More Than a Secretary (1936)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Don't attack your machines. The "typewriter is an instrument, not a man." So says secretarial instructor Jean Arthur. She ends up working as a secretary herself when she arrives at fitness magazine editor George Brent's office, turning the magazine upside down and predictably falling for the son of a brute. He's not really likable here, and Arthur gives the lesson to him that women can be of enormous help if given half the chance. Given a bit of an early feminist stance, this is a bit of a misfire because it tries to put a new twist on an old plot but doesn't come off as truthful. With Ruth Donnelly and Lionel Stander as confidantes to Arthur and Brent, it manages to be the supporting characters who steal the scenes. Dorothea Kent plays a stereotypical dumb blonde from Arthur's school who succeeds at two things: turning married man's heads and causing trouble for the leading lady. She has an element of crafty bitchiness that isn't found in most of these types of characters.Arthur and Brent could have been a much better match had they had a better catch. Made around the same to be as the glossier MGM drama "Wife vs. Secretary", this one is no match when compared to Gable, Harlow and Loy. It is standard stuff with substandard writing.

It's right around 1936-1938 that, in my humble view, Hollywood movies gain maturity and sophistication. This film is on the cusp, but isn't quite there. And, for Jean Arthur, her greatest successes are also just around the corner (perhaps with 1938's "You Can't Take It With You").There's a period midway through the movie where, it seems to me, things drift a bit. I'm not even quite sure why George Brent's character wants to have a fling with the floozy secretary...not well established. And then the wrap-up of the film seems a bit weak to me, as well.Jean Arthur is good here...playing a bit of a prudish secretary-type at the beginning of the film...sort of reminds me of her next to last film role in "A Foreign Affair", although she comes off much better here. I like George Brent, but I didn't find him totally convincing here; of course his best films were often those with Bette Davis. Ruth Donnelly is interesting here...sort of reminds me of a slightly more gentle Eve Arden-type role.To whom would I recommend this film? Well, I guess if you enjoy Jean Arthur films (and I myself am in that category), you should see this film. Otherwise, I could take it or leave it.

With Jean Arthur, Ruth Donnelly, and Lionel Stander in the cast, More Than A Secretary starts to look like a road company Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. Too bad it isn't quite up to the standard of that comedy classic.But this was more an example of the fluff that Jean Arthur was asked to carry in her career. Not every film could be a Mr. Deeds.Jean and Ruth Donnelly run a secretarial school from which they graduate women of all kinds including Dorothea Kent, a poor man's Marie Wilson. Dorothea's typing and shorthand leave much to be desired, but she does have other assets and his certainly decorative enough. Jean goes to work for health magazine editor George Brent who is maniacal on the subject of fitness, sexist in his views of women, and something of a puritan. But Jean proves pretty indispensable as his magazine circulation starts to boom.But then Reginald Denny who has a jealous wife dumps Dorothea back on George who with Jean has to put up with her incompetence. Something has to give.The whole thing was rather silly to me. Why they don't just fire this bimbo is beyond me. Maybe Denny's hormones are making the decision for him, but Brent's certainly aren't.Maybe I'm too harsh on the film though. I in fact worked for a woman who headed a state agency and she was so stupid she couldn't probably spell the word. I could have seen her like Kent, running Tina's Nail Salon on Cropsey Avenue in Brooklyn. But she also was in her job because somebody's hormones went into overdrive.George Brent was borrowed from Warner Brothers by Harry Cohn for this film. My only question is why did he use a favor from Jack Warner for this. Or was Brent being punished?

Did anyone wonder why the trailer had no door? Must have been a creation of the prop department. Why in the world would anyone want the guy after fooling around with Mazie. The guy seems like a real jerk rather than a leading man. And that mustache does not help George Brent either. I thought it was real weak acting from pros than sure can do better. Stander and Donnely really stand out, and The girl that plays Mazie isn't too bad either. There are so many loose plot lines in this that it's hard to accept any of them. I like comedies from this period, but this one is a waste of time unless you are a BIG Jean Arthur fan. Columbia should have thrown the Three Stooges in for some serious plot twist.