"Man Wanted" struck me as a curious movie to have been made in 1932. I agree with most who didn't see it as a battle of the sexes film. But it carries a couple of messages that I don't think would appeal to people of the time. Those are about the wealthy and powerful living high on the hog and caring nothing for the everyman and woman – to the point of dumping on them. Kay Francis plays Lois Ames, the managing editor of some sort of magazine. We never know what type of magazine it is, but it seems to be a style, fashion, glamour or other sort of publication. Another reviewer noted that there probably never was such a lavish editorial office as shown in this picture.In an opening scene, Lois fires her secretary, a faithful employee who has been with the firm for some time. But, she has worked overtime four straight nights and says she can't work again this night. So, she gets the boot. After we're introduced to Tom Sherman (played by David Manners) as a sporting goods salesman, we see him getting hired by Lois as her new secretary. From here on, the film is a reversal of the Hollywood fluff so common for decades. In those, the female secretaries often pursued their bosses. But, here we have a young male secretary who soon lusts for his gorgeous female employer. This happens while he is engaged to Ruth Holman, played by Una Merkel. So little is believable about this that it makes for a very weak plot. Besides the lavish editorial offices, the Francis character doesn't seem real as a managing editor. Her scenes of dictation all have to do with business matters, not editorial content of the magazine. In real life, business managers handle the technical side of the business, and editors handle the product. But we don't see anything of Francis dealing with articles, photos, artwork and magazine design. Yet she is presented as a workaholic in this film. For an idea of how a real managing editor might work, see the 1941 movie, "Two-Faced Woman." In that film, Melvyn Douglas plays a managing editor who can't tear himself away from his job to spend time with his new wife, played by Greta Garbo. And, we see him going over feature articles, cover designs and layouts – the real stuff of a managing editor. This movie was made during the heart of the Great Depression. Audiences going to see it in 1932 would hardly believe a magazine of any type flourishing as portrayed here. And, Lois doesn't have to work because she's married to a rich man, Fred Ames (played by Kenneth Thomson), who also doesn't seem to have been hurt any by the depression. The couple seem to have attitudes that support free love, so long as one is discreet about it – at least on the surface. They can be amorous with each other, or with someone else. Although Lois is not portrayed as playing around on her husband, we see glints of her interest in her young male secretary. Husband Freddie, on the other hand, clearly has the reputation of a carouser. I suspect that this picture of a rich couple living such a lifestyle of infidelity and disregard for other people wasn't appealing to those who were living through the hard times of the depression. After condoning her husband's wandering for some time, Lois decides to divorce him. Tommy, is about to leave, dejected, when she tells him she is now free. We know what that means. So, Tommy jilts his fiancé for the boss. What a happy ending for depression-era audiences, huh? Now, another working everyman – in this case, woman, gets dumped. I think Warner Brothers goofed promoting this movie as a comedy. I see nothing humorous in the film today. The five stars I give it are for very good performances by two actors. Manners played Tommy Sherman superbly, and Thomson was excellent as Freddie Ames.

"Man Wanted" is a delightful film that reflects so many of the themes of its time. Released in 1932, this pre-Code story plays with conventions, titillating the audiences of its day.First of all, there is a reversal of gender roles involving the central characters. Kay Francis plays a female executive who hires a male secretary. She is all business, but the two of them occasionally find themselves playing peek-a-boo with their libidos. Her husband spends his time playing polo and partying.The dialogue is filled with allusions to the "free love" and open marriage ideas of the time. The characters flirt with the freedoms that, no doubt, intrigued audiences of the thirties. They considered the possibility of marriage as a relationship of equals who respect each other without binding. Some of the peripheral characters are not very developed, but the central characters are very strong. Dressed to the nines and occupying some stylish art deco sets, they glibly play their parts while showing that underneath there are other, more serious, emotions at play. In this, the story is maybe not so modern, eventually paying its homage to love and the honesty of traditional commitments.Kay Francis and David Manners are both filmed strikingly. There is one scene of a stolen kiss that is iconic. The director uses the camera to convey a sense of intimacy when required. At other times, he lets the camera flow through a scene, capturing the feeling of gaiety and demonstrating a facility that is very welcome so early in the history of talkies.

This 1932 film may be the oldest of its comedy kind marketed in a crisply remastered DVD with excellent sound best played back at the old 4:3 picture ratio. Kay Francis is featured as an adulteress society woman in a sham marriage to philanderer Kenneth Thompson. Horror film star David Manners is cast against type as an adulterer in a sham engagement to wealthy Una Merkel. Prior to censorship code the adultery aspect is played lightly for laughs when Manners seduces Francis first into hiring him and then into a closer personal relationship, Andy Devine plays the physical comic who is Manners' boarding house roommate. A gas and a hoot which can be hilarious should you accept the subject matter played lightly for laughs before censorship codes.

In this pre-Code drama Kay Francis stars as the fashionable editor of a chic magazine who has no time for other than her job. Which leaves her playboy husband Kenneth Thomson all kinds of idle hours to play with perennial other woman Claire Dodd.When sporting goods salesman David Manners tries to sell her a rowing machine, he walks off with the job of her new secretary. And Kay ends up admiring more than David's work ethic.Man Wanted which contains no really steamy scenes nor any kind of suggestive language still could never have been made after the omnipresent Code was adopted. It has a way too casual attitude toward infidelity with Manners, Francis, Thomson, and Dodd all quite willing to keep things going. When Kay learns of Thomson's cheating, she's quite relieved actually because she and Manners can now kanoodle.Although Man Wanted cannot really make its mind up whether it's comedy or drama, it's still a good film and most typical of the films that Kay Francis was starring in at the height of her career.