This Is My Affair

Years before Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck were married, they made a couple of films together: His Brother's Wife and This Is My Affair. If you're looking for cute chemistry, rent the 1937 movie, because the first film they made together isn't particularly romantic.

In this one, Robert Taylor gets sent on a secret undercover mission by President McKinley to help catch bank robbers. It sounds like an extremely lame plot, and while no one would ever accuse this movie of turning into a classic, if you want to see an acting couple who eventually got married, you can rent it. Bob goes undercover, with only a secret symbol to write on his letters as proof that the president is on his side, and along the way falls in love with nightclub singer Barbara Stanwyck.

One of the fun parts of the movie, besides seeing the lovebirds together, is Sidney Blackmer's Theodore Roosevelt impression. He's very entertaining, and the script includes several of the President's famous quotes to make audiences chuckle.

The script is not too logical, there are many blank spaces here, but the story is good, and it gets exciting towards the end. Barbara Stanwyck is the star here as always, and although a singer of the same parenthesis category as Marlene Dietrich, her acting is superb and totally convincing all the way as usual. Robert Taylor makes one of his first roles as a totally honest gentleman who gets into trouble and has a hard time getting out of it, while Victor McLaglen is the only fun here who constantly has hearty laughs at his own practical jokes on others, even when he is shortly to be hanged. Brian Donleavy plays a sympathetic gangster, while the main attraction and merits of the film are all the wonderfully recreated musical numbers of that time around 1901, when President William McKinley was shot and Theodore Roosevelt entered the White House - he is convincing enough and has a few scenes. The film is great entertainment and reaches some levels of excitement, so it is by all means worth watching.

1937's "This is My Affair" is remembered as the only costarring effort for lovebirds Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck (they wed in 1939), a diverting espionage tale if a tad overlong (working titles included "Living Dangerously," "Private Enemy," "The McKinley Case," "The Turn of the Century," and even "My Affair"). Taylor's Richard Perry is asked by President William McKinley to work undercover infiltrating a tricky band of bank robbers led by Batiste Duryea (Brian Donlevy), who miraculously avoid leaving any clues behind for the Secret Service. Perry allows himself to be charged for murder to get on the good side of prankster Jock Ramsey (Victor McLaglen), but his activities are frowned upon by pretty chanteuse Lil Duryea (Barbara Stanwyck), younger sister of mastermind Batiste. A terrific cast buoys this one considerably, with John Carradine in for one extended sequence as Ed, unassuming pigeon for Ramsey's tricks, and an unbilled Lon Chaney spotted as an FBI agent at the 72 minute mark, with a single line in a Baltimore bank: "this one's dead as a mackerel!" By an ironic twist of fate, Chaney and Carradine would both go on to enjoy parallel careers in the horror genre, here cast in the same film for the very first time, 12 more to follow until 1967's "Hillbillys in a Haunted House."

In a recent biography of Barbara Stanwyck, I learned that Darryl Zanuck was keen on teaming Stanwyck with her soon to be husband Robert Taylor. Stanwyck freelanced and was currently owing 20th Century Fox a picture, so Zanuck must have worked something out with Louis B. Mayer at MGM to get his favorite star over to Fox.

The year before the Taylor/Stanwyck team starred in His Brother's Wife which I'm sure did good business, but wasn't exactly memorable. Neither would This Is My Affair if it hadn't been for the fact that it starred a couple that were a hot gossip column item.

What Zanuck did was give Bob and Barbara a vehicle that must have at some time been intended for Tyrone Power and Alice Faye. It's a period piece set at the turn of the last century. Barbara is even given a couple of songs by Alice's own songwriting team of Harry Revel and Mack Gordon to do as well as some period public domain music. Apparently she does them herself because I see no credit for voice dubbing. They would have been better had Alice Faye done them however.

Taylor is a Navy Lieutenant on detached assignment to work a job for President William McKinley personally. McKinley is worried about a successful gang of bank-robbers operating in the Midwest who seem to have inside information about vault combinations and even have keys to let themselves in at night so no break-in is required. He has Taylor go under deep cover and report only to him if needed.

It takes months, but Taylor does find the gang which is headed by Brian Donlevy and Victor McLaglen. He also finds Donlevy's stepsister Barbara Stanwyck with whom he falls for. But still his duty is clear.

The notion that a President of the United States is taking such a personal interest in apprehending a gang of robbers is interesting. William McKinley's administration was one that had a lot foreign and domestic concerns. I can't believe that particular president could have involved himself in this crime investigation. But also the banking system was not so tightly regulated that one man could have had all that inside information. It's not even that tightly regulated now, even with the creation of the Federal Reserve which was a dozen or so years in the future.

In fact McKinley's own assassination nearly cooks Taylor's goose. Frank Conroy looked very much like William McKinley and his character portrayal was accurate right down to the cigars McKinley enjoyed, the only vice this most Christian of presidents was known to have. Sidney Blackmer played Theodore Roosevelt many times on screen and really does make you think you're watching TR himself. He was much better at it than John Alexander from Arsenic And Old Lace.

The two stars who soon married never did another project together while they were husband and wife. Taylor and Stanwyck did do The Night Walker after their divorce almost thirty years later. None of the three films is at the top drawer of credits for either star.

In 1937 Darryl Zanuck, who had recently moved from head of production at Warner Brothers, was trying to get his newly created company, 20th Century Fox off the ground and on a level playing field with his old bosses at Warners and the glitter palace at MGM. "This Is My Affair" was an attempt to cash in on the current success of historical films set around the turn of the century ("San Francisco" "In Old Chicago")and in retrospect he succeeded quite mightily. The plot is fascinating. A trouble maker but heroic naval officer (Robert Taylor) is given a secret assignment by President McKinley to uncover a ring of bank robbers that are paralyzing American finance. He finds the gang but falls in love with their female mascot (Barbara Stanwyck) and must decide between love and duty.

Not everything about this vintage film works well, but overall it is a good slice of studio film-making. The plot gimmick would be borrowed by Kurt Vonnegut for "Mother Night" (the lead role of that film of the book was played brilliantly by Nick Nolte) and seems quite believable, at least within the confides of studio make believe. As a fan of old movies I am always thrilled when I stumble upon one that I have never seen and "This is my Affair" was no exception.