Wife vs Secretary

Entertaining, occasionally smart and featuring four of the greatest stars of the studio era, Wife vs. Secretary is a fun little melodramatic comedy from MGM’s hey-day. It may not be an out-and-out classic, but Wife offers Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow to do something different with their personas. It’s just a pity that the film was made after the Production Code had taken a stranglehold, because this would have made one hell of a naughty little Pre-Code gem.

The plot is pretty flimsy, mostly an excuse to hang a series of misunderstandings that are roughly sitcom-level around the likes of Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy and James Stewart. And that’s a group of stars who could sell anything through charisma, talent and charm. Gable and Loy are a happily married, very wealthy couple; Harlow is Gable’s secretary and Stewart is Harlow’s longtime boyfriend. Naturally, idle rich with dish out idle gossip, and word begins to spread through a first misunderstanding that Gable and Harlow may be having an affair, and the plot naturally follow through from there.

What’s so wonderful about Wife is that Loy and Harlow are playing a bit against type here. Loy played a lot of supportive or long-suffering wives in her career, but aside from her work with William Powell was rarely allowed to play up the sexuality that lurked beneath the surface in these roles. Her character undergoes a complex range of emotions, and Loy modulates them very well. Harlow, her hair toned down to a brownish color, is allowed to play an intelligent woman who is supremely competent at her job. It’s a nice change of pace from the brash, tough girls she made a career out of. It’s a pity she died so young, because her more muted performance here shows great promise to the all-around actress she could have become outside of the comedienne. There’s a tender scene where she tucks in a drunken Gable, and the scene plays up Harlow’s real-life maternal instincts and wifely ambitions without a hint of sexuality to be found. Of course Gable is Gable, and James Stewart is doing a variation on the sweet boy-next-door roles that populated his early career. While it may not be a classic feature in any of their careers, it’s still pound-for-pound a very sweet, entertaining dramedy.