morrison-dylan-fan Finishing the passable 57 minute "Adult" flick Lei'd in Hawaii,I decided to make it a double bill,and go for another movie with a run time of under an hour. Being in a Pre-Code mood recently, I decided it was time to go to the office.The plot:After getting author Kate Halsey to write a book about a secretary who acts like a wife to her boss, businessman Larry Fellowes finds fiction to become reality,when his secretary Andrews faints after learning Fellows is getting married to Linda. Returning from his honeymoon, Fellows meets new secretary Anne Murdock, who causes Fellows to act like a husband to his secretary. View on the film:Made in the very early days of the "talkies", director Lloyd Bacon (with uncredited Michael Curtiz) and cinematographer William Rees are unable to hide the marks of the era,with loud creaks from the floor as the cameraman moves,and long dialogue scenes being shot in stage- bound wide-shots. Steaming up the screen for 58 minutes, Bacon and Curtiz step into the risqué world of Pre-Code with eye- catching dissolves over Anne Murdock's sexy legs,and some of the ladies being given a suggestive "butch" short haircut and one size too small suit.Torn from the pages of Faith Baldwin's the prize Cosmopolitan magazine serial, the screenplay by Charles Kenyon makes the office sizzle with playful, double- entendre dialogue tightening the romance between Fellowes and Anne.As the romance fizzes away, Kenyon dives into areas that would be lost in the Hays Code, as (most of) the office staff and their families are charmed by the feel-good Rom-Com infidelity of Fellowes,and the ladies are given the impressively modern sexual freedom that the men have. While they have a very noticeable age gap, Lewis Stone and Dorothy Mackaill give sparkling performances as Fellows and Anne,thanks to Stone's very funny manner of being tempted by an eyeful of Anne,smoothly blending with Mackaill making Anne a nervous flirt for an office romance.

mark.waltz This pre-code gem is an early talkie that gives legal wives good warning that there's another woman in her business man's life-his secretary! Aging bachelor Lewis Stone becomes engaged, and his veteran secretary (Dale Fuller) has a breakdown and must immediately resign. The pretty Dorothy MacKaill is immediately promoted as a replacement, getting warning from the plump frump that a good secretary gets by on skills, not looks, all the while fixing her mistakes. It takes a minute for MacKaill to get her bearings with the sometimes demanding Stone, but after she prepares a healthy lunch and shares it with him, they are as close as bees are to honey. Soon after, they are working outside at Stone's poolside with wife Natalie Moorehead and her obvious lover practically consorting in front of Stone and MacKaill's noses. As their marriage crumbles, Stone and MacKaill find out that they can't just have a professional relationship and she becomes torn between him and her journalist boyfriend.When MGM made a very civilized similar film with Gable, Loy and Harlow, this has the potential to be more biting and pretty much is. A brunette Joan Blondell provides cracks and wisdom as MacKaill's roommate sister, while Moorehead escapes her brittle bitchy stereotype in a scene with Stonr that is surprisingly human and allows her character to show a ton of vulnerability and understanding. A scene where Stone pretty much helps Moorehead undress is pretty shocking for its day and gives a good idea of what lead to the Hays code four years later.What could have been a rather ordinary woman's picture sparkles because of a better script than normal. If you can get past the major age difference between Stone and MacKaill, the film will come off as a truly enjoyable story that spreads its innuendo around in massive volumes as if it was a spilled bottle of ink on MacKaill's desk. There's also a fabulous butch lesbian (Blanche Friderici) who provides humor and a brief cynical description of what an "office wife" really is.

daneldorado "The Office Wife" (1930) puts the beautiful silent screen actress Dorothy Mackaill into sound pictures and introduces Joan Blondell to the screen. For those laudable achievements alone, this film deserves kudos.But it really earns its welcome by presenting a charming story about wealthy businessman Larry Fellowes (Lewis Stone) who, though married, finds himself falling for his private secretary, Anne Murdock -- the "office wife" of the title -- in the person of Ms. Mackaill.Anne likes him too, and we are treated to an exquisite tension between them, as they go about the firm's business, each of them falling more and more in love with the other, yet having to remain very businesslike in their relationship.Finally Larry gets up the nerve to give Anne a kiss... but before you holler "employee harassment!", take a good look at Anne's posture just before the kiss. She is totally asking for it. She puts her face close to his, and her body language practically DARES him to kiss her. He does. What to do now? Joan Blondell, as Anne's sister, learns that Fellowes' wife is planning to divorce him -- for reasons unconnected to Anne -- so Joan gives her sister's boss a phone call, letting him know that Anne has "fallen for her boss," without explicitly naming him. Our gal Joan knows how to set up a situation.I didn't signal "spoilers" at the start of this commentary, because I think that's unnecessary. We know from Anne and Larry's first meeting that these two are going to wind up together. One may say that Lewis Stone is "too old" for Dorothy Mackaill, and in truth he was her senior by 24 years. But they are very "simpatico" together, and are a winning couple. Sort of like Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the modern day.Dale Fuller, who played a tragic female in "Souls for Sale" (1923) and "Greed" (1924), plays another one here, as a secretary who secretly yearns for Larry's love. Maybe Ms. Fuller was typecast, but she certainly did play that sort of role well.In this precode, we get to see Joan Blondell put on her stockings, slowly, one leg at a time... a scenario that she would duplicate in several other films of the era. The act became so familiar, in "Foothill Parade" (1933), she threw the folks a switcheroo, putting both stockings on the same leg. "Accidentally," of course."The Office Wife" clocks in at just under one hour in length, making it one of the shortest and most enjoyable precodes ever.Dan Navarro (daneldorado93@yahoo.com)

brianina A somewhat interesting early talkie, more for the minor cast members than the major ones. Dale Fuller (Maria Macapa in "Greed") has a stand-out bit at the beginning as a lovestruck secretary and Blance Frederici plays an extremely mannish writer (a Gertrude Stein parody?). The best bit, stealing the limelight away from the female lead, is the movie debut of Joan Blondell as the lead's sister, spending the entire movie either getting into or out of lingerie. The lead, Dorothy Mackaill, seems wooden next to her. The direction has some odd gaffes usually associated with earlier talkies (fluffed lines, cameras failing to follow action properly) that speaks of a rushed production.