William K. Howard directed well-crafted films which only succeeded, to the extent they did, when he had a good script, such as the one by Preston Sturges for Power and the Glory (1933), a fragmented narrative that is seen as a precursor to Citizen Kane. Don't Bet on Women is from the play "All Women are Bad" by William Anthony McGuire and is a rather unfunny comedy about men condescending to women who, of course, outmaneuver them at every turn. Una Merkle and Jeanette MacDonald are the women and the droll Roland Young and the dull Edmund Lowe are the men. Howard's direction is routine and uninspired.
For those who think early sound films are dull and static (though even Don't Bet on Women has some impressive camera movement) I recommend two early sound films directed by Ernst Lubitsch, both of which star Jeanette MacDonald: Love Parade (1929) and Monte Carlo (1930), sparkling and beautiful comedies, with impressive mobile camerawork. Jeanette MacDonald does not sing in Don't Bet on Women, though she does in the two Lubitsch films. MacDonald is rather out-of-favor these days because of the awful movies she made with Nelson Eddy, in which they tried to perform popular music as though it were opera, but in the Lubitsch films her limited singing is effectively restrained and moving.
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