I was one of those who found this DVD in a Dollar Store bin and took it home figuring some evening when I had nothing else to do I'd watch it for Kirk Douglas - a long time favorite actor. Well, I finally cracked the seal tonight, and I'm glad I did! This movie was a pleasant surprise. Far from perfect with the unevenness of tone commented on elsewhere, but well worth the time.The slapstick - especially every scene so deftly stolen by Keenan Wynn - rolled along merrily. The romance was somewhat predictable, and the attitudes appear dated - well sure - the movie was released in 1948! Yet even there the film managed to defy expectations - no spoilers, but don't get too settled with how you think things will happen. While the end result may be expected the route is not! A delightful ensemble supporting cast carries their parts well, and a token stab at relevance works better than would have seemed possible in such a featherweight story.Relax, break out the popcorn and let this sweet-natured charmer do its thing. Hopefully your copy doesn't act up and almost ruin the end as mine did - let the buyer beware - you gets what you pays for!

Kirk Douglas escapes from film noir to take on a less masculine character in this late entry into the romantic screwball comedy genre. He is an egotistical charmer here, a novelist who is more interested in playing around with his secretaries than actually getting any work done. But with determined Laraine Day (the "Dr. Kildare" series) hired as his new secretary, Douglas will find that the lady doesn't take nonsense. A promising writer herself, Day hopes she will turn Douglas around, but with his fun-loving pal Keenan Wynn around (always ruining the dinners he attempts to make as well as Douglas's shirts he tries to unsuccessfully iron), that is unlikely to happen. Toss in a nosy landlady (the always funny Florence Bates), a shrill maid ("The Beverly Hillbillies" Irene Ryan), a former secretary (Helen Walker), Day's former employer (Rudy Vallee), a private investigator (Alan Mowbray) and one of Day's fellow writing students (Grady Sutton), there seems to be great potential for fun. But the laughs are few and far between, which is unfortunate. The eternally grinning Douglas seems to be trying too hard to get laughs, and after a while, Wynn starts to become obnoxious. He has a few amusing cracks at Bates' expense (when invited to a party by her to play the piano, he asks, "Is it informal, or should I bathe?"), but the cooking jokes (one involving a chicken that has liquefied itself in a pressure cooker) go on too long.There is a very funny scene involving portly secretarial candidate Jody Gilbert, a character actress I am noticing in more and more old films; a Veronica Lake look-alike (Virginia Hewitt) is also on hand, as is Gale Robbins as the "business only" beauty who takes no prisoners in her determination not to mix business with pleasure. Walker has an amusing moment taking inventory of everything in Douglas's apartment she is removing. "Queen of the Bit Players" Bess Flowers is funny in a brief scene as a society matron dancing with Wynn who excitedly asks if he is a gigolo. The film gives a look back to the work life before sexual harassment became a no-no.

The stars of this movie are supposed to be Kirk Douglas and Laraine Day, but it's worth saying right off the top that the movie is worth watching primarily for Keenan Wynn's hilarious performance as Ronnie Hastings. He really is the one who makes this movie.Ronnie is a neighbour of and assistant to author Owen Waterbury (Douglas.) After writing a best-seller, Waterbury gives a lecture to a writing class and meets Stephanie Gaylord (Day.) Waterbury offers Gaylord a job as his secretary, and she accepts, but what she didn't know is that Waterbury's secretaries don't last very long. He's a bit of a playboy type, and he and Hastings always insist on a certain "type" of secretary (ie, extremely cute) and most of them don't take very kindly to being hit on as soon as they walk through the door.Basically, this movie deals with the evolution of the relationship between Waterbury and Day. Both play their parts very well, but, as I said, the show is stolen by Wynn right from the beginning, and it all leads up to an ending (again with Wynn as the comedic centrepiece) that I didn't see coming, particularly given what seemed to be Ronnie's taste in women.All in all, it's good, clean entertaining comedy, with a plot that admittedly gets a little bit tired by the end, but still there's quite a few laughs here. 7/10

An overlooked and underrated gem in the genre of American Screwball comedy, "My Dear Secretary" pits Kirk Douglas and Laraine Day together in a romantic battle of the sexes set against the literary world of the 1940's. The script, complex in its plot as one expects from these brilliant comedies from that era, is flawless, and the performances by Day and Douglas, who demonstrates an early knack for comedic acting sorely underused in most of his later films, are solid. It is Keenan Wynn however as Douglas' wisecracking best friend who does a great deal of scene stealing in one of his most memorable roles. A shame Kirk Douglas claimed a lack of affection for this picture in his autobiography as it is a real treat to watch him in this type of film. Made by low key United Artists at a time when screwball comedy was winding down, it is not hard to see why this picture was overlooked then and is all but forgotten now. In the shadow of the more famous Cary Grant and Roselind Russell et al comedies it is nevertheless an intricate and finely tuned piece of screwball which deserves better recognition. Look for it at the video store, you will pleasantly surprised. And while you're there check out "A Lady Takes a Chance" with Jean Arthur and John Wayne, another sadly under-appreciated comedy from the 40's.