Traveling Saleslady is a 1935 film directed by Ray Enright.
Angela Twitchell (Joan Blondell) is the only daughter of Twitchell's Toothpaste magnate Rufus Twitchell. Rufus built a big business but is hidebound, stuck in his ways, unable to countenance newfangled ideas like radio sponsorships or beauty contests to publicize his toothpaste. Worse, Rufus is a horrible sexist; he flatly refuses when Angela asks to get a job with the corporation, because according to him, women have no head for business.
Enter Elmer Niles, a former bootlegger with a clever idea. Elmer has all sorts of artificial alcohol flavorings—gin, whiskey, martini—that he once used to flavor his illegal hooch. Elmer would like to use his flavor additives with toothpaste. When Rufus, as usual, refuses to entertain a new idea, Angela sees an opportunity. She signs Elmer to a contract herself and brings him to Twitchell's biggest competitor, a man named Schmidt. Schmidt and Angela strike a deal, with Angela making Schmidt promise not to reveal her name.
Soon, under the alias "Martha Smith", Angela is crisscrossing the country selling Cocktail Toothpaste and ruining her own father's business. Twitchell's top salesman, Pat O'Connor, desperately tries to outcompete "Martha", but soon finds himself falling in love with her even as he continually loses clients to her.
Hattie McDaniel appears briefly as a woman actually named Martha Smith whom Pat dials up on the phone.
Tropes:
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Pat and Angela, trading insults as they compete, even as they're clearly attracted to each other.
- Chekhov's Gun: Angela's insistence on giving Schmidt only a one-year contract for her flavored toothpaste, rather than going to work for him permanently. At the end this allows her to force a merger between Schmidt's company and her father's, which also allows her to get back together with Pat.
- Establishing Character Moment: Rufus Twitchell is established as a jerk when he picks up a phone, rudely yells at a subordinate, then continues to scream at his subordinate about how he woke up in the morning only to find a rival company's toothpaste in his wife's cabinet.
- The Graph Shows the Trend: Mr. Twitchell shows his executives graphs showing that Twitchell's market share is collapsing while Schmidt's is skyrocketing.
- Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: Elmer gets a lab at Schmidt's company so he can come up with new toothpaste flavors. Naturally, it's full of exotic flasks and beakers.
- Hypocritical Humor: Mr. Twitchell is shown a rival's advertising posters that show attractive, scantily-clad models showing off beaming white teeth. He barks "Disgusting! Unethical!", then puts on glasses to get a better look.
- I'll Take Two Beers Too: A department store owner hits on Angela, saying "Would you be interested to know that I'm buying two dinners tonight?". Angela then says "Really? Can you eat that much?".
- Jerkass: Rufus Twitchell, a mean, shouty boss, hidebound and reactionary, and appalingly sexist. After he once again rudely dismisses Angela's ideas, his wife (Angela's mom) says that she wishes she had punched him in the nose back in the day.
- Love Triangle: Pat falls in love with Angela. This is inconvenient from a business standpoint as he is also dating one Claudette (Glenda Farrell), who happens to head up a chain of pharmacies and is a major client of Twitchell's Toothpaste.
- Spelling for Emphasis: Angela's reaction when she asks for a job with the company and her father sneers "I don't know what you mean."Angela: A job. You know, J-O-B, job. Work, employment, occupation, job!
- Traveling Salesman: Angela, of course, who becomes an extremely successful traveling saleslady. She outhustles and outsells Pat, Twitchell's own traveling salesman, although of course she's selling better toothpaste.
- Travel Montage: A hand holding a tube of Cocktail Toothpaste draws lines of toothpaste connecting the major cities of the northeast. At each city there's shots of Pat, rushing around trying to hold on to clients, only to be buried by an avalanche of Cocktail Toothpaste billboards.
- Video Credits: Of the main players at the start of the film, as was Warner Bros. house style of the day.
