Housewife

GEORGE BRENT has a hard time making a living in HOUSEWIFE, married to ANN DVORAK and falling in love with a working girl he knew years ago--BETTE DAVIS in this flimsy soaper from Warner Bros.

Nothing much happens of much consequence except that for awhile Brent thinks he's in love with Davis, a hard-working office gal who takes his mind off his marriage to Dvorak, but doesn't stand a chance by the time the script gets to the tacked on happy ending after a brief courtroom scene.

The main acting chores go to Ann Dvorak and she does a good job of playing the loyal wife who helps her hubby up the ladder of success and sees him turning to a new love before things get patched up rather hastily.

George Brent does his usual good-natured job as the leading man who is caught between his loyal wife and "the new kid in the office" who has her own plans for their future. The courtroom ending seems tacked on and things are resolved in rather hurried fashion for a happy ending.

Nothing much, just a programmer for three dependable Warner workers early in their respective careers.

Self-described "just a housewife" Nan (Ann Dvorak) is married to hubby Bill (George Brent) who only earns $175 a month as office manager for an advertising firm. Scrimping and saving to make ends meet, she still manages to remember that Sunday dinner isn't Sunday dinner without Leg of Lamb (and even though complains about their lack of income, keeps a maid in the house to help her with her "housework"). Hubby has a meanie boss where he works who gives him no respect, so with wife giving him the push (she's been busy reading "Success" magazine) he quits and decides to start his own advertising firm, with strong wife by his side helping him come up with ideas AND helping him get new clients. And meanwhile - he brings over blonde Pat (Bette Davis) from his old office, a girl who once was in love with him in high school, and stills seems to hold the torch for him.

I guess the plot of this film sounds a bit silly, but I actually liked this a lot, though thought the ending was a bit tacked on and unsatisfying. Bette Davis looks very pretty in this film, and I love the chemistry between her and George Brent. Bonus - I love all the really gorgeous satin and crepe ruffled bias-cut dresses the women wear in this. Very good film, well worth seeing.

Until Bette Davis makes a play for George Brent, this film drags badly. Even then, there's little zip in the screenplay although it does become more interesting. Davis had a crush on Brent in high school but left for New York once he married Ann Dvorak, and now is hired as the chief advertising copywriter at the unheard of salary of $25,000 per year by the advertising firm where Brent works. (Brent earns $2,100 a year as office manager.) When Brent quits at the urging of Dvorak and starts his own firm, Davis is lured back to work for him and the trouble starts. This was the type of role Davis could eat up if it were in the hands of more capable screenwriters and the mores of the 30's permitted it. Then it might have been called "Homewrecker," with the emphasis on Davis rather than Dvorak. Still, it's fun to watch the stars and is a good example of an early Bette Davis film.

HOUSEWIFE (Warner Brothers, 1934), directed by Alfred E. Green, is a domestic story known basically as a Bette Davis movie. Though Davis appears in it, star billing actually goes to her frequent co-star, George Brent, in their third movie together, while the title character goes to third-billed Ann Dvorak as Brent's housewife. Taking second billing under Brent, Davis' role, as the other woman, might have benefited better and favorably for type-cast vamps as Helen Vinson or Claire Dodd, considering the fact that the Davis role is actually secondary and lesser to Dvorak's major co-starring performance.

Plot development begins with the introduction of characters starting off their new day at the breakfast table. William H. Reynolds (George Brent) is happily married to Nan (Ann Dvorak), with a son, Buddy (Ronnie Cosbey), who collects stray dogs, and a housekeeper named Jennie (Leila Bennett). Though Bill has worked as an office manager for Sam Blake (Robert Barratt) agency for five years without a raise in salary, his brother-in-law, George Wilson (Hobart Cavanaugh), who works with Bill, comes in late mainly to improve himself looking for a new and better job. After acquiring a job that pays $10 more than his present salary, Nan feels Bill can do the same, but he lacks confidence in himself in spite of some great ideas that can advance himself with the firm. Entering the establishment is Patricia Berkeley (Bette Davis), formerly Ruth Smith, a successful copyrighter who has known both Bill and Nan during their high school days. Seeing how he's not fully appreciated by Blake, Bill quits. Under his wife's advise and extra savings, he forms an agency of his own called the William H. Reynolds Company. Though he gets Mr. Krueger (Joseph Cawthorne) as his first client, it's not enough for him to survive until Bill becomes more aggressive enough to get one of Blake's most prospective clients, Paul Dupree (John Halliday), a cosmetics manufacturer, to advertise with him instead, taking Patricia along with him. Through the passage of time, Bill's business prospers, with he and his family now living in a luxurious new home with servants, and Buddy being sent to military school. All goes well until Nan notices Bill is spending more time away from home and business in favor of Patricia. Others in the cast include Ruth Donnelly (Dora Wilson, George's wife); Willard Robertson (Judge Edwin A. Matthews); Jonathan Hale (The Doctor) and Charles Coleman (Bolton, the Butler). One song, "Costumes by Dupree" by Mort Dixon and Allie Wrubel, gets vocalized by Phil Regan as Mike Hathaway during a radio broadcast.

A mediocre assignment for future major lead actress, Bette Davis, who might have thought of this assignment as both formula and forgettable. Yet her smoking trademark is evident here but little else except a rare opportunity finding Davis playing the other woman. For this 69 minute production, the film overall moves swiftly more in favor of its featured players of Brent and Dvorak. HOUSEWIFE does offer Davis her second and final collaboration opposite Ann Dvorak, following THREE ON A MATCH (1932), starring Joan Blondell, which Dvorak's role was a lot more meatier than Davis' secondary and smaller performance. John Halliday, playing a rich bachelor business tycoon who finds out what he's been missing after witnessing the Reynolds family life with child, is believably done. Ruth Donnelly as Dvorak's sister-in-law seems a little miscast here, but her role in general is not large enough to hurt the story in any way. Ronnie Cosbey, whom the Dvorak character claims him to be "all boy," is likable as the little son. In spite some similar features, he's not the same little actor from THREE ON A MATCH, actually played by Buster Phelps, minus the curly hair. For the teaming of George Brent and Bette Davis, better roles, particularly DARK VICTORY (1939) were ahead of them. HOUSEWIFE'S sole purpose today is getting a glimpse of its three major actors early in their careers, particularly career woman Davis, better off playing the other woman than just a housewife.

Never distributed on video cassette, HOUSEWIFE often turns up on Turner Classic Movies as either tributes to either Brent, Davis or Dvorak, or broadcast in general showing the now many forgotten films of the 1930s worthy of rediscovery. (** dishes)

George Brent, Ann Dvorak, and Bette Davis star in "Housewife," a 1934 film done at Warner Brothers before they knew what they had in Bette Davis. Davis was pretty enough, with her blond hair and blue eyes, to be cast as an ingénue when she first got to Warners. When Warners realized she had some personality, they put her in films like this where she played stronger, ambitious women.

In "Housewife," she plays Pat, who has always had a mad crush on Bill (Brent), but Brent is married to Nan (Dvorak), and they have a son. Apparently this doesn't matter to her or Brent, as he starts working late at the office and enters into an affair with her. In one party scene, it's pretty obvious that they're a couple - and that's in front of his wife. His wife, well played by Ann Dvorak, refuses to give him a divorce. He doesn't know what the big deal is, apparently forgetting they have a child. All very odd - or is it the script.

This is a pretty typical and not very good B movie enlivened by the cast. I like Brent better without his mustache. Wonder why he grew one.

Pure soap opera and not of the highest quality, with a silly ending. But no Bette Davis fan will want to skip her earlier efforts; it makes one appreciate what came later.