I've Got Your Number (1934)

Very disappointing...

Purely Joyful Movie!

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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.

Phone company technicians Pat O'Brien and Allen Jenkins charge into a luxurious apartment populated by lounging ladies. They exchange insults, they install a longer phone cord, they exchange a few suggestive phone cord jokes as they finish the job. O'Brien slaps one of the women on the rear on his way out. –These phone repair guys are fast, tough and too cool for rules.O'Brien's swagger gets him into trouble with boss Eugene Palette ("I was gonna slap her on the shoulder and she bent over," he says) but in the next scene he's performing a daring rescue atop a burning building and is proclaimed a hero. Ah, the life of a telephone technician: excitement, glamour and adventure—at least according to this picture.Joan Blondell co-stars as a switchboard operator who gets innocently mixed up in an office swindle. Accused of theft, she takes it on the lam…and guess who sets out to rescue her by tracking down and trapping the real crooks? Glenda Farrell is hilarious as "Madame Francis, Spiritualist Medium." Using her office phone system to run phony séances, Glenda is busted by our heroes—who then start hanging out with her.The four stars are all highly entertaining (although Farrell's role is regrettably minor). The plot may be somewhat predictable—O'Brien and Jenkins use their tools and phone skills to track the crooks, tap their calls, learn their plans—but it moves fast and packs plenty of attitude.It's never especially believable but awfully hard to resist.

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.

While I must admit that I enjoyed watching "I've Got Your Number", I must also admit that the film had serious flaws. First off, Pat O'Brien's character was a real pig--a sexual harassing jerk. Second, the plot was a bit silly.This film begins with O'Brien working as a telephone repair man. He is good at his job but he's also a pig--and sexually harasses his clients repeatedly. With one woman, he slaps her on the behind. With another (Joan Blondell), he's a bit of a stalker--a guy who won't accept 'no' for an answer. Back in 1934, he might have been seen as a cute fellow--today he would have been arrested! And, true to the ridiculous attitudes of the day, he was the hero--a guy who really was NOT very heroic. To make it worse, after sexually harassing Bondell repeatedly, she responded by falling in love with the guy!!! Today, it's a seriously screwed up relationship to say the least.Overall, this is a film that IS enjoyable but also seriously flawed and stupid. Worth seeing if you love classic Hollywood--otherwise it might just seem trivial and silly.