Made during the heyday of screwball comedy and starring an actress who would become one of the genre's icons, More Than a Secretary (1936) is pleasant but standard fare about a frumpy secretary in love with her boss who takes off her glasses and turns into a glamour girl to win her man. But the film has several elements that give it added interest. It's set in an offbeat milieu - the boss, played by George Brent, is an avid vegetarian who's the editor of a fitness magazine; it provides a look at the development of Jean Arthur's comic talent; and it features a wicked comic performance by now-forgotten B-movie dumb blonde, Dorothea Kent.

Arthur had been knocking around Hollywood since the silent era, stuck in unmemorable roles in forgettable films. When her contract with Paramount ended in 1931, she moved to New York and launched a stage career. Signed by Columbia in 1934, Arthur finally hit her stride in the screwball The Whole Town's Talking (1935). Her next few films were nothing special, but then she caught the attention of Columbia's top director, Frank Capra. Carole Lombard had been signed for the part of the cynical reporter in Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), but pulled out at the last minute to make My Man Godfrey (1936). Capra signed Arthur for the role over the objections of Columbia studio head Harry Cohn, who thought she was a has-been. The film was a critical and popular success, earned Capra his second Best Director Oscar®, and made Jean Arthur a star.

Arthur next scored another hit with RKO's The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936), a private-eye comedy in the Thin Man (1934) mold. Columbia quickly threw her into two more films to capitalize on her success - Adventure in Manhattan (1936) and More Than a Secretary. Neither attracted much attention. Reviews for More Than a Secretary were tepid, barely mentioning the performances of Arthur or Brent. Instead, they praised the supporting players, particularly Kent, who played the bimbo secretary who is Arthur's rival for Brent's affections. "Maizie, brightly played by blonde Dorothea Kent, is a redeeming feature," wrote Frank Nugent in the New York Times. "If More Than a Secretary had given us more of Maizie and less of the dull business between Mr. Brent and Miss Arthur it would have been a happier farce." The Variety reviewer tapped Kent for stardom: "...there's a standout by a new girl whose possible future may more than justify the making of this picture...The player is Dorothea Kent, a small platinum blonde with a face and a figure and apparently more ability than ordinarily goes with such a cutie....If dumbbell roles are not her exclusive specialty, Miss Kent is a promising picture girl." Unfortunately for Kent, she never escaped those "dumbbell roles." She had a few B-movie starring roles, notably in Carnival Queen (1937) and Strange Faces (1938), but she was typecast as a bimbo because of her looks and voice, and relegated to supporting roles for the rest of her career.

Better things were ahead for Jean Arthur, however. For her next film, she was loaned out to Paramount for one of her favorite roles - Calamity Jane in Cecil B. DeMille's The Plainsman (1936), opposite Gary Cooper, beginning a seven-year streak of superb performances in acclaimed films. Through it all, Arthur was plagued by shyness and crippling insecurity. When her Columbia contract ended in 1944, she did not renew it. Thereafter, her film appearances were infrequent, but always memorable. Her final film was Shane (1953). She died in 1991.

Director: Alfred E. Green
Producer: Everett Riskin
Screenplay: Dale Van Every, Ethel Hill, Aben Kandel, Lynn Starling, based on the story "Safari in Manhattan" by Matt Taylor
Cinematography: Henry Freulich
Editor: Al Clark
Costume Design: Bernard Newman
Art Direction: Stephen Goosson
Music: Morris Stoloff
Principal Cast: Jean Arthur (Carol Baldwin), George Brent (Fred Gilbert), Lionel Stander (Ernest), Ruth Donnelly (Helen Davis), Reginald Denny (Bill Houston), Dorothea Kent (Maizie West), Charles Halton (Mr. Crosby).
BW-80m.

by Margarita Landazuri