The strongest female stars with the longest careers were those who combined dramatic roles with comedy or screwball ones. Irene Dunne managed it as did Claudette Colbert. For every "Imitation of Life" or "Private Worlds" there was a "It Happened One Night" or "The Gilded Lily". 1935 was a successful year for Claudette - she made the Motion Picture Herald's "Top 10 Money Makers of the Year" list and usurped Kay Francis' position as the best dressed actress in Hollywood.
Julia Scott (Colbert) is a busy executive at the Barclay's Department Store. Being so efficient she runs the whole department without causing a kink in her permanent wave but most of her time is devoted to keeping her boss, Richard Barclay's (Melvyn Douglas) home running smoothly - even though she has never been there!! She gets her chance when she is asked to work overtime and realises the whole house is held to ransom by Annabelle (Edith Fellows), Richard's bratty (that's too mild a word) little daughter. Julia asks for complete authority for a couple of hours and at the end she has fired the servants, spanked Annabelle and made a friend of Parsons (Clara Kimball Young) the nanny.
Then "she married her boss" and the comedy gets a bit more conventional as Julia has already put Robert's home life in order before they were married!!! The problem is Robert marries her thinking that she is not like other women - that she is efficient and practical, not womanly and needing love. But she has been secretly in love with him from the start and is dismayed that he wants her to continue in her executive position at the office when all she wants is to be a wife.
Edith Fellows definitely showed that movie brats had more fun and for the first half hour she did - throwing major tantrums, going on a hunger strike and just being obnoxious but after Rita took to her with a hair brush, she suddenly became another movie darling - singing, reciting poems, with even a crying scene at the end!!! The movie was extremely fortuitous for Melvyn Douglas, whose career before this was at a low ebb. Columbia was finding it difficult to get a big enough star to bask in Claudette's shadow. Douglas brought to the role his quirky humor and Columbia was so pleased that they offered him a seven year contract and gave his career another kick start.
Julia Scott (Colbert) is a busy executive at the Barclay's Department Store. Being so efficient she runs the whole department without causing a kink in her permanent wave but most of her time is devoted to keeping her boss, Richard Barclay's (Melvyn Douglas) home running smoothly - even though she has never been there!! She gets her chance when she is asked to work overtime and realises the whole house is held to ransom by Annabelle (Edith Fellows), Richard's bratty (that's too mild a word) little daughter. Julia asks for complete authority for a couple of hours and at the end she has fired the servants, spanked Annabelle and made a friend of Parsons (Clara Kimball Young) the nanny.
Then "she married her boss" and the comedy gets a bit more conventional as Julia has already put Robert's home life in order before they were married!!! The problem is Robert marries her thinking that she is not like other women - that she is efficient and practical, not womanly and needing love. But she has been secretly in love with him from the start and is dismayed that he wants her to continue in her executive position at the office when all she wants is to be a wife.
Edith Fellows definitely showed that movie brats had more fun and for the first half hour she did - throwing major tantrums, going on a hunger strike and just being obnoxious but after Rita took to her with a hair brush, she suddenly became another movie darling - singing, reciting poems, with even a crying scene at the end!!! The movie was extremely fortuitous for Melvyn Douglas, whose career before this was at a low ebb. Columbia was finding it difficult to get a big enough star to bask in Claudette's shadow. Douglas brought to the role his quirky humor and Columbia was so pleased that they offered him a seven year contract and gave his career another kick start.