My Dear Secretary (1948)

Owen Waterbury, a successful novelist, hires an aspiring young writer named Steve Gaylord as his secretary. This being a romantic comedy, the two end up falling in love. Yes, I know what you're thinking. And, of course, you're wrong. This was 1948, for God's sake. Homosexuality was still, in Hollywood as in most other parts of the Western world, the love that dared not speak its name. There is no way that the Breen Office would have given their seal of approval to a rom-com about a gay love affair. Steve is a girl, and a very pretty one too. (It's short for Stephanie). Kirk Douglas is not an actor I normally associate with comedy. Virtually all of his best films- "Young Man with a Horn", "Champion", "The Weak and the Wicked", "Lust for Life", "Gunfight at the OK Corral", "Paths of Glory", "Spartacus", "Lonely are the Brave", and so on- are serious dramas, as are most of his lesser ones. "My Dear Secretary" is a rare example of a Douglas comedy. And, for its first half, it's a pretty good one. The main joke is the difference between Owen Waterbury the great writer, whom Stephanie admires so deeply, and Owen Waterbury the less-than-great man, who she soon discovers has feet of clay. He has a massive ego and is something of a playboy and womaniser. He is unable to manage his finances and is constantly in debt, despite the large amounts he earns from writing, largely because he wastes so much on gambling. He finds it difficult to work, not so much because he is suffering from writer's block but because he would rather spend every day enjoying himself, either on the beach of (given his gambling problem) in a casino or at the races. Stephanie soon discovers that she is merely the latest in a long line of secretaries; all her predecessors have left Owen when they could not tolerate him any longer. Stephanie, of course, does not leave Owen. Instead, she does something far more inexplicable. She marries him, despite his many all-too-obvious flaws. This plot development might have been an acceptable denouement had it come at the end of the film after a reformed Owen had changed his ways. Instead, it comes about halfway through, at a time when Owen is still far from reformed, and he proves no more satisfactory as a husband than he did as an employer. He slips back into his old ways, hiring more attractive young women as his secretaries. An even greater threat to their marriage, however, is Owen's professional jealousy when Stephanie not only has a novel published but also starts to enjoy greater success as a writer than he does. It is round about this half-way mark that the film starts to run out of steam. It is a lot more interesting with Owen and Stephanie as boss and secretary than as husband and wife. In the second half we are supposed to accept her as simultaneously impossibly naïve (for having married a selfish egomaniac like Owen in the first place) and as impossibly saintly (for continuing to tolerate his behaviour). Kirk Douglas, on this evidence, was probably wise not to concentrate on comedy in his future career, but Laraine Day, an actress I was not previously familiar with, does enough to suggest that she had a gift for comedy and that with a better script she could have given a better performance. The script itself seems to have been written according to all the standard Hollywood rules about happy endings; it might have been better if the scriptwriters had had more freedom to disregard those rules. 5/10

The plot here is just silly and inane, but you HAVE to watch this one for all the big, stupendous names. Florence Bates, (the landlord), Laraine Day, Grady Sutton (was in all those W.C. Field films), Kirk Douglas, singer Rudy Vallee, and of course Granny from Beverly Hillbillies (Irene Ryan) is the sarcastic maid. Girl (L. Day) is in the right place at the right time, and thinks it will be fun to be secretary to famous writer Owen Waterbury (Douglas), but nothing ever goes as planned. Story just goes all around the mulberry bush (there's an old saying)... but it's fun to watch the big names, as they got even bigger in hollywood. Subplot where "Stephanie" the NEW secretary observes as the previous secretary storms around and takes back all her belongings from Waterbury. kind of turns into a competition. This one is pretty good; currently showing on "Midnight Movies" channel. Picture quality is iffy... but sound is pretty good. Could probably use a restoration if there were demand for it. Some fun stars in the early hay days of hollywood, having fun. Directed by Charles Martin; not a lot of info on him.. had written and directed a few things, but not so many. Catch it if you can!

In his sixth film Kirk Douglas plays a writer who is ultimately outwritten by his wife, Larraine Day. He lives in an apartment owned by Florence Bates who is constantly around seeking favours and cannot be insulted. I'm guessing that Mank watched this one because soon afterwards he cast Douglas as an English teacher who is out-earned by his wife, Ann Sothern, who writes trashy radio serials for producer Florence Bates, who gets up Douglas's nose. Coincidence or what. That to one side this is a fine albeit obscure movie and if I have a cavil it is that the quality of the print - which I purchased in a shrink-wrapped case - was fairly poor. Second banana Keenan Wynn gets all the best lines and delivers them adeptly and also gets the pay-off laff when he introduces his new bride - Bates - to Douglas and Day. If I could score a decent print I'd watch it again.

It's hard to miss with a script this witty and a cast including Kirk Douglas, Laraine Day, Keenan Wynn, Irene Ryan and other familiar faces in this high camp screwball comedy from 1949.The story takes a back seat to the bitingly funny dialogue through most of the film, including this artful exchange between Mrs. Reese the Landlady, Felicia the gold digging Veronica Lake lookalike and Ronnie Hastings, Kirk Douglas's freeloading neighbor. They're discussing a movie to be based on Mr. Waterbury's (Kirk Douglas) new novel, and the possibility of Felicia starring in it.Mrs. Reese: What's the heroine like?Ronnie: It's a girl from the South.Felicia: Why ah'm from the South! Mrs. Reese: How perfectly coincidental! Ronnie: She's trying to hook a rich man, she's insincere, and a moron. (to Felicia) Well what's worrying you? Felicia: Well I'm not so worried about being insincere, but as for being a moron...Ronnie: Now, don't worry about that.Mrs. Reese: You could act like a moron, couldn't you, dear? Felicia:I could trah. Oh! I'm going to dramatic school. Maybe they can teach me to be a moron!