His Private Secretary

This would be worth watching if for no other reason than to watch John Wayne in a romantic comedy, and it's a decent movie in its own right. While its not as funny or as moving as the best films of this type, the story is good and is usually at least mildly amusing.

Wayne plays the carefree son of a rich man. His Father disapproves of him and his lifestyle, and after giving him one last chance, rejects him and the woman he has married (Evalyn Knapp). His wife decides to take matters into her own hands, with a creative scheme intended to bring the cold-hearted father to his senses. It's a fairly interesting scenario, and most of the possibilities are realized. The acting is generally good, and Wayne does well in a role much different from those he would later become famous for.

Wayne's fans should enjoy seeing how he performs in this atypical role, and fans of old-fashioned romantic comedies should also find this worth a look.

The plot for "His Private Secretary" is a good one. It's a variation on a common theme for later films about a rich father who rues that he has a son who has been spoiled. Only, the screenplay for this film is not very good. It has holes in places and isn't tightly put together. The quality overall is crude and rough.

The film was made by Mascot, one of the Tin Pan Alley studios of the time. It's an early John Wayne film – one of the first in which he is credited and has a lead. Even then, Evalyn Knapp is billed ahead of him. But like so many other players from Tin Pan Alley, she never went much further in film and was forgotten by the 1940s. Wayne is one of a small number of players who got a start in the bottom rung of movie makers but who climbed to the highest rung and stardom.

The acting is so-so here, but it does show that Wayne had some talent and early on was comfortable in front of the camera. He would go on to make many more films of various genres, including a host of dime Westerns before the 1939 John Ford film, "Stagecoach," that caused his star to rise.

Nice old movie tho it feels a bit short. My only complaint was not with the movie but the DVD I rented via Netflix. Westlake Enterainment's 2007 DVD shows little if any care was taken for improving the quality of movie during transfer to DVD. The transfer was horrible even considering the age of the film it should have been handled much better and cleaned up both visually and sonically. At times the faces seem almost like glaring white ghosts on screen. Scratches and obvious film damage abound as well.

John Wayne out of his boots and six gun was nice to see and he did well here playing the male romantic lead. Seems odd to see the Duke in a movie without gunfights and horse chases. If you want to see Wayne in a better romantic comedy tho I still suggest you watch "The Quiet Man" instead.

Though the quality of the film is not too great (hey, it IS from 1933!), it is a good little movie, and the entertainment value exceeds the quality (at least in the version we watched).

It is fun to see John Wayne in this atypical role. He plays the part of a fun-loving rich playboy, whose father wants him to settle down and start working in the family business. When he does the ultimate in settling down, by getting married, his father is convinced the wife is a gold-digger. How she convinces him otherwise is clever and well done, and shows the value of being a positive person with initiative.

MOST of the other comments on this movie say it so well, but I wanted to add one more very positive comment for the film.

If you are a John Wayne fan, you should definitely watch this movie.

This light-hearted romantic comedy. Wayne had not yet developed into the man we would know as "Duke", but he definitely had presence. There are signs, though. Near the end of the movie, where "Dick" confronts his father about the woman he married, we see a hint of what is to become.

Richard (Dick) Wallace is a playboy whose father wants him to straighten up and join the family business, but Dick only wants to have a good time. He meets Marion and falls in love with her. He trades his car for a gas station in order to stay in the town she lives in to be near her, and convinces her to marry him. But, his father will not be convinced that Marion is not a gold digger. She sets out to prove to the old man that she is different, and does. Dick, however, has not yet changed, and suffers the consequences of his folly.

The movie is a bit choppy, and the plot is weak in places. Some of the supporting roles could have been stronger. Never-the-less, it is fun to watch John Wayne as the ne'er-do-well son of a rich man, and get his come-uppance at the hands of the preacher's granddaughter.