Fredric March is an important businessman with a beautiful secretary (Claudette Colbert) whom he depends on for practically everything to make a perfect business. Sick of the usual women in his life, he asks her out on a date, and she accepts...reluctantly. He may be handsome but she has a promising young stockbroker (Monroe Owsley) in her life and when March suddenly proposes, she announces to him that she just married Owsley that very morning! So what does a rejected boss do? Fire her, of course, and she doesn't bat an eyelash. March then takes it upon himself to hire Owsley to handle his own investments, and it is pretty obvious that his intentions are not honorable.
Made back in the day when a secretary could be a toy and sexual harassment wasn't a phrase used by H.R. directors, this is surprisingly bold not only for its subject matter but for the fact that it had a female director, the now legendary Dorothy Arzner who played in "the boy's club" of Hollywood long before women began to take an interest in doing more than either editing movies, creating costumes or climbing onto the casting couch in order to get ahead. March plays a very amoral character, one so determined to get what he wants that he's not afraid of losing his shirt if that's what it takes. Colbert is lovely and sensible, but the man she marries instead of March is far too weak to stand up to what is obviously a trap. This makes the marriage difficult to root for even though you certainly don't want to see March win, either.
Charlie Ruggles is hysterically funny as March's pal who complains about his brain barking like a dog after a night of carousing and drinking. His love interest is none other than a very young Ginger Rogers who gets to play a Gracie Allen type character here, commenting on the origins of her family name: Mother's name Smythe and father's name Smith, so she chose to go by the shorter first name: Hemingway! The film is pretty fast moving for an early talkie so it never becomes dull, but the subject matter is one that many today might find distasteful.
Made back in the day when a secretary could be a toy and sexual harassment wasn't a phrase used by H.R. directors, this is surprisingly bold not only for its subject matter but for the fact that it had a female director, the now legendary Dorothy Arzner who played in "the boy's club" of Hollywood long before women began to take an interest in doing more than either editing movies, creating costumes or climbing onto the casting couch in order to get ahead. March plays a very amoral character, one so determined to get what he wants that he's not afraid of losing his shirt if that's what it takes. Colbert is lovely and sensible, but the man she marries instead of March is far too weak to stand up to what is obviously a trap. This makes the marriage difficult to root for even though you certainly don't want to see March win, either.
Charlie Ruggles is hysterically funny as March's pal who complains about his brain barking like a dog after a night of carousing and drinking. His love interest is none other than a very young Ginger Rogers who gets to play a Gracie Allen type character here, commenting on the origins of her family name: Mother's name Smythe and father's name Smith, so she chose to go by the shorter first name: Hemingway! The film is pretty fast moving for an early talkie so it never becomes dull, but the subject matter is one that many today might find distasteful.