Alison Drake (Ruth Chatterton), president of the Drake Motor Company, and Jim Thorne (George Brent), the automatic gearshift genius, spar heatedly in this pre-Code gem from director Michael Curtiz. Chatterton and Brent were actually married to each other during this picture's release, though for only a brief period of two years. One wonders if her independent character Drake got in the way of that marriage the way it did in their on screen relationship.
The picture pulls no punches with Alison Drake's sexist views of men, inviting the company's male employees over for dinner, then using the old pillow toss to signal extra-curricular activities. I was surprised to see Johnny Mack Brown as one of Drake's one night stands. He looked totally out of place as the newly hired whiz kid at Drake Motors; I guess I've seen him in too many of the era's B Westerns to see him with a suit and tie on.
Brent portrays the hard to get and even harder to handle new man at Drake, spurning Alison's offers of romance with lines like "I don't take pick-ups home with me". To prove his point, he drives Allison insanely jealous by dating his own secretary Miss Joyce (Jean Muir). I got a kick out of the way this 1933 Warner Brothers flick brought attention to another one of their then current releases. Brent's character mentions that he and his date were going to go see "Picture Snatcher", a Jimmy Cagney film that's worth the trouble to track down for it's own pre-Code sexual innuendo and banter.
Not to be outdone by his boss, Alison's personal assistant Pettigrew (Ferdinand Gottschalk) also seems to be on the office prowl with Drake's secretary Miss Frothingham (Ruth Donnelly). Already in his mid-Seventies, Gottschalk's character still steps lively and is not immune to the persuasive powers of Miss Frothingham's Passion Flower #2.
To use an automobile term, the picture shifts gears at the finale when Miss Drake actually falls for the gearshift guy, ready to renounce her power and prestige for marriage and kids. Not too believable, but neither was the idea that she would have been president of the company in the first place, at least not in 1933.
The picture pulls no punches with Alison Drake's sexist views of men, inviting the company's male employees over for dinner, then using the old pillow toss to signal extra-curricular activities. I was surprised to see Johnny Mack Brown as one of Drake's one night stands. He looked totally out of place as the newly hired whiz kid at Drake Motors; I guess I've seen him in too many of the era's B Westerns to see him with a suit and tie on.
Brent portrays the hard to get and even harder to handle new man at Drake, spurning Alison's offers of romance with lines like "I don't take pick-ups home with me". To prove his point, he drives Allison insanely jealous by dating his own secretary Miss Joyce (Jean Muir). I got a kick out of the way this 1933 Warner Brothers flick brought attention to another one of their then current releases. Brent's character mentions that he and his date were going to go see "Picture Snatcher", a Jimmy Cagney film that's worth the trouble to track down for it's own pre-Code sexual innuendo and banter.
Not to be outdone by his boss, Alison's personal assistant Pettigrew (Ferdinand Gottschalk) also seems to be on the office prowl with Drake's secretary Miss Frothingham (Ruth Donnelly). Already in his mid-Seventies, Gottschalk's character still steps lively and is not immune to the persuasive powers of Miss Frothingham's Passion Flower #2.
To use an automobile term, the picture shifts gears at the finale when Miss Drake actually falls for the gearshift guy, ready to renounce her power and prestige for marriage and kids. Not too believable, but neither was the idea that she would have been president of the company in the first place, at least not in 1933.