) It is far from a masterpiece. But Blondell is always a delight and it's a brassy, entertaining story.

A TRAVELING SALESLADY & a drugstore queen vie for the affection of a handsome toothpaste salesman.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.Sassy & sweet, Joan Blondell & Glenda Farrell make perfect romantic rivals. This is really Blondell's picture - Farrell's part gets off to a slow start - but they are great together or apart and make the film zing.William Gargan gives a good performance as the fellow in the enviable position of being desired by both Blondell & Farrell. Wonderful, wacky Hugh Herbert, as the inventor of cocktail flavored toothpaste, leads a parade of character actors - Grant Mitchell, Al Shean, Ruth Donnelly, Johnny Arthur, Bert Roach, Mary Treen & Harry Holman - who all excel at milking laughs from every line.Movie mavens will recognize the marvelous Hattie McDaniel, uncredited in a tiny, hilarious, scene.While never stars of the first rank, Joan Blondell (1906-1979) & Glenda Farrell (1904-1971) enlivened scores of films at Warner Bros. throughout the 1930's, especially the eight in which they appeared together. Whether playing gold diggers or working girls, reporters or secretaries, these blonde & brassy ladies were very nearly always a match for whatever leading man was lucky enough to share equal billing alongside them. With a wisecrack or a glance, their characters showed they were ready to take on the world - and any man in it. Never as wickedly brazen as Paramount's Mae West, you always had the feeling that, tough as they were, Blondell & Farrell used their toughness to defend vulnerable hearts ready to break over the right guy. While many performances from seven decades ago can look campy or contrived today, these two lovely ladies are still spirited & sassy.