Thanks for Everything (1938) User Reviews (4)

Amusing programmer

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 6 February 2009]

Adolphe Menjou, Jack Haley, Jack Oakie, Billie Barnes and Tony Martin star in "Thanks for Everything," a 1938 programmer about a poor sap (Haley) who enters a radio contest about trends and gets a perfect score. As a result, he is manipulated into working for a market research company headed by Menjou. He's dogged night and day by Oakie, who reports his opinions back to Menjou. When the president of a foreign land asks them to find out if Americans would fight if there's another war, Menjou and Haley go to great lengths to find out what Haley would do.

This is a frivolous way to spend an hour and ten minutes, and you can't go wrong listening to Tony Martin's gorgeous voice in four songs. There are some funny moments, and the acting is good. I'm afraid, however, that even at an hour and ten minutes, it seems a bit long.

The average man

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 26 June 2009]

Henry Smith is the kind of man who, without having a clue about it, always guesses right about any trivial matter. He knows exactly what people will be choosing about almost anything at all. When he enters a radio contest about trends, he gets 100% right on every question, something the advertising firm that came up with the idea want to exploit.

J. B. Hartcourt, the president of the agency in question, wants to use Henry for his own benefit, thus, he tells the young man that he has lost the reward because of a long lost cousin that works for suddenly appears on the scene. He enlists his assistants Bates and Kay Swift to follow him everywhere to see what he likes and dislikes. As a result of not getting the reward money, Henry's life goes into a tail spin as he won't have the money to marry his beloved Madge back home. Lost in Manhattan, he is further used to see how Americans will feel if there is a war on the foreseeable future, something that proves his predictions are always on target.

That is basically the premise of this Twentieth Century comedy directed by William Seiter. The comedy is light and easy to enjoy because of the cast put together to entertain us. Adolph Menjou is Hartcourt, the manipulative boss of the ad agency. Jack Haley appears as Henry. Jack Oakie and Binnie Barnes are seen as Bates and Kay. Tony Martin is also seen as the radio host and Charles Lane plays the doctor that will be the judge of Henry's sanity.

At a running time of only seventy minutes, the film does wonders to amuse its viewers effectively. Take a chance with it next time it shows on cable.

Technicolor Without Technicolor

[boblipton · 6/10 · 10 December 2008]

A potentially interesting piece of satire -- Jack Haley can predict precisely the consuming habits of the nation, so Adolphe Menjou in fast-talking mode and Jack Oakie use him as a guinea pig -- gets turned into a rather silly and pointless farce. I never did care for Mr. Haley and the Milquetoast persona he displayed in his starring roles. You may enjoy him, but I always want to smack him around.

The rest of it is surprisingly in the mode of the the bright, overlit Technicolor musicals that Fox turned out in the 1940s, except there's no Betty Grable, no Alice Faye, no John Payne and the cinematography is some handsome black and white work by Lucien Andriot. Tony Martin sings three or four forgettable songs. George Barbier is the father of the ingénue and Binnie Barnes essays a tough-talking Noo Yawk accent with varying success. Except for Menjou, you can skip this one.

10/10

[verakomarov · 10/10 · 17 October 2021]

Promoters organized a radio contest to find the average American and use him to sell food, clothing, and concepts. Everything goes well until he falls in love with a girl who upsets things.