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Jean Harlow is the secretary no wife wants her husband to have in "Wife vs. Secretary" starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Harlow, with an early appearance by James Stewart.

It's hard to believe, looking at this film, that Jean Harlow would be dead a year later. Less blonde than in some earlier films, and far more subdued, she plays the indispensable, smart, and efficient secretary of Clark Gable.

Gable is a high-pressured businessman happily married to Myrna Loy. All is well until her mother-in-law advises her to make Gable get rid of that good-looking assistant. Slowly, Loy begins to realize that everyone in their circle is assuming an affair, which up to that point hadn't crossed her mind. It does now.

Harlow is involved with James Stewart, and he doesn't want her to work after they get married. Her job, he feels, is too exciting and important and will threaten their marriage.

Harlow is half in love with Gable and refuses to quit. Stewart is adorable and gives a hint of what will be truly be one of the great screen personas.

The cast is splendid. Gable is his usual charming self; Loy and Harlow are perfect casting as unique women who are complete opposites.

Their final scene together consists of only a long look. It's very effective, as is the acting of both women throughout. Loy's scene with her mother-in-law is heartbreaking.

This is a dated film but very satisfying. Although it's wonderful to see these stars together, it's sad to realize they're all gone now, and that young Harlow has been gone for 68 years. Quite a loss.

A lot of this is typical 1930s melodrama. The story continues because various of the characters fail to have the obvious conversations, which would have cleared things up in a jiffy.

The scene I found particularly interesting and innovative was the penultimate one. In the third from the end scene, Harlow shows up in Loy's stateroom aboard the French Liner ship she is planning to take to Europe to forget about her husband (Gable), whom she imagines, incorrectly, to have had a fling with his secretary Harlow during a business trip to Havana. Harlow tells Loy that if she leaves Gable now, he will turn to Harlow out of loneliness and Loy will never get him back. (Yes, that sounds like the mother's speech to Norma Shearer in The Women.) Loy believes, incorrectly, that she has already lost Gable, so she says she won't go back to him. Harlow tells her that that would make her (Harlow) happy.

The next scene takes place in Gable's office. He is talking with Harlow. We hear footsteps coming down the hall outside. Footsteps that take a long time. It turns out that they belong to the cleaning lady. Then, when she leaves, we hear footsteps again, very assertive footsteps, for a long time. Harlow gets up - she suspects it is Loy, come to return to her husband. And this time it is. Harlow then walks through the next, large office - more long footsteps - and leaves. The use of the footsteps is really very impressive.

In this wonderful comedy/drama, all three major stars go against their stereotyped roles. Clark Gable, for example, plays devoted husband and businessman instead of a tough guy like he usually does. Jean Harlow plays a hard working, good natured secretary, who doesn't seem to know just how damn sexy and gorgeous she is, and no wise cracks! Then there is the lovely Myrna Loy, who plays an extremely sexy wife (in contrast to her other wife roles). This could have been another formulaic, predictable film but the stars – Loy, Harlow and Gable – shine in their roles and make this a truly funny, magical film.

The conflict starts when Linda Stanhope's (a gorgeous Myrna Loy) mother in law makes a careless comment about how nice her son's (a dashing Clark Gable) – Linda's Husband - secretary (played by Jean Harlow) is. From there, a usually non-jealous Linda becomes increasingly suspicious to her husbands actions. Many things seem to point to the conclusion that Van is having an affair. Hm!

It's rather tragic that this brilliant piece of comedy is not that well known, as it should be. All three stars are exquisite and really entertaining to watch and raises above the boring, run of the mill comedy/dramas. Wife Vs. Secretary is a great movie - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's Rolls Royce MGM hitting on all eight cylinders— lavish interiors, pretty people, well- upholstered crowds, and sprightly dialog. So who can ask for more. Not me. Gable's a hard- driving top executive with a super efficient secretary (Harlow) and a loving wife at home (Loy). Trouble is, he spends all his time making deals and neglecting his patient wife. At the office he depends a lot on the fetching Harlow, slowly making wife Loy suspicious. But getting his attention is difficult since he's so wrapped up in the latest big deal. Thus, straightening things out in expected Hollywood manner makes up the narrative.

Gable's at his charming energetic best, while Harlow gets an unusual non-vampish role, and Loy is winning in the sympathetic wifely part. Together, their characters are uniformly likable, unusual for what may be a romantic triangle. It's not hard seeing why Gable made six films with the star-crossed Harlow. There's real chemistry at work between them. Also, a boyish Jimmy Stewart turns up in an early supporting role as Harlow's sometimes swain. Not surprising for the 30's, the business world is portrayed as tricky, at best.

Anyway, director Brown keeps things moving in smooth fashion, so all the talk seldom palls. Overall, it's a slickly entertaining 90-minutes featuring three legends of their time and our own.

I treasure this film for Jean Harlow's performance, capped by a magnificent, simple line reading: "You are a fool. For which I am grateful."

She had amazing range for an actress who died at 26. Howard Hughes presented her in "Hell's Angels" (1930) as an amoral menace to civilization. (When she slips into "something comfortable" she actually puts on clothes.) It would be charitable to call her appearance in that picture acting. Yet within a couple of years she could dominate the screen by the force of genuine talent.

Her starring career blazed briefly, but with almost no wasted roles. Here she gets to behave like a normal working class woman--not a débutante, nor a tenement dweller, nor a criminal's moll, nor a voracious mantrap, nor a comic banshee, nor an adventuress working the China Seas or Malay docksides.

Clark Gable and Myrna Loy have more customary roles. A part this quiet remains a rarity for the winsome, brilliant, and doomed Harlow.

It sounds like some sort of cheap sex farce, but this wonderful gem from MGM is actually a very sophisticated work. At its heart are the brilliant performances of five shining stars. Myrna Loy, her miraculously beautiful face subtlely registering her consumption by the green eyed monster. Clark Gable, exhaustingly energetic and effortlessly charming. May Robson, worldly wise and utterly compassionate. James Stewart, in an early supporting role displays the sincere simplicity that was to become his trademark. And Jean Harlow, luminous and intelligent - with a practical notion of love - but playing temptation better than any actor I've ever seen. Watch that scene where she takes off Gable's shoes. So sad that she died only a year after this film was made.

At the helm of this under-rated film is the great Clarence Brown, one of the great stylists of the cinema, who was able to take a simple story and give it depth - watch the gossip and the prejudice of the observers that slowly manipulate Loy, Gable and Harlow into distrusting themselves. Magnificent production and costume designs and great music flesh out the film, and make it a memorable experience. And it's very sexy for its time too! If it weren't for the slightly forced happy ending this film would be perfection itself.

My grandmother use to say this was a beautiful film and I think she is just right. It tells the story of a happily married couple Van (Clark Gable) and Linda (Myrna Loy) and husband's beautiful secretary Whitey (great Jean Harlow) and how she gets into her life and almost destroy their marriage but, on the contrary of most miss Harlow films, she does not play an unscrupulous woman but a sincere and honest one: she is in love with her boss but she acts honestly by advising his wife not to let him go after they have an argument. Film begins as a delightful comedy to turn later in to a drama but always convinces, especially because of an excellent actors' work and a good script including well written lines for almost everyone. Even Van's mother Mimi (May Robson) has great lines although her little time appearance on the screen. A great film.

In New York, the magazine publisher Van "V.S." Stanhope (Clark Gable) and his beloved wife Linda (Myrna Loy) have been happily married for three years and are in love with each other. Van is a dynamic executive of the Stanhope Publications and works very close to his dedicated and efficient secretary Helen "Whitney" Wilson (Jean Harlow), who is a beautiful young woman engaged with Dave (James Stewart).

When Van's mother Mimi (May Robson) poisons Linda about the relationship of her son with his secretary, Linda becomes jealous of her. Whitney and Dave have an argument and she breaks with him. Meanwhile Van is secretly planning to buy a magazine owned by Underwood (George Barbier) and Whitney helps him with the strategy. When Whitney discovers that the competitor Hanson House is also disputing the magazine, she travels to Havana to help Van to close the business with Underwood. They are well- succeeded in their intent and celebrate until late night. When Linda calls Van at 2:00 PM, Whitney answers the phone call and Linda believes that Van is really having an affair with Whitney. In the end, don't look for trouble where there isn't any because if you don't find it, you'll make it.

"Wife vs. Secretary" is an adorable romantic comedy by Clarence Brown with Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy in the lead roles. The intelligent screenplay is very well written, with funny situations. James Stewart in a supporting role in the beginning of his career has the final and most important line of this movie. The talented Jean Harlow passed away on the next year of cerebral edema caused by uremic poisoning, in a great loss for the cinema industry. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Ciúmes" ("Jealousy")

I had never seen Wife vs. Secretary until last year and because it was the only film that Clark Gable made with James Stewart, I wanted to see what these two would be like together.

The closest Gable and Stewart have in the way of a scene together is at a roller rink where Gable has brought wife Myrna Loy and Stewart brought girlfriend Jean Harlow. Gable and Stewart are on opposite sides of the floor and never get together.

It's not the best film Gable ever did with Harlow or Loy, but it's good fun. Basically Loy begins to have doubts about Gable's fidelity because the beautiful Ms. Harlow is his secretary. And the doubt is continually being reinforced by Loy's friends, a nasty group of gossips. Innocent events are continually being misinterpreted, but everyone is on the same page by the end of the movie.

Gable was a big star by then, MGM's biggest. Too bad no one knew that Jimmy Stewart was also going to be a cinema legend or some scenes would have included them together.

All of the MGM machinery is in place to make this slight little story into an enjoyable bit of entertainment. Three of the studio's biggest and most endearing stars headline the film. Gable plays a hotshot businessman who has a beautiful, affectionate wife (Loy) at home and a beautiful, dutiful secretary (Harlow) at the office. Loy has no reason to feel threatened by the curvy, good-natured Harlow until Gable's mother (Robson) plants the seeds of doubt in her mind. Once her friends chime in as well and Gable and Harlow are in the midst of a major, hush-hush deal, she begins to think that perhaps she is the odd man out. Meanwhile, (a very young) Stewart waits patiently for Harlow to give up her career and marry him. The title comes true in one, fairly-considerate, verbal sparring match near the end. Gable is extremely charming and offhanded in this film. He does as he pleases and doesn't care to answer to anyone or explain his behavior. Loy is also very witty and refreshingly forward-thinking for most of the movie. The couple shares a delightful on screen relationship in which a healthy sex life is clearly implied. Harlow (sporting hair a shade or two darker than when she's playing an outwardly sexual character) does an admirable job of portraying the dedicated, indispensable assistant who may really have some unexplored feelings for her boss. Though the plot is contrived and simplistic in the extreme, the stars do manage to put it over and hold interest. It's not a very realistic film, but who wanted that anyway during The Depression? It's a frothy, fun, occasionally dramatic piece of old Hollywood candy.

Wife Vs Secretary (1936) : Brief Review -

"You're a Fool, for which I'm grateful." Thanks to this Sweet Film for giving this Insanely Philosophical Quote in Love-triangle. I am not sure whether I'm gonna remember this film or this story for a long time, but i am surely gonna remember coulple of quotes. I might just not forget the story too because this is an old-school formula which is hard to forget. The same old story (I'm not sure of it was old for 1936)- A happily married Husband-wife's relationship gets disturbed once the faithful wife starts suspecting her husband's professional relationship with a gorgeous secretary. It is a sweet little film but with some big philosophical words and couple of scenes are damn too good. So, as we know this suspicious nature of wife isn't anything innovative but this film is extremely faithful about it and the characters of it. First, it has cute chemistry between husband and wife. Loved Gable-Loy totally. Two, it shows professional friendship of company owner and his secretary without crossing the limit. Towards the end i suspected that it might just spoil ethical values when Gable looks at Harlow with that look in hotel room but then suddenly he comes to himself when he learns that his wife has just called and hung up. Three, there is another love story of that secretary and even her boyfriend is suspecting about the same. At the end he goes on saying on the finest quotes of 30s decade, "Don't look for trouble where there isn't any. Because if you don't find it, you'll make it." Kisses to James Stewart for that dialogue delivery. Fourth and the last, the insanely philosophical confrontation between wife and secretary. Just a 2 minute scene which shows that even the secretary has a secret crush but her Boss was a one-woman-man. She says to wife, "You're a Fool, for which I'm grateful." And for me, the job was done here. Don't miss it if you're looking for a good fun+romance+drama.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Like many other reviewers here, I saw WIFE VS SECRETARY on TCM (UK) and thought it was a pleasantly diverting 83 minutes (running times are shorter on PAL). I've never been much of a fan of Jean Harlow, but I can see that she laid the groundwork for the platinum blondes that would follow her. Gable is great in the kind of role he excelled at, this one sandwiched between star-making turns in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and SAN FRANCISCO and just three years before the glorious GONE WITH THE WIND. Jimmy Stewart doesn't have much to do as Harlow's troglodyte boyfriend ("Me work, you have babies!") and, honestly, any of MGM's contract actors could have handled the part as well. Hard to believe that Stewart was himself just a couple of years away from beginning his star run in Capra movies like YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938).

But for me, the star of this is Myrna Loy. Already Hollywood royalty when she made this, mostly due to her winning turn in THE THIN MAN (1934), I thought her best performance of this era was her lip-smacking portrayal of Fah Lo See, Fu Manchu's completely amoral daughter, in MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932). Watch the subtlety of her expressions as she first dismisses, the considers, then believes that her husband is dallying with his pretty but brash secretary. It's this sensitive portrayal that makes WIFE VS SECRETARY a cut above the standard MGM melodramas it was surrounded by ...

This is a perfect little film, absolutely well-rounded and exquisite. Beautifully scripted, intelligently directed, ebulliently acted.

Clark Gable is the successful publisher, newly married to society lady Myrna Loy who, although very modern and not jealously disposed, begins to suspect that he is carrying on an affair with his bleach-blonde secretary, Jean Harlow. As Gable's mother states, laconically of her son, "You wouldn't blame a boy for stealing a piece of candy".

All fluff, right? Light as air, unsubstantial? Of course it is, it takes masters of their craft to make this plot stick, to make the movie plain unforgettable. Gable was never better, he seems to relish every second he is on screen, and there is none of the masculine stiffness about him that his worst performances have. He is a joy to watch with the always delightful Loy, their scenes together bristle and self-combust, and they are a really sweet, engaging couple. Loy has to be the most sophisticated creature ever to be filmed, she is SO cool and contemporary ("I'm the best, aren't I?", she says with just the slightest sardonic hint.) Harlow isn't given as much to work with, and she has to downplay her sassy sexiness in order not to tip the scales. But she is still almost all Harlow, and they go as far as they possibly could under the Production Code. The scene with Harlow and Gable in the Havana hotel room is all about sex, as we are left in no doubt.

So, watch it and love it. It is as perfect a piece of 30's film-making as you are likely to see.

Despite the story not being anything extraordinary, the cast for 'Wife vs Secretary was something of a dream one. Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow were of immense talent and already knew that both Gable and Loy and Gable and Harlow pairings were of classic status. Seeing all three in the same film and also featuring James Stewart in a very early role was enough to make me squeal in delight. Clarence Brown was one of those directors that when he was on good form his films were very good and more, when not so his films were rather eh.

Luckily, 'Wife vs Secretary' is a good example of the former. It sees all three leads on sparkling form, one can see what people saw in all three when judging them individually as actors, it was a good representation of Gable and Loy having such good chemistry together and an even better representation of Gable and Harlow's chemistry. 'Wife vs Secretary' had all the makings of a gem, and while its potential was still even bigger than it turned out not an awful lot disappoints here.

'Wife vs Secretary's' story is admittedly very slight and is also very predictable.

Have seen much better performances from Stewart, who does the best he can but has little to do and is not as into the material as the rest of the cast.

Gable is full of charisma and charm, while Loy is classy and poignant (especially in the film's latter stages) and Harlow is sass personified. All in roles tailor made for them, with equally pitch perfect support from May Robson also perfectly cast and beautifully complemented by Brown's direction. It looks beautiful too, sumptuously designed and costumed and the photography not only doesn't cheapen those qualities but it also makes all three leads look great on screen. The score doesn't intrude and matches the tone of the writing and story.

The script is snappy and intelligent as one hopes from this type of film, with some witty banter and with the more serious moments not trivalised and actually not feeling that out of date. While the story is slight and with few surprises, it still manages to not be dull and is both light-hearted and thoughtful.

In summation, not a classic but very nicely done that does not waste its stars in any way. 8/10

If this movie were made today, you wouldn't know going in whether the wife or secretary would come out on top. However, made in 1936, in the thick of the Hays Code, it's a safe bet to say the secretary doesn't successfully wreck a home without any consequences. It's actually written into the Production Code that a villain either has to see the light and repent or be killed - to show a positive role model to the audience.

Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow play the titular characters, and it takes no guessing at all to figure out which plays which. Though happily married to Myrna, Clark Gable has an "office wife" relationship with his devoted secretary, Jean. Jean's clearly in love with him, but will he really cheat on the wife of the Thin Man? You'll have to watch this quintessential 1930s view of marital life to find out. If you do, you'll see two remarkable things: Jean Harlow without her blonde hair, and James Stewart before he was famous. Jean's publicity campaign wanted to soften her bombshell image, but she really went darker because the continued platinum was starting to cause hair breakage. Jimmy plays Jean's hapless suitor, and if you know your trivia, this is the movie he famously kept messing up the takes so he'd have to keep kissing her!

It goes without saying that the best Myrna Loy movies have William Powell - but this movie has enough cast that it can virtually throw away Jimmy Stewart and still carry you along with the strength of the character performances. Clark "Big Ears" Gable is not my favorite star, but he plays the role of the loving but thoughtless husband perfectly. He believably pulls off being shrewd in business, but naive enough of his personal life to be almost innocent while looking completely guilty.

Actually, it is the pair of leading ladies that makes this movie so great - Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow. Myrna is great in everything she does - and so is Harlow. Harlow is proof that the original is nearly always the best. Anyone who has ever enjoyed a Marilyn Monroe movie is simply watching second best - Harlow was the original "blonde bombshell" - and is still the best. Her usual forte is comedy, but she nails this light dramatic role perfectly. There are times when you don't know who to cheer for - the Wife or the Secretary - and that's the movie. The whole tension rides on which of these two ladies Gable chooses - or, rather, which one the audience wants him to choose. Myrna may have been the only actress who could have given Harlow a run for her money - and Harlow may have been the only one who could challenge Myrna Loy.

Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow teamed up in another movie - "Libeled Lady" - another tour de force of casting with William Powell and Spencer Tracy along for the ride. "Lady" is a very good movie; a comedy with both drawing room and slapstick elements. This type of comedy is usually more my cup of tea, but as good as "Lady" is, "Wife vs. Secretary" is better - mainly because "Lady" doesn't let Harlow bust loose until the end of the movie.

The light touch that these two great actresses bring to "Wife vs. Secretary" offsets one of the fundamental conflicts and tragedies of life - that though we are often presented with two paths in life, we can only choose one - knowing that we will always wonder about the other....

Clark Gable gives a giddy, frisky performance as a happily-married magazine magnate in New York City who works closely but professionally with efficient though somewhat demure secretary Jean Harlow; his wife (Myrna Loy) and her fiancée (James Stewart) misconstrue the business-only relationship as something more vital, and pretty soon a subtle attraction does develop between the two workaholics during a conference trip in Havana. Carefully elongated from a women's magazine short story, the screenplay here hits on some issues regarding even satisfying marriages which are still relevant today (mostly that gossip breeds mistrust, and it can come from all corners); still, it doesn't give Gable much to do except talk fast at the office and kiss Myrna in doorways. Loy suffers rather ridiculously (after discovering her hubby took his secretary along to Havana--she thinks in place of her--Loy refuses his calls and starts dressing like a widow!), but Gable obviously enjoyed working with her. Odd to find Harlow so low-keyed (her performance is really the only surprising thing the picture offers), but a Harlow without fizz is rather like a soda gone flat--tolerable, but disconcerting. **1/2 from ****

Clark Gable stars in this comedy as Van Stanhope, a successful magazine executive who is happily married to his wife Linda(played By Myrna Loy). When Van hires a new secretary, the beautiful Whitey(played by Jean Harlow) Linda tries not to be jealous, but even Van's mother warns her that Van may stray, just like his father did, because of temptation. Despite the fact that Whitey has a boyfriend(a young Jimmy Stewart!) Linda becomes convinced that there has been an affair, which threatens to break up the marriage, despite denials... Good actors can't overcome obvious and predictable comedy that isn't funny enough to make it work either. Notable only for the cast.