HIS PRIVATE SECRETARY

Directed by Phil Whitman, 1933.

Date: Sep 9th, 2005. Format: Television broadcast. Surrounding: Tampere.

Ehmm.. - the idea of John Wayne as a hero in a romantic comedy isn't actually so silly as it sounds. Really, the weird thing is that his skills in this genre weren't tried more often in the 1930's before John Ford eventually established his final status in Stagecoach (1939). Here Wayne is the drunkard son to a wealthy business manager, who needs a secretary... Wayne's character falls in love with a girl named Marion! So there's certainly some funny dialogue between them, but nothing special in narrative sense. That seems to be the problem in "someone has a secretary" films generally, and I don't mean only porn films. If I'd have to choose from this and Charles Martin's My Dear Secretary (1949) starring that other romantic hero Kirk Douglas, I'd watch this. **½