Nancy Carroll's career was going along just swimmingly, she had been
voted "Queen of the Screen" in 1930, yes, she was temperamental but
so far her fans were oblivious to it. Then came "Night Angel" and it was all
down hill from there. Critics blamed the director Edmund Goulding for
trying to turn Nancy into a Marlene Dietrich so she needed a really strong
role to overcome the criticisms but "Personal Maid" was not the movie!!
Now that Nancy's work is being reappraised, it's clear she made some of
her best films in the "doldrum period" - "Undercover Man", "Hot Saturday",
"The Kiss Before the Mirror" but back then the knives were out. Only with
"Child of Manhattan" did critics feel the old Nancy was back but by then
it was too late for her career!!
In 1931 Paramount was still occasionally using two directors, here Monta Bell directed and Lothar Mendes supervised and Karl Freund was camera man so the production had tons of style. In an interesting introduction a delivery boy puts groceries on a dumb waiter and as the device is pulled up there is a fly on the wall slice of life into various slum families. "The only way men would take off their hats to your wife is if she was draped in the American flag" is just some of the choice conversation flying around the Ryan dinner table and feisty Nora is sick of it. (Nancy's real life sister Terry has the tiny role of Nora's sister at the start).
Nora decides to apply for a "personal maid" post - she wants to see how the other half live and feel it would be a step up from tenement life. What she gets is the Gary family - ditzy mother (Mary Boland), drunken sister (Charlotte Winters) and crusty old patriach (George Fawcett) who takes a shine to Nora who he thinks is the genuine article. Nora starts to realise that she is every bit as good if not better than this trumped up family. In fact with the introduction of Pat O'Brien as Shea, a self made man who is friends with the Gary's, a social theme seems to be in the air, along the lines of Warners. Then Gene Raymond appears, he plays gad about collegian Dick Gary who Nora has to meet and try to persuade to lay low so his expulsion from college doesn't shock the family. Raymond makes a strong first impression, he tries some heavy handed cave man tactics but Nora's impassioned speech about working class values sobers Dick who is used to the much freer morals of wealthier girls!!
What is more, Shea is exposed as a snob - distant to Nora the maid, when he meets her again (she is having a few days off as the mysterious Eleanor Page - seeing what it's like to be a real lady) he can't remember her but is captivated by her. Later on when he realises she is only the maid he wants to set her up in a Park Avenue apartment - being only a servant, he thinks she will jump at the chance - but will she!!
Mary Boland came in for most of the praise and it was also thought that Mendes and Bell didn't capitalize on their dazzling star with a better story and stronger characterization!!
In 1931 Paramount was still occasionally using two directors, here Monta Bell directed and Lothar Mendes supervised and Karl Freund was camera man so the production had tons of style. In an interesting introduction a delivery boy puts groceries on a dumb waiter and as the device is pulled up there is a fly on the wall slice of life into various slum families. "The only way men would take off their hats to your wife is if she was draped in the American flag" is just some of the choice conversation flying around the Ryan dinner table and feisty Nora is sick of it. (Nancy's real life sister Terry has the tiny role of Nora's sister at the start).
Nora decides to apply for a "personal maid" post - she wants to see how the other half live and feel it would be a step up from tenement life. What she gets is the Gary family - ditzy mother (Mary Boland), drunken sister (Charlotte Winters) and crusty old patriach (George Fawcett) who takes a shine to Nora who he thinks is the genuine article. Nora starts to realise that she is every bit as good if not better than this trumped up family. In fact with the introduction of Pat O'Brien as Shea, a self made man who is friends with the Gary's, a social theme seems to be in the air, along the lines of Warners. Then Gene Raymond appears, he plays gad about collegian Dick Gary who Nora has to meet and try to persuade to lay low so his expulsion from college doesn't shock the family. Raymond makes a strong first impression, he tries some heavy handed cave man tactics but Nora's impassioned speech about working class values sobers Dick who is used to the much freer morals of wealthier girls!!
What is more, Shea is exposed as a snob - distant to Nora the maid, when he meets her again (she is having a few days off as the mysterious Eleanor Page - seeing what it's like to be a real lady) he can't remember her but is captivated by her. Later on when he realises she is only the maid he wants to set her up in a Park Avenue apartment - being only a servant, he thinks she will jump at the chance - but will she!!
Mary Boland came in for most of the praise and it was also thought that Mendes and Bell didn't capitalize on their dazzling star with a better story and stronger characterization!!