''Wife vs. Secretary'' (or ''Wife Versus Secretary'') is a 1936 American romantic

comedy drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

starring

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American actor often referred to as the "King of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". He appeared in more than 60 Film, motion pictures across a variety of Film genre, genres dur ...

Myrna Loy Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. As a performer, she was known for her ability to adapt to her screen partner's acting style. Born in Helena, Monta ...

and

Jean Harlow Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...

. Directed and co-produced by

Clarence Brown Clarence Leon Brown (May 10, 1890 – August 17, 1987) was an American film director. Early life Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to Larkin Harry Brown, a cotton manufacturer, and Katherine Ann Brown (née Gaw), Brown moved to Tennessee when h ...

, it was the fifth of six collaborations between Gable and Harlow and the fourth of seven between Gable and Loy. The screenplay was based on the short story of the same title by Faith Baldwin, published in ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

'' magazine in May 1935. The screenplay was written by

Norman Krasna Norman Krasna (November 7, 1909 – November 1, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned Screwball comedy film, screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna directed three films ...

John Lee Mahin John Lee Mahin (August 23, 1902, Evanston, Illinois – April 18, 1984, Los Angeles) was an American screenwriter and producer of films who was active in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was known as the favorite writer of Clark Gable a ...

and

Alice Duer Miller Alice Duer Miller (July 28, 1874 – August 22, 1942) was an American writer whose poetry actively influenced political opinion. Her feminist verses influenced political opinion during the Women's suffrage in the United States, American suffrage ...

May Robson Mary Jeanette Robison (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942), known professionally as May Robson, was an Australian-born America-based actress whose career spanned 58 years, starting in 1883 when she was 25. A major stage actress of the late 19th ...

, George Barbier,

Hobart Cavanaugh Hobart Cavanaugh (September 22, 1886 – April 26, 1950 ) was an American character actor in films and on stage. Biography Cavanaugh was born in Virginia City, Nevada, on September 22, 1886. He attended the University of California, then worked ...

, and

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...

appear in support, with Stewart playing the secretary's suitor in one of his first memorable roles.

Plot

High-end magazine publisher Van Stanhope and his wife, Linda, are celebrating their third wedding anniversary. They are very much in love, and demonstrate it in every way. However, Van's secretary, the beautiful and bright Helen "Whitey" Wilson, is thought by Van's mother to be too great a temptation to him. Linda refuses to listen to her, or her own friends, as she trusts her husband implicity, the hallmark of her relationship with him and envy of all others. Meanwhile, Whitey's beau, Dave, is frustrated with her when Van calls one night during dinner and she once again drops everything to rush off and serve him, any time, any place. When Dave asks her to marry him, she refuses, and buries herself deeper in her work. Van covets J. D. Underwood's popular weekly to broaden his reader base. To prevent his chief rival from beating him to it, the pursuit is kept top secret - only Whitey is permitted to know. When Van returns from meeting Underwood and tells Linda the white lie that he has spent the day at his club, Linda accidentally learns that he had not been there but had spent part of it with Whitey (who had merely helped him prepare his sales pitch). At a company skating party, Linda is too sick to skate, but Van and Whitey gleefully crack the whip together. Linda meanwhile gets a misinformed earful from a gabby wife who - clueless who Linda is - plants more seeds of fear and jealousy. On the ride home Van reveals he had turned down a request to promote Whitey elsewhere in the company, explaining she is too valuable to him. Linda pleads with him to assent; he refuses, they quarrel, she strides angry and hurt into their home, and he stomps off the same way for the refuge of his club. She gives in and calls Van there. Overjoyed, he rushes home into her arms. Van promises Linda a trip together to the Caribbean, but to preserve the secrecy of his still-pending blockbuster he is vague about a date. His top company rep falls ill, and Van is forced to take his place at a big industry convention in Havana. He knows it will be all work and no play, so refuses Linda's repeated requests to accompany him in lieu of the promised island getaway. A day into the confab Whitey learns that Van's top rival is also scheming a deal with Underwood, who's playing both ends against the middle. She tells Van, and he has her catch the next flight to Havana to help him prepare an immediate contract proposal to head off the gambit. The two plunge headlong into a work marathon. Caught up in the cloak-and-dagger, Van neglects to make promised calls to an increasingly broken-hearted wife, and Whitey falls evermore in unrequited love with him. Van cinches the deal, and gets staggering drunk celebrating with Whitey. He develops a woozy attraction to her, which she weakens towards. Before things can go too far, Linda telephones. It is 2 AM when Whitey answers Van's phone; Linda assumes the worst and hangs up. The chastened twosome retire separately. Pushed past her limit, Linda files for divorce, and refuses all Van's explanations and entreaties. His desperation yields to loneliness, and he invites Whitey to join him on a trip to Bermuda to clear his head. She agrees, but revealing her essential decency rushes to confront Linda before Linda's Europe-bound liner can depart. She makes it clear that to that point everything had indeed been business between her and Van, but that was going to change. Linda refuses to believe her account. Whitey says she's a fool not to, and hopes she does not, as she will get Van and Linda will never win him back. Shortly later it's all business again between Van and Whitey back at Van's office. Linda appears, recognizing that she had let others undermine a perfect marriage. Van is overjoyed. Whitey quietly leaves, finds Dave waiting for her in his car, and they make up and move closer to each other.

Cast

as Van 'V.S.'/'Jake' Stanhope *

as Helen 'Whitey' Wilson *

as Linda Stanhope *

as Mimi Stanhope * George Barbier as J.D. Underwood *

as Dave *

as Joe *

John Qualen John Qualen (born Johan Mandt Kvalen, December 8, 1899 – September 12, 1987) was a Canadian-American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles. Early years Qualen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

as Mr. Jenkins * Tom Dugan as Finney *

Gilbert Emery Gilbert Emery Bensley Pottle (June 11, 1875 – October 28, 1945), known professionally as Gilbert Emery, was an American actor who appeared in over 80 movies from 1921 to his death in 1945. He was also a playwright, author of seven Broadway pla ...

as Simpson *

Marjorie Gateson Marjorie Augusta Gateson (January 17, 1891 – April 17, 1977) was an American stage and film actress. Biography Gateson was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Augusta and Daniel Gateson. Her maternal grandfather and brother were clergymen; Some s ...

as Eve Merritt * Gloria Holden as Joan Carstairs *

Eugene Borden Eugene Borden (born Élysée Eugène Prieur-Bardin, March 21, 1897 – July 2, 1971) was a French-American actor, active in Hollywood from the silent era until the mid-1960's. Born in Paris, he immigrated to the United States as a teenager, and e ...

as Ship's Officer (uncredited)

Production

''Wife vs. Secretary'' was the fifth collaboration of Gable and Harlow and the fourth of Gable and Loy. The picture was the first time that Harlow and Loy worked together; they would both appear as well in ''

Libeled Lady ''Libeled Lady'' is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Jack Conway and starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy. The screenplay was written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers, and George Opp ...

'' later in 1936, with Harlow billed above

William Powell William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor, known primarily for his film career. Under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin M ...

and

Spencer Tracy Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the ...

. On Harlow during the making of ''Wife vs. Secretary'', Loy said, "Jean was beautiful, but far from the raucous sexpot of her films. As a matter of fact, she began to shake that image in ''Wife vs. Secretary''....She'd begged for a role that didn't require spouting slang and modeling lingerie. She even convinced them to darken her hair a shade, in hopes of toning down that brash image. It worked. She's really wonderful in the picture and her popularity wasn't diminished one bit. Actually we did kind of a reversal in that picture. Jean, supposedly the other woman, stayed very proper, while I had one foot in bed throughout. That's the sexiest wife I've ever played. In one scene, Clark stands outside my bedroom door and we banter, nothing more, but there's just no question about what they've done the night before. Clarence Brown, our director, made it all so subtle, yet, oh, so wonderfully suggestive. (In fact, the only vulgarity in the picture is in the breakfast scene, where I discover a diamond bracelet that Clark has hidden in the brook trout I'm about to eat. It didn't seem chic or funny to me—merely messy, typical of Hollywood's misguided notion of upper-class sophistication. I tried to get them to take it out, but they wouldn't. Needless to say, it's the scene everyone remembers, so what do I know?). Where sex is concerned, the double entendre, the ambiguity, it seems to me, is much more effective than being too explicit. This is something the moviemakers don't seem to understand today." James Stewart, meanwhile, spoke of his scene in the car with Harlow, saying, "Clarence Brown, the director, wasn't too pleased by the way I did the smooching. He made us repeat the scene about half a dozen times...I botched it up on purpose. That Jean Harlow sure was a good kisser. I realized that until then I had never been really kissed." Despite being billed sixth in the cast, Stewart enjoys the most screen time aside from the three leads, mainly romantic sequences with Harlow, including the final scene and dialogue in the movie.

Reception

Box office

The picture was a success with the filmgoing public, with MGM records indicating it earned $1,350,000 in the US and Canada and $717,000 elsewhere, turning a profit of $876,000.

Critical response

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wife Vs. Secretary 1936 films 1936 comedy-drama films 1936 romantic comedy films 1936 romantic drama films 1930s American films 1930s English-language films 1930s romantic comedy-drama films American black-and-white films American romantic comedy-drama films Films based on American short stories Films based on works by Faith Baldwin Films directed by Clarence Brown Films scored by Edward Ward (composer) Films scored by Herbert Stothart Films set in New York City Films set in Cuba Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films English-language romantic comedy-drama films