Wife vs Secretary (1936)
Wife vs Secretary on the IMDb
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Warner Brothers, Available individually or as part
of the Clark Gable Signature Collection.
Clark Gable,
Jean Harlow,
Myrna
Loy, May Robson, George Barbier,
James Stewart, Hobart Cavanaugh. Directed
by Clarence Brown.
This is the second movie I checked out in the Gable Collection. I used to have this one on VHS, but had sold it off awhile ago (when my last VCR broke!) and so was very glad to have the opportunity to see it once again.
Wife vs Secretary is a pretty smart flick when you think about it, as the conflict driving the action is not being caused by a person but by the interaction of four (or even five) of the characters. To further explain, so often in these studio oldies action is being driven by a "bad guy." What we have here are two couples, (Gable and Loy, Harlow and Stewart) that are for the most part very happy, but at the same time another relationship (between boss Gable and secretary Harlow) is threatening to break apart both couples.
But Gable and Harlow are not up to anything devious here. I guess you could say that the "bad guy" is represented by the rumors that as they circulate and build expose the possibility of Gable and Harlow getting together. Their "affair" is obvious to everyone but themselves. It's May Robson, playing Gable's mother, that first plants this idea in wife Loy's mind. Loy dismisses it at first, but as Gable and Harlow escalate working hours trying to complete a hush-hush project, the idea seems more and more plausible.
Jimmy Stewart's character is the most immature of the bunch (by comparison only, more less-seasoned than immature I suppose) and so it is the Harlow characters hours alone which cause the rift between them. But after a fight Harlow drops Stewart from her mind and only then begins to see the potential of a relationship with her boss. This is what creates the tension in the last part of the film.
I did find myself rooting against the wife and for the secretary as the film
moved forward though. As much as Gable and Loy appear to be in love with
one another, once that seed is planted in Myrna's head she begins to come off as
spoiled and whiney, which is probably not what they were going for, but
nonetheless what I got. At the
same time Harlow's character plays very sympathetic, even towards the end of
the picture where she could have easily come off as a real heel, but did not.
In fact, and I'm referring to the Harlow-Loy shipboard scene here, you actually
admire her honesty and are pleased that she is being so forward with the boss's
wife. At least
I was. And, I must admit, I was a little disappointed though not at all
surprised by the ending.
Now, lest you think Wife vs. Secretary is some deadpan romance after all of that, it is not. As can usually be expected with these mega-stars, there are plenty of laughs, well, at least some chuckles, and quite honestly you find yourself smiling just watching these giants go about their usual business of letting their personalities shine over whatever character traits were put into the script.
I could have easily looked up all of the names of the characters in this movie, but with these stars I figured why bother. As I watched it I was thinking Gable, Harlow, Loy not Van, Whitey, Linda (there are some character names if you wanted them!). This is yet another tribute, somewhat unintended, to the presence of these stars.
Light on extras, there is a musical short, New Shoes, which I skipped (well, it opened with some shoes singing and then I hit stop) and a more entertaining short, The Public Pays, which I fell asleep on but was enjoying up until the time my eyes shut. In The Public Pays, some gangsters take over the milk industry by coaxing all of the milk deliveries in the area to give them a penny per bottle in exchange for jacking up the price to the general public by three cents per bottle. In the end ... the public pays! I'll have to remember to watch the end of that one sometime, as it was pretty entertaining. Then again, I'm pretty sure I know what happened anyway.
For a change I was looking for a commentary track, but this disc does not include one. That's okay, it's a lesser known title and I'm just glad for its release at all.
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