Wife vs. Secretary (1936)

Wife vs. Secretary
Directed by Clarence Brown
Written by Norman Krasna et al
1936/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing

[box] Party Guest with Herbert: [looking lasciviously at Whitey as she dances past him] Gentlemen, I fear that even I could give that little lady dictation.[/box]

This is a fairly entertaining romantic drama with splendid cast.

Van (Clark Gable) is madly in love with his wife of three years, Linda (Myrna Loy).  He runs a magazine with the invaluable assistance of his beautiful secretary, Whitey (Jean Harlow).  All the ladies tell Linda that she should see that Van get rid of Whitey, but Linda insists she is not the jealous type.  Van gets the idea of acquiring another magazine and Whitey begins to spend long hours with him in all sorts of places, making her boyfriend Dave (James Stewart) very jealous.  It soon turns out that Linda is the jealous type and prone to jump to conclusions.   Meanwhile Whitey is developing quite a yen for Van.

The story is sometimes trite but you really can’t go wrong with the three stars.  The dialogue is rather witty as well, but I would not call this a comedy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG32zbPSLNg

Trailer