The avuncular Sydney Greenstreet dominates this film as his sinister image is turned upside down in The Way With Women. Greenstreet plays an automobile tycoon who like Henry Ford came from humble beginnings and is Ford like wealthy now without the Fordian idiosyncrasies.
Bored with retirement Greenstreet on impulse buys a half interest in a gas station with war veteran Dane Clark incognito and the two start to build a business. Then they have to fight off a nasty protection racket with Clark and Greenstreet in jail where no one believes he's the wealthy tycoon he says he is. Henry Ford never had problems like this.
The fact that Greenstreet is incognito allows for a romance to develop between his daughter and Clark who really doesn't hit it off with her. The daughter is played by Martha Vickers known for two things, playing Lauren Bacall's psychotic sister in The Big Sleep and being one of Mickey Rooney's wives.
Although Clark and Vickers are attractive the film really belongs to Greenstreet and it is nice to see him not being the mastermind behind some sinister plot or hanging around the fringes of polite society. The man had a real gift for comedy that was not utilized all that often, the only other film I can think of with a funny Greenstreet is Christmas In Connecticut.
Not the best of films, but entertaining and a must for fans of Greenstreet. To see the funny side of Caspar Guttman by all means see The Way With Women.
