Turnabout (1940) 

Synopsis
Tim Willows, the athletic mainspring of the Manning, Willows and Claire advertising agency, and his indolent wife Sally continually bicker under the watchful eye of Mr. Ram, an Indian idol given to them by a distant relative. After a day in which Tim carries on his business at breakneck speed while Sally lolls in bed and bath, they quarrel and express a mutual wish to change places. Hearing their desire, Mr. Ram begins to speak and pronounces that their wish will be granted. The next morning, Tim and Sally awake to find their personalities, voices and mannerisms transplanted in the other's body. Athletic Tim, in the body of Sally, stays home and creates consternation among the house servants and wives of his business partners, while Sally, in the body of Tim, goes off to the office and creates confusion among the staff, estranges Julian Marlowe, the agency's key client, and scores a success with the effiminate client that Tim had been barring from his office. When Sally returns home from her day at the office, the couple beg Mr. Ram for relief and are seemingly restored to their original sexes and personalities. Using Sally's pregnancy as an excuse for their strange behavior, they then set about wooing back the clients and friends whom they have alienated. However, just when it seems that things have returned to normal, Mr. Ram realizes that he has made a grave mistake in his transposition, and reveals that it is Tim who is going to give birth to the baby.



Review - Hal Erickson

One of several "naughty" screwball comedies based on the works of Thorne Smith (of Topper fame), Hal Roach's Turnabout stars Carole Landis and John Hubbard as unhappily married couple Sally and Tim Willows. Bored with her humdrum existence, Sally spends most of her time figuring out ways of spending her husband's money, while hard-working Tim plots and plans to "step out" on the Missus in the company of his business associates Manning (Adolphe Menjou) and Clare (William Gargan). All of this changes when an effigy representing an Oriental deity comes to life and exchanges Sally and Tim's personalities. As a result, Sally awakens with a deep voice and dons Tim's business suit, while Tim speaks in a falsetto and favors Sally's frilly frocks. The complications ensuing from this role-reversal are much better seen than described, while the film's hilarious denouement was tipped by United Artists' ad campaign, which heralded that "The man's had a baby instead of the lady." Though not nearly as risque as it seemed to be back in 1940, Turnabout is full of wonderful vignettes, including a priceless bit involving veteran screen "pansy" Franklin Pangborn. ~ Hal Erickson, 

REVIEW OF "TURNABOUT" (1940)

To Live Each Other's Lives
26 September 2009 | by bkoganbing (Buffalo, New York) – See all my reviews

Watching Turnabout and knowing it was produced and directed by Hal Roach right after One Million BC which made stars of Victor Mature and Carole Landis, I'm wondering if Roach didn't want to do this film with both of stars from One Million BC. For whatever reason Mature didn't do this one, Roach co-starred Landis with John Hubbard who was also in the cast of One Million BC.

Known primarily for his short subjects, Roach occasionally did a feature film that bent a few rules of the Code. Possibly because he was not in with the major film studios, Roach had a whole lot more creative freedom and is Turnabout he made the most of it.

Landis and Hubbard are a young and constantly bickering couple. He's a partner in an advertising agency with William Gargan and Adolph Menjou. And her two best friends are Mary Astor and Joyce Compton, said wives of Menjou and Gargan.

After a day of quarreling both express a wish to live each other's lives and they express it before a statue of a Hindu deity named Ram which grants their wish. Whoosh, and they're in each other's attire and talking for the audience's amusement with each other's voices.

After that it's a succession of gender bending jokes and lines which come so fast it's a crying shame that Turnabout is not out on DVD or VHS. With those you have the luxury of rewinding and hearing it again to catch what you missed. And this is the kind of film where you can watch it over and over and still come up with a fresh laugh.

For a small studio Roach's reputation was such that he commanded a supporting cast that could and did equal a film from any of the major studios. Besides the names already mentioned Turnabout includes Marjorie Main, Verree Teasdale, Franklin Pangborn, Berton Churchill and Donald Meek.

The last includes the funniest sight gag in the film. Meek plays Hubbard's manservant and he's quite a sight trying to deal with a ferocious little dog that looks more like a bear cub. Absolutely hilarious and there's quite the story of how that dog came into the possession of Hubbard and Landis.

This film must have been in the inspiration for those Walt Disney Freaky Friday films and the Dudley Moore/Kirk Cameron film Like Father Like Son. But none of those could boast a cast like this.

This one is an absolute gem, just waiting to be rediscovered.


NY TIMES  Review OF "Turnabout" (1940) published July 27, 1940
'Turnabout' at the Roxy
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: July 27, 1940

Presumably the scenarists thought they had a screamingly funny idea when they adapted Thorne Smith's "Turnabout" for the screen version which arrived at the Roxy yesterday and undoubtedly there will be a good many folk who agree. Although this department maintained a stony silence there were guffaws and giggles in many parts of the house. Call it a question of taste. For, so far as we're concerned, this self-conscious fantasy of a husband and wife who reverse their biological status is a tired and tiresome jape, as subtle as a five-cent stogie and just as aromatic. This is the sort of joke that the boys chortle over at the annual "smoker."

When Mr. Ram, that occult gentleman with Bronxian inflection, allows Mr. and Mrs. Willows to exchange their natural endowments and the sundry prerogatives thereof, the ensuing complications are obvious. A little too obvious, in fact. Mr. Willows walks about like a sailor's jest, falsetto-voiced, hand on hip; the wife dons the family jeans and orders a phenomenal breakfast in a basso that stuns the chambermaid. There's the devil to pay at the office and in the home and, come evening, the penitential pair are content to retire to their respective marital corners.

Perhaps there is in this humor of a sort, but it is hardly to be recommended for tiny tots or, for that matter, for those adults who ask that a naughty joke be spiced with wit. Of the cast credit Adolphe Menjou for his humorous performance as a dipsomaniac advertising man, William Gargan as the dimwitted partner, Donald Meek as a confused butler, and mercifully overlook the rest. "Corny" was the word muttered by a starboard partisan yesterday.


TURNABOUT, screen play by Mickell Novak, Berne Giler and John McClain; based on the novel by Thorne Smith; produced and directed by Hal Roach; released through United Artists.
Phil Manning . . . . . Adolphe Menjou
Sally Willows . . . . . Carole Landis
Tim Willows . . . . . John Hubbard
Joel Clare . . . . . William Gargan
Laura Bannister . . . . . Verree Teasdale
Marion Manning . . . . . Mary Astor
Henry . . . . . Donald Meek
Irene Clare . . . . . Joyce Compton
Miss Edwards . . . . . Inez Courtney
Mr. Pingboom . . . . . Franklin Pangborn
Nora . . . . . Marjorie Main
Julian Marlowe . . . . . Berton Churchill
Dixie Gale . . . . . Margaret Roach
Mose . . . . . Ray Turner
Jimmy . . . . . Norman Budd
Miss Twill . . . . . Polly Ann Young
Lorraine . . . . . Eleanor Riley
Masseur . . . . . Murray Alper
Ito . . . . . Miki Morita
Marie . . . . . Yolande Moliot
Mr. Ram . . . . . George Renavent