Hot Saturday 
Directed by William A. Seiter
Written by Seton I. Miller from a novel by Harvey Fergusson
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
Ruth Brock: Immoral women shouldn’t work in banks, you know. They might corrupt the young dollar bills.
Fun movie with a stellar cast and a wonderful unexpected ending.
All the boys are after bank clerk Ruth Brock (Nancy Carroll). She is playing the field. She agrees to go to a Saturday dance out by a lake with one of the tellers. Hunky millionaire Romer Sheffield (Cary Grant) stops by the bank one day, is immediately attracted to Ruth and lays it on heavy with the compliments. He hears of the trip to Willow Springs and offers to treat all the young people to a party at his mansion with real liquor and everything. Ruth is still not buying what he’s selling. Everybody goes out to the dance, a traditional part of which is a romantic boat ride. Ruth’s date, already frustrated by her attention to Romer, insists on some petting. Ruth runs away to Romer’s house. She stays up talking with him until late and then his chauffeur takes her home at 2 a.m.
A particularly mean girl of her acquaintance and her date spread the news of Ruth’s late arrival home. Before the local gossip mill is through playing “Telephone” she has spent the night with Romer.
When Ruth returns home she finds straight-arrow childhood sweetheart Bill Fadden (Randolph Scott) in her kitchen. They talk over old times. They spend the next day together and it ends with an accepted marriage proposal. On Monday, Ruth is fired from her job at the bank for immorality. Bill has gone off for a week to do a geological survey. Ruth’s mother (Jane Darwell) is outraged at her indiscretion. Nancy runs away in the pouring rain to Bill’s encampment. I will go no further except to say that the ending is great and was totally unexpected by me.
This one simply screams Pre-Code. Grant and Scott so young and beautiful. I really enjoyed it. Perfect short fun romance.
