For some reason, the name Ann Harding today doesn't have the cache of some of her "strong woman" type contemporaries, such as Kay Francis, Barbara Stanwyck, and their ilk. It's unclear why. She was a very good actress, but I think in the end she didn't have the studio attention that some other actresses did.Thanks to TCM, film buffs have a chance to see her. Here she is in "The Right to Romance" from 1933, also starring Robert Young and Nils Asther. Harding plays Peggy Simmons, a dedicated plastic surgeon (though I swear it said Peggy Simmons, D.D.S. - isn't that some sort of dentist?) who is also generous and good-hearted. But she doesn't feel much like a woman, working all of the time and seeing the years fly by.She decides to go on a break, where she dresses beautifully, does her hair, and heads for a resort area. There, she meets one of her patient's sons, whom she has met before, Bobby (Robert Young). He is suddenly very flirtatious and wanting to spend time with her. Peggy returns to her old life and patients, but Bobby shows up and proposes. She accepts, seemingly unaware that her colleague (Nils Asther) is in love with her.The marriage isn't happy - Bobby isn't ready to settle down, and Peggy finds that she is miserable. Short, very absorbing film thanks to the actors. It's interesting - in '40s films, a woman had a career or a marriage, not both, and if she had a career, she was WITHOUT A MAN TO CALL HER OWN and therefore miserable.The '30s films were different - go figure. Peggy is burned out initially but, without giving the ending away, we're not given the impression that she's chucking her career entirely.Harding was theater-trained, so she had the mid-American (i.e. fake British) speech spoken by Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, and others. She was a strong actress, and her striking looks matched. Entertaining.

Beautiful cosmetic surgeon Ann Harding (as Margaret "Peggy" Simmons) feels her biological clock ticking away. "The years are going so fast," she tells her somber nun, "Am I, after all, just a giddy woman at heart?" Ms. Harding takes a leave of absence from work and goes from staid Manhattan doctor to fun-loving Los Angeles sophisticate. She cuts down on smoking and has a whirlwind romance with wealthy playboy Robert Young (as Bobby Preble). You should expect their chance for happiness will be threatened... This Harding vehicle always leaves you wondering why she is so infatuated with Mr. Young while ignoring magnetic Nils Asther (as Helmuth "Heppie" Heppling), which may be the point.**** The Right to Romance (11/17/33) Alfred Santell ~ Ann Harding, Robert Young, Nils Asther, Sari Maritza

This film stars Ann Harding--an actress pretty much forgotten today, though in the early to mid-1930s, she was rather popular. She plays a super-dedicated surgeon that forgot to establish a life for herself outside the hospital where she works. Eventually, she comes to realize what she's missing and decides to take some time off to experience life. In the process she meets playboy Robert Young and she is captivated by his wild and carefree style--the exact opposite of hers. After a whirlwind romance they are married and soon Ann realizes she might have been a bit too impulsive! She is neither happy with him nor is he especially faithful, so in the end she appears poised to leave Young for her long-time friend, Heppie.The film is unusual and a true product of the "Pre-Code" era--before production standards were enforced. Had the film been made just a couple years later, the couple never would have taken such a casual attitude towards marriage or at least this would have been somehow punished. Instead, being adults, they just called it quits and went their own way. This helps to make the movie interesting from a historical standpoint, but otherwise the film really isn't all that special or interesting. A decent time-passer is about all it is down deep.By the way, Ms. Harding is a plastic surgeon but later in the film she'd doing back or orthopedic surgery! Even then, I doubt if any surgeon would have done such divergent types of operations.

I knew nothing of this film until I started watching it about 15 minutes into its start. I was really watching it for the clothes( that are so spectacular even in "B" films of the 1930's) and got caught up in the story. Ann Harding, who is totally unknown today and was a major star then, plays a woman doctor, a plastic surgeon, who falls for a much younger playboy (Robert Young- looking very young by the way) and marries him even though deep down inside she knows it might not work out. She is loved by a colleague played effortlessly by Nils Asher. And yes, who knows who HE was today? Asher was one of the best character actors who had a short career in the 1930's yet was paired with some of the best and most glamorous leading ladies of the era. While her husband was off having an affair with his ex-girlfriend, they have a plane crash and she is scarred. Will the doctor save her life and restore her beauty? And will she finally have the love she wants and deserves from her colleague who adores her? Very short film (about 70 minutes) but right on target and not a lot of fluff. AND yes, being a fashion stylist myself, the clothes are fabulous, especially, the gown Ann Harding wears at the party where she succumbs to Robert Young's charms. If you are a 1930's film fan, you must see this film.