Kept Husbands (1931)

Kept Husbands
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Written by Louis Serecky, Forrest Halsy and Alfred Jackson
1931/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

Dorothea ‘Dot’ Parker Brunton: The minute I saw him, I didn’t give two hoots if he gargled his soup in the key of A Minor. That boy was made for me, and what’s more, I’m going to have him.

It is a given.  I will at least like a film if my heartthrob Joel McCrea appears in it.

Richard Brunton (McCrea) is a hard-working “steel boss” of humble origins who is studying nights to improve himself. One day he heroically rescues a fellow worker. When he refuses his boss’s $1000 reward, the tycoon invites him home for dinner.  Now McCrea was also a football hero and is a mighty attractive man. The boss’s daughter Dorothea (Dorothy MacKaill) wants him for Christmas.

Dorothea pursues Richard, he falls in love, and cannot find it in him to refuse her proposal. After the marriage, she expects him to enjoy her expensive and frivolous lifestyle and be at her beck and call. This gradually destroys Joel’s self-respect until he has had enough. Ned Sparks appears as McCrea’s mother’s boarder, always ready with a dark wisecrack.

There is nothing sexy or light-hearted about this movie. On the other hand, the acting is quite good. Unfortunately, McCrea never takes his shirt off. I liked it well enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHjdYRaiA2w