WIFE VS. SECRETARY (Brown, 1936)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / dir. Clarence Brown
85 or 88-89 mins. depending on version

Production: November 25 or 26, 1935 (AFI cites November 25, David Stenn’s Bombshell lists the 26th) — January 13 or 14, 1936 (AFI cites an end date of January 13, David Stenn’s Bombshell lists the 14th)
Release date: February 28, 1936
Release status: Available to watch online and on DVD.

Cast: Clark Gable (Van ‘V.S.’ Stanhope), Jean Harlow (Helen ‘Whitey’ Wilson), Myrna Loy (Linda Stanhope), May Robson (Mimi Stanhope), George Barbier (J.D. Underwood), James Stewart (Dave), Hobart Cavanaugh (Joe), Tom Dugan (Finney), George Emery (Simpson), Marjorie Gateson (Eve Merritt), Gloria Holden (Joan Carstairs), Margaret Irving (Edna), William Newell (Tom)

Summary: Van Stanhope (Clark Gable), a big-time publisher, is very happy with his beautiful wife, Linda (Myrna Loy). His beautiful wife, however, doesn’t much favor Van’s beautiful but gold-hearted secretary (Jean Harlow). While their relationship is strictly business, the ease with which they conduct their brother-sister camaraderie raises eyebrows all around.

Trivia:

• Harlow’s second film with her new ‘brownette’ persona, which she started right after Riffraff in November 1935; the milder personality of her secretary character, Whitey, helped sell ‘The New Jean Harlow’ as a package deal.

• Not only did Harlow and Loy afford the chance to forge a friendship on the set of this film, it brought together Gable and Loy, too, with the latter having coffee together on set.

• British film magazine Picturegoer reported Harlow ‘did her research’ for her role as a secretary, going as far as to study real-world ones to gauge their personalities and choices in business attire. Harlow’s attire poll revealed that most of the secretaries she spent time with preferred wearing ‘fluffy things’ to ‘sportswear’.

• Harlow’s only film with James Stewart, who played her boyfriend, Dave. Stewart recalled of the experience, “Clarence Brown, the director, wasn’t too pleased by the way I did the smooching. He made us repeat that scene about half a dozen times…I botched it up on purpose. That Jean Harlow sure was a good kisser. I realized that until then I had never really been kissed.”

• A frequent canine visitor to the set was Harlow’s dachshund puppy, Nosey, who was later rechristened The Flying Dutchman. Harlow received the pup as a gift from producer Walter Wanger and was forced to cover the rug in her studio dressing room with linoleum and newspapers due to its accidents, per Margaret Angus. Better behaved human visitors were often William Powell and Carole Lombard, the beaus of the film’s leads.

Stills and ad art: