''Secrets of a Secretary'' is a 1931 American
pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...
drama film directed by
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades.
Early years
Abbott was born in Forestville, New Y ...
, and starring
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictur ...
and
Herbert Marshall
Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall (23 May 1890 – 22 January 1966) was an English stage, screen and radio actor who starred in many popular and well-regarded Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. After a successful theatrical career in the Uni ...
. The film was stage actress
Mary Boland
Mary Boland (born Marie Anne Boland; January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress.
Early years
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boland was the daughter of repertory actor William Augustus Boland, and his wife M ...
's first role in a
talkie
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decad ...
.
Premise
Society girl becomes a social secretary when her father dies penniless. From a story by
Charles Brackett.
Cast
*
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictur ...
as Helen Blake
*
Herbert Marshall
Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall (23 May 1890 – 22 January 1966) was an English stage, screen and radio actor who starred in many popular and well-regarded Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. After a successful theatrical career in the Uni ...
as Lord Danforth
*
Georges Metaxa as Frank D'Agnoll
*
Betty Lawford as Sylvia Merritt
*
Mary Boland
Mary Boland (born Marie Anne Boland; January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress.
Early years
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boland was the daughter of repertory actor William Augustus Boland, and his wife M ...
as Mrs. Merritt
*
Berton Churchill
Berton Churchill (December 9, 1876 – October 10, 1940) was a Canadian stage and film actor.
Early years
Churchill was born in Toronto, Ontario. After his family moved to New York City, he graduated from high school there, studied law a ...
as Mr. Merritt
*Averell Harris as Don Marlow
*
Betty Garde
Katharine Elizabeth Garde (September 19, 1905 – December 25, 1989) was an American stage, radio, film and television actress.
Early years
Born in Philadelphia, Garde was starring in productions of South Philadelphia's Broadway Players by ...
as Dorothy White
*
Hugh O'Connell as Charlie Rickenbacker
*
Joseph Crehan
Joseph A. Creaghan (July 15, 1883 – April 15, 1966) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1916 and 1965, and notably played Ulysses S. Grant nine times between 1939 and 1958, most memorably in ''Union Pac ...
as Reporter (uncredited)
*
Porter Hall
Clifford Porter Hall (September 19, 1888 – October 6, 1953) was an American character actor known for appearing in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s. Hall typically played villains or comedic incompetent characters.
Early years
Hall wa ...
as Drunk (uncredited)
*H. Dudley Hawley as Mr. Blake (uncredited)
*
Olaf Hytten
Olaf Hytten (3 March 1888 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish actor. He appeared in more than 280 films between 1921 and 1955. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and died in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack, while sitting in his car ...
as Court Reporter (uncredited)
*
Edward Keane as Albany Hotel Manager (uncredited)
*Barry Macollum (uncredited)
*
Millard Mitchell as Policeman (uncredited)
*William Pawley (uncredited)
*
Charles C. Wilson as Police Captain (uncredited)
See also
*''
The House That Shadows Built
''The House That Shadows Built'' (1931) is a feature compilation film from Paramount Pictures, made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. The film was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theat ...
'' (1931 promotional film by Paramount Pictures)
References
External links
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Stillat gettyimages.com
1931 films
American black-and-white films
1931 drama films
Paramount Pictures films
Films directed by George Abbott
American drama films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
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