John Wayne in His Private Secretary

Until my brothers reviewed Baby Face, I never realized that John Wayne had made these types of films.  His Private Secretary is a romantic comedy with John Wayne playing the romantic charmer.   He pulls it off with a twinkle in his eye and a knowing smile.

The film starts like Arthur, with Wayne playing Dick Wallace, the son of a wealthy banker.  Dick parties, drinks and chases women.  His father grows tired of his son's lifestyle and forces him to get a job with him at the bank.   His first assignment is to drive to a small town and deliver a foreclosure notice to a minister of all people.  Dick also meets and falls for the Minister's granddaughter, Marion. 

After plenty of pursuing, Dick finally gets Marion's attention when he gets an extension on her grandfather's loan.  They marry and move back into Dick's place.  Dick's father assumes his son's new bride is a gold digger, even before he meets her. To impress Dick's father, Marion accepts the job as his secretary, without him knowing it is his daughter-in-law.

This pre-code film is not big on sex but it has a few choice lines that would have been cut a couple of years later.  When Dick takes Marion to a party at his old girlfriend's, the old flame says to Marion,  "Make yourself at home.  Your husband always did. Didn't you Dick?"   When Dick's father is looking for a new secretary, his nervous office manager finds a woman leaning over his desk saying, "I am a very experienced secretary."  The manager catches her insinuation and says, "Too experienced I am afraid."  "Aren't there any ladies left in the world?"

At only an hour long, His Private Secretary does not have time to overstay it's welcome.  It tries to say something about judging people, but it is really worth watching just to see John Wayne looking so young and playing a type of role you may have never seen him in before.  Also, as a big fan of Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, I was surprised to see that their regular co-star Al St. John, has a cameo appearance in the film's funniest scene. 

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