"The Office Wife" (1930) is one of my favorite movies. True, I thought Lewis Stone was a bit stodgy, but this mannerism certainly suited his role. Fortunately, Dorothy Mackaill, still at her ravishingly beautiful zenith here, makes a delightful contrast, and there are some excellent support performances from Blanche Frederici (that is the way she preferred to spell her name) as the writer, Dale Fuller as the head- over-heels initial secretary, Hobart Bosworth as the office manager, Joan Blondell as our heroine's sister and Walter Merrill as the loser of the dime. Director Lloyd Bacon, although no doubt exhausted from his experiences with John Barrymore on "Moby Dick", handles his chores here with both admirable competence and celerity. Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD coupled with another excellent Dorothy MacKaill vehicle, "Party Husband".

This pre-code gem is an early talkie that gives legal wives good warning that there's another woman in her business man's life-his secretary! Aging bachelor Lewis Stone becomes engaged, and his veteran secretary (Dale Fuller) has a breakdown and must immediately resign. The pretty Dorothy MacKaill is immediately promoted as a replacement, getting warning from the plump frump that a good secretary gets by on skills, not looks, all the while fixing her mistakes. It takes a minute for MacKaill to get her bearings with the sometimes demanding Stone, but after she prepares a healthy lunch and shares it with him, they are as close as bees are to honey. Soon after, they are working outside at Stone's poolside with wife Natalie Moorehead and her obvious lover practically consorting in front of Stone and MacKaill's noses. As their marriage crumbles, Stone and MacKaill find out that they can't just have a professional relationship and she becomes torn between him and her journalist boyfriend.When MGM made a very civilized similar film with Gable, Loy and Harlow, this has the potential to be more biting and pretty much is. A brunette Joan Blondell provides cracks and wisdom as MacKaill's roommate sister, while Moorehead escapes her brittle bitchy stereotype in a scene with Stonr that is surprisingly human and allows her character to show a ton of vulnerability and understanding. A scene where Stone pretty much helps Moorehead undress is pretty shocking for its day and gives a good idea of what lead to the Hays code four years later.What could have been a rather ordinary woman's picture sparkles because of a better script than normal. If you can get past the major age difference between Stone and MacKaill, the film will come off as a truly enjoyable story that spreads its innuendo around in massive volumes as if it was a spilled bottle of ink on MacKaill's desk. There's also a fabulous butch lesbian (Blanche Friderici) who provides humor and a brief cynical description of what an "office wife" really is.

It's interesting how Lewis Stone looks the same in every film I've seen him in from 1925 to 1945. In this very short little drama, a secretary decides to go after her new boss, the owner of a publishing company, for the purpose of moving up in life. He has just gotten married, but this is no impediment to the girl. Her little scheme works, but unfortunately for her, she falls in love with him. There are two kinds of pre-codes 1. Those in which the players start bad and stay bad or get worse. 2. Those in which the players start bad and reform by the end of the film. This picture is in the latter category.The main attraction in this film is Joan Blondell. Her opening scene of getting up and going through her morning routine pretty much steals the picture from anything the actual female lead winds up doing from that point on. Then there is the mannish female author that is writing a book for the publishing company that pretty much mirrors what is going on in the film. I'm not sure what the reason is for her presence in the film, but it is certainly an example of what you couldn't find at the movies after 1934. Not a bad way to spend an hour.

A somewhat interesting early talkie, more for the minor cast members than the major ones. Dale Fuller (Maria Macapa in "Greed") has a stand-out bit at the beginning as a lovestruck secretary and Blance Frederici plays an extremely mannish writer (a Gertrude Stein parody?). The best bit, stealing the limelight away from the female lead, is the movie debut of Joan Blondell as the lead's sister, spending the entire movie either getting into or out of lingerie. The lead, Dorothy Mackaill, seems wooden next to her. The direction has some odd gaffes usually associated with earlier talkies (fluffed lines, cameras failing to follow action properly) that speaks of a rushed production.