A Woman's Man: When Movie Stars and Boxers Collide

Is it worth your time?

If you like watching people make terrible life choices while wearing very nice hats, sure. This is strictly for the folks who get a kick out of pre-code Hollywood nonsense. If you need a movie that makes sense or has a hero you actually like, stay far away. You'll probably hate it if you're looking for something that respects your intelligence.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of A Woman's Man (1934) through its definitive frames.

The whole thing kicks off with a movie star who just decides she's done with the film set. She walks off, and honestly, the way she moves suggests she's been doing it for years. She finds this prizefighter, and the chemistry is just... odd. It’s like watching two people who don't even like each other try to convince the audience they're in love.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of A Woman's Man (1934) through its definitive frames.

Wallace Ford is in this, and he plays the boxer with this desperate, wide-eyed energy that’s almost hard to watch. He’s so hungry for attention it makes my skin crawl. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Step on It!, where everyone is just moving way too fast for their own good.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of A Woman's Man (1934) through its definitive frames.

The dialogue has these weird little stutters. Sometimes characters just stop talking in the middle of a sentence, and the camera lingers on them way too long. I spent about five minutes wondering if the projector was broken before I realized, oh, they just didn't know how to end the scene.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of A Woman's Man (1934) through its definitive frames.

There’s a moment in a locker room that felt surprisingly real. The lighting was terrible, and someone in the background was just adjusting their socks for an entire minute. I don't think it was intentional, but it was the most honest part of the whole movie. 🥊

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of A Woman's Man (1934) through its definitive frames.

It’s nowhere near as tight as The Finger of Justice, which at least knew what it wanted to be. This movie keeps trying to be a drama, then a romance, then a comedy, and fails at all three in a way that’s actually kind of impressive. You can feel the screenwriters, Adela Rogers St. Johns and Frances Hyland, fighting over what the movie should actually be.

Notes from the margins:

• The lead actress’s dresses are better than the entire script.
• I’m pretty sure one of the extras in the background is just reading a newspaper and trying not to look at the camera.
• The fight scenes look like a choreographed dance where nobody learned the steps.
• The ending just sort of happens. No fanfare. Just lights up.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s barely a movie. But there’s something about its absolute lack of polish that makes it stick in your head. Like, why did they think that scene with the telephone was necessary? We’ll never know. ☎️