Wife vs. Secretary -- 1936

Now there's a risque title for 1936, not to mention a bit of a risque subject. Adulterous affairs were quite forbidden under the Production Code of 1933, still relatively new at this time, but this film skirts the line so close, it might have gotten away with a little more than several years later.

The plost involves a case of mistaken actions. Van Standhope (V.S. for short) has a beautiful wife who he loves very much, and a blonde bombshell of a secretary who's simply a hard working girl who is good at her job. Van treats his secretary with respect and she's not "that kind of secretary." He also loves his wife, but when he comes into a deal that he feels he must keep secret, his secretary is involved, but his wife isn't. This sets up a serious of double entendre situations that heavily imply infidelity, but is nothing more than the case of a guy who's working too hard and a hard working secretary supporting him all the way. The hilarity gets worse and worse as the implied situations send the whole situation right into the implied gutter leaving the wife no choice but to consider leaving him.

The characters are a little on the thin side only providing us with the bare minimum to care, but at the same time, the characters are people we can practically relate to and become through the course of the film, so more info might have taken away from the experience. The setups are nothing short of ingenious in this one sending our poor wife one mixed signal after another, not to mention all the raised eyebrows each situation gives. He really needed to learn the addage of "abstain from the appearance of sin."

Add to all this a shot of a very young Jimmy Stewart as the boyfriend of the secretary. Boy doesn't even have lines in his face at that age. With Clark gable in the lead prior to his Gone With The Wind hoopla, it makes for an overall enjoyable film, kind of like watching Meg Ryan in Amityville 3-D.

So it was definitely a good watch, and very funny to boot.