Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I watched this movie mostly to see Maureen O'Sullivan and Joel McCrea starring together. Both of them are all but forgotten in today's world and they're not thought of as 'A' list classic Hollywood stars. However in 1935 both were at the top of their game, starring and co-starring in one movie after another. This MGM suspense/murder mystery/action film was a lot more entertaining than I expected. It moves at a fast pace and the script is pretty tight. O'Sullivan is the last actress you'd expect to see as a wanted murderess but that's exactly why it works. She's vulnerable yet tough and has the ability to say so much with her facial expressions, let alone the dialogue. McCrea as the dashing lawyer that comes to her aid is perfect. He's his usual, cool, everyman self, even though he's the hero throughout. I've always liked that about his performances, anything he does he makes believable. Try to catch it the next time it's on TCM.

Joel McCrea and Maureen O'Sullivan star in Woman Wanted about a fugitive who escapes minutes after her murder conviction and the young attorney who tries to help her. I'll let you decide which of the stars played what role.Seriously though, Woman Wanted could have and should have been a straight drama, but the folks at MGM decided to try for some comedy relief. Though some of the bits are funny, especially the performance by Robert Grieg as McCrea's butler, they don't come as relief. Instead they interrupt the flow of the plot.After her conviction for murder, Maureen O'Sullivan is sprung from the courthouse by gangster Louis Calhern who wants information from her. Of course she didn't do the crime and the jailbreak goes well, but Maureen jumps into Joel McCrea's car. Now the proper thing to do would be for attorney McCrea to advise her to turn herself because he is an officer of the court. Still she's kind of cute. So as the Woman Wanted, O'Sullivan is only wanted by McCrea for good reasons, the police and the mob have other things in mind.Lewis Stone is in a similar undefined role as the District Attorney. Usually Stone is wise and sagacious even when he's not Judge Hardy on the screen. Here he's not all that smart, but he's a Rhodes Scholar next to the police who graduated from the Mack Sennett Police Academy. There is another good bit by Edgar Kennedy as a flustered house detective.In the films of Joel McCrea, Tony Thomas correctly says this is a B film, but it's got the MGM gloss to it so it looks far better than it really is.

Maureen O'Sullivan was beautiful. She was a fine actress as well. And Joel McCrea was one of the most handsome, versatile actors of the 1930s and forties. He did well settling into Westerns after that but I always feel it was the movie world's loss.These two don't have a whole lot of chemistry here but they work well individually. Louise Calhere is as always fine as a sleazy underworld figure, too.The cinematography of Charles Clarke -- not someone generally associated with film noir in later years -- is beautiful. It employs a lot of exciting shadows.The movie is part crime drama, part romance, and a little bit comedy. My preference is for movies that stick with one or another of these genres. But "Woman Wanted" works on its own terms: It has sinister moments. It's suspenseful. And we root for the lead couple.

This 1935 movie is similar to the later television series and the hit movie "The Fugitive." In this one a female rather than a male is found guilty of a murder she did not commit. Rather than an unplanned train derailment, a planned car wreck sets Ann Gray free. Ann Gray is played by the seductive Maureen O'Sullivan, Tarzan's Jane and Mia Farrow's mother, in a light-hearted manner much in the same way she played Jane. The wreck was orchestrated by mobster Smiley Gordon who is the real killer. The much underrated actor Louis Calhern portrays Smiley with skill and daring. Tony Baxter, Joel McCrae when he was still playing comedic romantic leads, at first unwittingly aids Ann in her escape from so-called justice and hides her away in his apartment. There is a hilarious scene at this point in the film when Tony's on-again off-again fiancée unexpectedly shows up and he has to hide Ann not only from the police but also from his girlfriend. Enter Peedles, Tony's Butler (Robert Greig), who has a delicious time keeping the two separated so the girlfriend Betty Randolph (Adrienne Ames) won't discover the other woman. The law then shows up complicating Peedles' job even more. Now he has to hide both women from the long arm of the law. The wonderful Edgar Kennedy as bumbling House Detective Sweeney is before the camera much too briefly but does get a chance to create a little mayhem for everyone concerned.Another fun scene takes place in a closed diner where the now two fugitives, Ann and Tony, take shelter following a chase by mobsters during a thunder storm. Ann finds some apple jack and proceeds to get looped. Tony pretends to be the cook when the gangsters arrive and serves them hamburgers that he and Ann intended to eat. The local constable shows up after the hoods leave. He gets pie-eyed too.This is one of those neat little films where loose ends get tied much too soon making for a fairly abrupt ending, as if the writers ran out of ideas and decided to wrap things up quickly. Still a very watchable comedy drama with some great acting thrown in to make it even more entertaining.