If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Best movie ever!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a very entertaining movie on more than one level. Not only is there a twist at the end, love prevails, and we get to see glimpses of Asia. The dialog sparkles even 70 years after it was made, and we see the flaws in money as the only motive for a chase. I have lived in or visited many of the places seen in the background of this film, and enjoyed the visual hint that these wealthy travelers are living in a world of their own, unconnected with local people or places. Not all the backgrounds are convincing, as I think the filmmakers took artistic license, but the clothes! the manners! the relationships! are lots of fun. And nary a word about the humidity! I got a special kick out of Wye's pith helmet, a total cultural borrowing from the English in India.

First, be sure to read the review by st-shot. His summary statement is a classic! How do I hate thee, oh movie? Let me count the ways: First, the first third of the film (after the murder) -- where they are trying to establish Frederick March as a playboy detective -- is about the worst waste of celluloid in the history of the American cinema. It makes him -- and women -- look like fools.Second, okay, so Joan Bennett went from blond to brunette. If that's the most notable thing about this film it tells you a lot about how bad this film really is.Third, Ralph Bellamy's part is so dumb. I'd blame the big studio for forcing such a dumb part on him, but this was an independent film. A shame, because as we all know, Bellamy was a fine actor.As st-shot points out, this film includes "some of the worst back projection in film history"...and what's more, that makes up a good half of the film.Frankly, when the cobra shows up, I was hoping it would somehow put an end to March and Bennett, and that we -- the faithful viewers -- would be put out of our misery.Now, in all fairness, this movie isn't all bad. The love scenes between March and Bennett are actually pretty decent. And Ann Southern is very pleasant on screen, although I'm not sure that her presence is at all logical. The last third of the film is decent and has an interesting plot twist, although how the right people show up at a party is rather bewildering; I guess it made sense to the screenwriters...too bad it was so confusing to the audience (as several of our reviewers have noted it).It would be easy to excuse this poor film by noting that it was made way back in 1938. But that's just a year before "Gone With The Wind" and "The Wizard Of Oz" and half a dozen other notable masterpieces. I give this one an "D". Don't waster your time.

This delightfully nutty movie was not well received in its day – and still has its detractors who take it all, both story and technique, far too seriously. In fact, Trade Winds takes some getting used to. The more you see it, the more it improves. You realize that the plot is supposed to be corny, even banal. It's not meant to be taken seriously. It's simply part of the overall zany fun.I'll admit that Rudolph Maté's attractively polished studio material doesn't tone in too well with Garnett and Shackelford's 16mm footage, but who cares? We soon fall in love with the dotty script and the tongue-in-cheek players: Ralph Bellamy, laughably overbearing and wonderfully funny as the dopiest of all flatfeet; Sothern, deliciously worldly-wise; Joan Bennett deftly acerbic; and March at his most charmingly roguish, playing the ladykiller with a delightfully over-rehearsed diffidence ("Business after pleasure!"), and hilariously throwing away such barbed lines as "I wonder what dope forgot to give her the note?"Topped with a deftly ingenious music score, Trade Winds is a movie buff's delight.P.S. Garnett and Shackleford shot the 16mm travelogue material on a yacht trip around the world in 1937. They had enough left over for another movie, but box office results for this one were not encouraging, and it never materialized.

I like romantic comedies, mysteries, and adventure films. Trade Winds is a combination of all three. Fredric March plays a San Francisco private detective who is hired by the police department to follow and arrest Joan Bennett,who is believed to be guilty of a murder and has fled across the Pacific Ocean. She is very good looking so they send a department detective, Ralph Bellamy, with him to make sure he brings her back when he catches up with her. Ralph Bellamy never knows quite what is going on and supplies some comical moments through out the picture.In one scene, at a race track, he asks Fredric March, would you like to see your sister bet on a horse? Fredric March replied, my sister is a horse. Fredric March of course falls in love with Joan Bennett and then has to prove her innocent.