Esposa anónima

Down on her luck "Ellen" (Loretta Young) arrives at "Winfield Manor" seeking a position. She's completely unqualified, but butler "Wroxton" (Basil Rathbone) takes a bit of a shine to her and so she gets a job anyway. Indeed, fairly swiftly she is the personal maid to the lady of the house - but it's the son "Richard" (Robert Taylor) who really catches her eye, and she his. What can they do though - she's a mere servant and he is from the bluest of New York blood? Well they pretend it's Elizabethan times and marry in secret, but that's not their biggest one of those and when the intensely jealous "Wroxton"" finds out, he proceeds to make things distinctly awkward for the couple and for his family. With the odds stacked against them, and misunderstandings galore going on, it's going to be tough for them to remember that they were/are/might still be in love! It's all a bit predicable as far as the story goes, but there's quite an effective on-screen malevolence from an on-form Rathbone, there's also an amiable chemistry between Young and a Taylor who looks much younger than his actual 25 years, and we've even a tiny slice of courtroom duplicity at the end to round things off. Never mind a woman scorned, worry about the butler...!

"Private Number" is a most enjoyable film that may be largely unknown among most buffs of older films today. But it has a very pleasing cast , good dialog, beautiful sets and costuming, a dastardly Basil Rathbone, the beautiful voice of a young Robert Taylor, and the gloriously glistening eyes of Miss Loretta Young. How did they do that with her eyes? She was such a fine and watchable actress, her performance here nuanced and anticipatory in her give and take with the troupe, even though the production was likely on a conveyor-belt schedule. It isn't one of the all-time great films, but it is a very good and worthwhile one. The film's subject matter may have even made a lot of those in the 1936 movie audiences a bit uncomfortable.

I caught this film for the very first time,as I can remember,on Fox Movie Channel.The lead actor was listed as Tyronne Power instead of Robert Taylor.I don't know whether the fault lies with TV Guide or the cable channel.Maybe both.

I enjoyed watching a young Loretta Young,one of my favorites.The storyline deals with a maid who falls in love,marries and has a baby for her employers son.Basil Rathbone,another one of my favs,plays the wicked butler who cooks up a devilish plot to have her arrested and and discredited in the eyes of her employers and fired.

This old black and white charm took me way back to my childhood days watching Ms Young's television show with similar stories.Released way back in the 1930's,it is a jewel of a picture.

Can you believe TV Guide even had it listed as a comedy?

Although Private Number is nowhere near as gritty as Midnight Mary, it is beautifully photographed (Fox Movie Channel's print is lovely), and Loretta Young is almost as gorgeous here as she was in that awesome precode classic, certainly more beautiful than she was in the 1940's favorites The Bishop's Wife and The Farmer's Daughter.

Loretta looks especially beautiful with Robert Taylor in Private Number; they make a gorgeous couple. Did they ever have a romance off screen? They looked perfectly suited to one another physically.

Favorite scenes take place up at a lake in Maine, although I can't understand why Loretta's character leaves her friend the maid's character (played with pizazz by Patsy Kelly) alone naked on the shore (friend had lost bathing suit in the water). Loretta, instead of helping her, takes off with Robert Taylor's character on his boat, abandoning her friend. I'd never do that to my friend!. In fact that was the most annoying thing to me about the film: Patsy Kelly was always supporting Loretta and Loretta never did anything to repay her.

Basil Rathbone was downright scary as the butler. He was colder and more frightening here than he was with Greta Garbo in Anna Karenina, and that's saying a lot! I like the way Loretta shudders in the beginning after she first meets the butler. It made me laugh. Listen to your instincts, girl, leave! But no, she's coaxed into staying by Patsy Kelly's character, Gracie.

Monroe Owsley has a small but impressive role as James Coakley, a weak scoundrel on the make. He was to die only a year later after a car crash. Jane Darwell and Billy Bevan put in appearances as servants. Marjorie Gateson did well in the role of Robert Taylor's mother. Also worthy of note is the beautiful large dog, Prince, played by "Hamlet". I would love to have an affectionate dog like that! I wonder who his trainer was? He was adorable. When he puts his paw up on Loretta at one point to comfort her, I sighed "Awwwwww!" 8 out of 10 stars.

Ellen (Loretta Young) arrives at a mansion seeking work as a domestic. Although she has no previous experience and normally wouldn't have been hired, the cruel head butler (Basil Rathbone) thinks she's a hot tomato and hires her--presumably so he can one day have his way with her. However, the unexpected happens...the son of the family she now works for soon falls for her. Richard (Robert Taylor) is very persistent and eventually they begin seeing each other on the sly. It becomes serious...so serious that he wants to marry her. But if she does, will the family accept her? And what about the cruel head butler? He's not the sort to just give up...especially when he has something he can blackmail her with should he choose to do so.

This is a very interesting film when you realize how tall Basil Rathbone was in real life. He wasn't a small guy...but here the director must be manipulating perspective to make him look much taller and more menacing. So, while he's only less than two inches taller than Robert Taylor, he towers over him...and everyone else. This was actually a smart move and really made him seem all the more awful!

So is this any good? Well, considering the actors, it couldn't help but be very good. Young and Taylor are very good but Rathbone steals the show with his shear awfulness...he really was a terrific villain. Also, in a small role, Monroe Owsley was AMAZING as a pusilanimous jerk...and his courtroom scene is one of the best I've seen in some time. Too bad Owsley died the following year. Well worth seeing and satisfying all around.