Female 
Directed by Michael Curtiz (William Wellman uncredited)
Written by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola suggested by a story by Donald Henderson Clarke
1933/US
First National Pictures (Warner Bros.)
IMDb page
First viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 2
James – Alison’s Main Butler: It was the custom of Catherine the Great to serve vodka to her soldiers to fortify their courage.
Fun role-reversal movie rushes to its more conventional ending.
Alison Drake (Ruth Chatterton) inherited her father’s automotive company. She runs it like a pro, barking orders, making split second decisions etc. She also hires a stable of attractive young men she treats like bimbos. She asks them to discuss business at her home, plies them with vodka, and lets the fun begin. One of these is George Cooper (Johnny Mack Brown). When he brings flowers in the morning, Alison makes it clear that a courtship was not what she was looking for.
Alison thinks the company’s car designs need an upgrade and sends for a prominent design engineer.
One night, Alison goes out cruising the streets incognito and runs into Jim Thorne (George Brent). They have fun at a shooting gallery and then enjoy dining and dancing Depression style. Jim wishes her a platonic goodnight, which definitely wasn’t what she was expecting.
Of course, it turns out Jim is actually her design engineer. None of Alison’s ploys work on Jim, who is a manly man and will do the asking thank you very much. What’s a girl to do? No points for guessing correctly. With Ruth Donnelly as a nervous secretary.
The first two-thirds of this movie are immense fun. Chatterton looks like the cat that swallowed the canary throughout and is clearly enjoying herself. In the final third, the film races to its moralistic conclusion. I have become used to this in pre-Code films so I can’t complain to much. It would have been better if the film ran more than an hour and developed the relationship so that it earned its ending. Brent is his old reliable self. That first two thirds makes the film well worth seeking out.
There were three directors on this film. William A. Wellman shot most of the film after William Dieterle had to bow out due to illness. Then Jack Warner decided he didn’t like the actor playing the George Cooper part and subbed in Johnny Mack Brown. Wellman was no longer available and Michael Curtiz re-shot those scenes. Oddly, Curtiz got the directing credit.
Trailer (basically gives away the plot of the movie)
