Hot Saturday

Aside from the silly and gratuitous underwear scene, this movie does a good job of telling the story of poor Ruth Brock, a hard-working, put-upon small town girl who is judged and persecuted by her neighbors and so-called friends following a day of fun on an eponymous 'Hot Saturday' in the summer of 1932.

Subsequent events show how much women had staked on maintaining their reputations at that time, a topic that didn't go away with the enforcement of the production code though it lost a lot of its nuance. The expression on Ruth's face in the last frame of this film is so uncertain...she doesn't know if she's doing the right thing, doesn't know quite what she's getting into. I grieve for the loss of that ambiguity in films made in the years to come.

Nancy Carroll is brilliant in the role of Ruth, sparing the audience tedious hysterics and instead portraying the bitterness and frustration of living in a town of petty fools with nothing better to do than tear each other apart. I sort of wish there were two versions of this movie, one starring Carroll and one starring Barbara Stanwyck so I could do a side-by-side comparison. Stanwyck did such a good job with offended righteousness in 'Night Nurse'. But I'd keep Cary Grant in both...young and perfectly cast in the role of the local "disreputable cad" (that's how he's described (aptly) on the label).

But even a disreputable cad can have good points...and keen-eyed, truthful, pre-production code Ruth won't fail to notice them...

In small-town Marysville, attractive bank clerk Nancy Carroll (as Ruth Brock) is desired by several young men. She prefers to play the field. One of Ms. Carroll's more ardent admirers is wealthy playboy Cary Grant (as Romer Sheffield). He invites Ms. Carroll and her friends over to his lakeside estate for alcohol and fun, on a "Hot Saturday" night in July. Carroll arrives, on a date with co-worker Edward Woods (as Connie Billop). She refuses to make-out with him during a boat ride, so he dumps her ashore. That's not very gentlemanly. Carroll walks to Mr. Grant's house and he sends her home in his chauffeured car. Jealous banker's daughter Lilian Bond (as Eva Randolph) sees Carroll sneaking in late and spreads the rumor that Carroll spent the night with Grant. Carroll's reputation is ruined...

Soon, girl-shy geologist Randolph Scott (William "Bill" Fadden) returns to town, after seven years. A childhood friend, Mr. Scott discovers Carroll has grown out of her pigtails and into a bra. Carroll sees quick marriage as a solution to her problems. "Hot Saturday" is about malicious gossip, which has turned out to be a timeless problem. It's interesting to see it play out in the 1930s. Director William Seiter and the Paramount studio crew really go to town on "Marysville". The automobiles and fashions gleam. There are almost too many people in early background scenes; probably, everyone ran errands on Saturday. Watch for a scene occurring at just under 15 minutes of running time; in it, Carroll wrestles her squealing teenage sister Rose Coughlan (as Annie) to remove some stolen under-shorts.

****** Hot Saturday (10/28/32) William Seiter ~ Nancy Carroll, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Edward Woods

In small town America, everyone knows everyone else's business, and gossip flies fast. That's why bank teller Nancy Carroll is careful to go out in a big group and never stay out too late. She's usually glad to have a good reputation; but when she has a bad day at the office and her parents won't stop fighting, she doesn't care anymore. She goes out in a big group one Saturday night, but she openly flirts with notorious playboy Cary Grant. When her escort takes her out on the lake for some private time, she wiggles free and runs off to be with Cary instead! Do you think that'll send the gossip mill running?

Although he gets a higher billing, Randolph Scott has a much smaller part than Cary Grant. Cary is the "ungettable get" with tons of money and nothing to do. His pre-stardom makeup makes him look very weird, however, and if you look closely you can get a glimpse of his old teeth. When Scottie McScottie Pants comes on the scene, he's just gorgeous. Messy hair flopping in his face, smiles for miles, and a passion for geology even though there's no money in it. He's got my vote! But who would you pick? Watch this old movie for some pre-Code giggles and a very old-fashioned premise. Nancy Carroll is just as cute as it gets; I wonder why didn't become as big a star as her contemporaries like Carole Lombard or Jean Harlow.

Newcomer Cary Grant was paired with Paramount star Nancy Carroll in Hot Saturday, a film which is most dated, but still packs quite a punch. Nancy Carroll's stardom was beginning to slip while Cary as we know was fast on the rise.

Hot Saturday however is about gossip, something that will eternally be with us. But happy to say some people's attitudes have definitely changed for the better. Nancy Carroll would not be fired today from her job at a bank because of her private life.

Carroll's a popular girl with all the young men of her town, but she's engaged to stalwart Randolph Scott who's a promising young engineer. One of her fellow co-workers at the bank Edward Wood tries to put the moves on her, but she won't give him a tumble. It's he who starts a nasty rumor about Carroll and the town playboy Cary Grant who is guilty of nothing more than offering her a ride home in his car after she ran off from Woods.

Depending on where you are from malicious gossip will probably not have the effect it does on Nancy Carroll. Still it can damage one. Years ago in a former place of work and we're talking now about the 1970s I recall in my office there was a section known as the 'poison pond'. It was where a few women who had nothing else to do but gossip about everything and everyone else around. No escaped their malicious tongues and something like what happens to Nancy Carroll would have been grist for that mill for a month.

Thank God people have a more live and let live attitude, but gossip is still a perennial problem and Hot Saturday deals nicely with it.

"Hot Saturday" is a terrific little movie, and much better than its IMDb rating would suggest.

This was my first exposure to Nancy Carroll, and it's clear from her performance and screen presence why she was such a major star, if only for a short time. She plays a young woman living in a small town who becomes the subject of rumors when she's seen cavorting with a known rascal, played by Cary Grant, who likewise proves why he rocketed to stardom and stayed there. When Carroll realizes the small-minded people of the town are going to treat her like a floozy whether or not any of the rumors are true, she decides to make them true by giving the town (and Grant) what they want. This happens much to the dismay of her solid, down-to-earth beau, played by Randolph Scott.

I was not expecting this film to end the way it did, and was thrilled at the way it completely defied my expectations. Carroll doesn't see the error of her ways, apologize to her mom and dad and hunker down to a nice, sensible marriage with Scott. Instead, she hops in a car, essentially gives the entire town the finger, and rides off with Grant. Take that, Production Code!!

It was so refreshing to see a film that allows a woman her sexuality without forcing her to apologize for it by the film's end. Sure, she's going to be branded a slut by the town she's leaving behind, but the movie makes the town and the people in it so miserable that the viewer doesn't care any more for its opinion than Carroll does herself.

"Hot Saturday" is on a double DVD bill with "Torch Singer," and the two films together make a dynamite duo.

Grade: A-