His Brother's Wife

There's always one cardinal rule in the days of old Hollywood, if you succeed than imitate. Robert Taylor's breakthrough role in his career was in Magnificent Obsession as a young playboy doctor. Right after that he was cast in Small Town Girl as a young playboy doctor. So just to keep the variety of roles going in His Brother's Wife, he's once again playing a young playboy doctor.

Bob Taylor spent so much time in the medical profession on screen it was like going to medical school.

His Brother's wife takes pieces of Magnificent Obsession, Arrowsmith, with a dash of The Rains Came and mixes it together for a hand wringing melodrama. What's significant about His Brother's Wife was that Taylor met and later married Barbara Stanwyck. The love affair they had going on this movie set definitely tells in their performances.

Taylor is from old American stock where apparently the men go into medical profession. He's got a doctor father in Samuel S. Hinds and a physician brother in John Eldredge. Taylor meets Stanwyck at a gambling establishment owned by Joseph Calleia to whom he gets into debt. He also has a whirlwind romance with Stanwyck, but brother Eldredge breaks them up.

In retaliation, Stanwyck takes over Taylor's debt to Calleia and marries Eldredge in revenge. After a lot of romantic game playing she's off to to the tropics where Taylor is working with Jean Hersholt on a cure for some tropical ailment.

Maybe there's a bit of Rain in this film too, because folks down there in the tropics do some foolish things. That I won't get into, but it's highly melodramatic.

The women of 1936 just loved Robert Taylor and that made up for a lot of the claptrap in this plot. Viewed 71 years later however the film needs a lot to be desired. Still Taylor and Stanwyck found each other and were married a little over 16 years. They did another film at 20th, Century Fox a period costume drama entitled This Is My Affair which was better, but not all that much.

Good thing that Louis B. Mayer started varying Taylor's roles after this. The man was definitely getting into a rut.

His Brother's Wife is the film that brought Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor together, but since all Hollywood trivia buffs know the sadness that ended their marriage, it might not be very enjoyable to watch this film. To be honest, there aren't very many sparks flying between the two in this movie, so if you want to see lots of smooches and starry-eyes, rent This Is My Affair instead.

Robert Taylor is a biologist and a playboy-imagine the combination-and when he falls in love with Barbara Stanwyck, he vows to give up his science lab and settle down. The only trouble is he's already signed up for an important two year trip to the jungle to study spotted fever. The only other trouble is he's in debt to Joseph Calleia at his gambling house, so if he stays, he's in big trouble. Barbara comes to the rescue and tells Joseph she'll work off Bob's debt while Bob's away.

The story does get a little interesting and the movie continues, but the start is pretty slow. Die-hard Stanwyck or Taylor fans might want to check it out, but this isn't going to make the classics list anytime soon.

Folks, this one is from 1936 so we have to take it for what it is. During the early years of talkies, Hollywood came up with some very interesting tales to tell. His Brother's Wife is one of them. Robert Taylor plays the younger brother to the brother that Barbara Stanwyck marries in retaliation for Taylor's going into the depths of the Jungle to find a cure for some god-awful plague. Confusing? It is? Confusing and almost silly. Yet, there is a touch of that old classic film magic that makes it a delight to watch.

There is something about the on-screen chemistry between Taylor and Stanwyck, (most likely spurning from their real life romance), that makes you keep watching. The scenes between the two stars make the whole twisted tale worth sitting through.

Now, don't be fooled, there are many more films that have plots that are more contrived than His Brother's Wife, but there is something about the jump form New York, to the Jungle, and then back to New York, then to the Jungle again, that makes this film a little more silly than most. But, lets face it, if you choose to watch this film you are doing so all for the man with the perfect profile's smile (Robert Taylor) and The Ball of Fire's spunk (Barbara Stanwyck).

All and all this is a fun film to watch. It by no means is predictable--

most likely due to the fact that the plot is out of this world.

Enjoy. I did.

This movie is decent enough in the beginning, which has a wealthy playboy doctor (Robert Taylor) falling in love with a woman he meets in a casino (Barbara Stanwyck). He's meant to leave for the jungles of South America in ten days to work on a cure for spotted fever, so it's a whirlwind romance that they both know will be short-lived. Things get complicated when they fall in love (surprise, surprise), and even more so as Taylor owes the casino owner (Joseph Calleia) money, and seeks to borrow it from his brother. The film gets muddled from there - in character motivations, in melodrama, and in several dangling threads. The scenes in the jungle are just silly, and it's irritating when the woman starts taking the blame for things. I found my grade for the film steadily decreasing as it progressed, and hoping for it to end, which is never a good sign. It was interesting to see Samuel S. Hinds as the father, as he was George Bailey's dad in 'It's a Wonderful Life', and it was also interesting to consider that Stanwyck and Taylor would be married in real life three years later, for thirteen years. This one is for a fan of those actors only, and seeing the first thirty minutes or so would be sufficient.

The other comments here say it all, so I'm simply adding my voice to the chorus. The single word that comes to mind is "ludicrous." One of the more hilarious elements in this ridiculous film is to see everyone talking about the 130 degree heat of the jungles of South America, but their clothes are pristine white, without the slightest smudge, and no one seems to be even breaking a drop of perspiration. It's also a plot point that Robert Taylor is broke, but he has no problem easily jumping on a boat from South America to get back to New York City...and then back to South America, with Stanwyck. If you have the choice between watching this and getting a root canal, go for the root canal -- at least they put you to sleep.