As the Great Depression deepened during the mid-1930's, audiences sought escape from the grim realities of unemployment, bread lines, and Hoover Towns in dark movie palaces watching films. "Ladies Should Listen" is an ideal piece of escapist fluff for the period, and, surprisingly, the film retains some charm and appeal for contemporary audiences. The telephone operator at a posh apartment building has romantic designs on a handsome womanizer who lives there. The silly nonsense that ensues moves fast, which prevents any lapses in logic or credibility to register. Based on a play, the antics are still somewhat stage-bound, but some of the lines are quite funny, and the cast delivers them with skill.

Although the film was poorly received on release and star Cary Grant was thought miscast, the film remains a light entertainment, and Grant plays an early version of his romantic "Cary Grant" character. The supporting cast is fine, with Nydia Westman a standout as a young bespectacled heiress, who is starry-eyed for Grant. Fussy Edward Everett Horton plays his standard comedic character, and lovely Francis Drake is the designing switchboard operator, although she fails to register strongly.

Gadgets to create the sounds of thunder and rain or to spray the air with perfume aid Grant in his romantic pursuits and, mixed with nitrate options in Chile, a conspiratorial pair of South Americans, a love-lorn doorman, and an cleverly inventive butler, create a light farce with few pretensions beyond diversion. Short and breezily directed by Frank Tuttle, whose career began in the silent era, "Ladies Should Listen" is cute, silly fun, especially for fans of Cary Grant.