Not Much Lingerie In This Pre-Code, But There Is A Woman Smoking Cigars

George Lewis Mansion - Benedict Canyon Drive, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA

Jean Harlow, Robert Williams, and Loretta Young in Platinum Blonde (1931)

Joan Crawford in Our Blushing Brides (1930)

Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Myrna Loy in Wife vs. Secretary (1936)

Constance Bennett and Neil Hamilton in What Price Hollywood? (1932)

Barbara Stanwyck, Ralph Graves, Marie Prevost, and Lowell Sherman in Ladies of Leisure (1930)

James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, and Dick Powell in Footlight Parade (1933)

Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Edward J. Nugent, and Loretta Young in Loose Ankles (1930)

George Raft and Mae West in Night After Night (1932)

Marlene Dietrich, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft in Manpower (1941)

William Powell and Ann Harding in Double Harness (1933)

Dorothy Mackaill, Natalie Moorhead, and Lewis Stone in The Office Wife (1930)

Dorothy Mackaill and Lewis Stone in The Office Wife (1930)

Dorothy Mackaill in The Office Wife (1930)

Blanche Friderici in The Office Wife (1930)

Dorothy Mackaill

Lewis Stone

Natalie Moorhead

Faith Baldwin

Charles Kenyon

Larry asks Kate to write about &quot;Office Wives&quot; - executive stenographers whose work creates wife-like bonds with bosses. He&apos;s unaware that such stories can reflect reality.

Lloyd Bacon

Michael Curtiz

The Office Wife

Such a cute pre-Code romance

It&apos;s such a wonderful premise, but so incredibly dated, any feminist of today would probably vomit before the running time of The Office Wife was finished. The idea of the film is that any secretary to a powerful businessman can completely control him and become more essential to him than his wife at home. Since it&apos;s every woman&apos;s goal to bring a rich man to his knees and get him to marry her so she no longer has to work, it&apos;s no wonder every secretary in the movie is intent on seducing her boss.

Lewis Stone is the featured dapper businessman who announces to his dowdy secretary at the start of the film that he&apos;s getting married. She faints on the spot and resigns, since she&apos;s been in love with him for years. A pretty new secretary is hired, Dorothy Mackaill, and she makes it her mission to become Lew&apos;s office wife and steal him away from his beautiful, new bride. Dorothy is so calculating and insincere, but it&apos;s so much fun to watch her. She moves furniture around the office in the morning so her knees will be in the best light during dictation, memorizes his habits and orders his special lunches, and has her boyfriend pick her up from the office so Lew knows she&apos;s in demand.

&quot;I wonder why I didn&apos;t think of this before,&quot; Lew muses as they sit down to eat together. Dorothy smiles sweetly, and the audience chuckles alongside her, knowing her elaborate plan is about to pay off. The next scene shows them &quot;working&quot; at the poolside. As much of a set-up as the romance is, it&apos;s actually really cute to see them falling in love. Lew didn&apos;t often get to play romantic leads, and it&apos;s really fun to see him smiling, blushing, holding hands, and acting his age-51 at the time.

This is a pre-Code romantic comedy, full of risqué jokes and dialogue that couldn&apos;t have been included four years later. You&apos;ll find two partially nude scenes, one with Lew&apos;s wife, Natalie Moorhead, and one with Joan Blondell in the bathtub; and a lesbian character who wears tuxedos and smokes cigars. In one scene, Natalie asks her husband if he has any strength left-while they&apos;re in the bedroom and she&apos;s unzipping her dress. I loved this movie, so if you think you can put on your 1930 goggles and enjoy it, give it a chance.

It's such a wonderful premise, but so incredibly dated, any feminist of today would probably vomit before the running time of The Office Wife was finished. The idea of the film is that any secretary to a powerful businessman can completely control him and become more essential to him than his wife at home. Since it's every woman's goal to bring a rich man to his knees and get him to marry her so she no longer has to work, it's no wonder every secretary in the movie is intent on seducing her boss.

Lewis Stone is the featured dapper businessman who announces to his dowdy secretary at the start of the film that he's getting married. She faints on the spot and resigns, since she's been in love with him for years. A pretty new secretary is hired, Dorothy Mackaill, and she makes it her mission to become Lew's office wife and steal him away from his beautiful, new bride. Dorothy is so calculating and insincere, but it's so much fun to watch her. She moves furniture around the office in the morning so her knees will be in the best light during dictation, memorizes his habits and orders his special lunches, and has her boyfriend pick her up from the office so Lew knows she's in demand.

"I wonder why I didn't think of this before," Lew muses as they sit down to eat together. Dorothy smiles sweetly, and the audience chuckles alongside her, knowing her elaborate plan is about to pay off. The next scene shows them "working" at the poolside. As much of a set-up as the romance is, it's actually really cute to see them falling in love. Lew didn't often get to play romantic leads, and it's really fun to see him smiling, blushing, holding hands, and acting his age-51 at the time.

This is a pre-Code romantic comedy, full of risqué jokes and dialogue that couldn't have been included four years later. You'll find two partially nude scenes, one with Lew's wife, Natalie Moorhead, and one with Joan Blondell in the bathtub; and a lesbian character who wears tuxedos and smokes cigars. In one scene, Natalie asks her husband if he has any strength left-while they're in the bedroom and she's unzipping her dress. I loved this movie, so if you think you can put on your 1930 goggles and enjoy it, give it a chance.

Larry asks Kate to write about "Office Wives" - executive stenographers whose work creates wife-like bonds with bosses. He's unaware that such stories can reflect reality.

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