L'ultima prova

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.

Workers are dying from a fever in the tropics. The company recruits Dr. Claybourne to go down there to find a cure. His son Chris Claybourne (Robert Taylor) is also a scientist but he's a hard-partying playboy. He encounters Rita Wilson (Barbara Stanwyck) at a casino and they have a heated romance. He owes the crooked casino $5k. In order to pay off his debt, he has to leave her for the jungle. Rita marries his brother as revenge.

First, I'm not sure that disease-hunting is such a lucrative pursuit. Second, forcing Chris to go seems like bad motivation for good work. Third, Rita's action seems out of proportion. The movie really exists to bend these characters to the will of a convoluted story. There is a broken love triangle here. It does have a couple of good stars. I don't really buy this story.

This movie ran about an hour and a half, but it seemed longer than "Gone with the Wind."

"His Brother's Wife" is the story of a playboy (Taylor) who decides to go into the jungle to find a cure for spotted fever. Before he leaves, he meets Stanwyck, and they fall in love.

That, however, doesn't keep him from wanting to leave for the jungle - and even when it does, his father talks him back into it. So off he goes, leaving a furious and heartbroken Stanwyck behind. She retaliates by marrying his brother.

This thing is all over the place, though Stanwyck and Taylor are a darling couple and have great chemistry. MGM always put too much makeup on Taylor - I'm sure he looked just great without it.

Not recommended - you can see Taylor and Stanwyck in better films.

Robert Taylor (as Chris Claybourne) is a playboy doctor who falls in love with model Barbara Stanwyck (as Rita Wilson). This is a film for Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor (he takes off his shirt as a bonus) fans only.

Otherwise, "His Brother's Wife" is an absurd movie. The opening switches around from an infested Jungle Fever… to Mr. Taylor as a seemingly alcoholic doctor… to Ms. Stanwyck playing Roulette… Then, Stanwyck and Taylor go on a prolonged date where she discovers he has a fetish for collecting and/or trading hats, which seems to disappear with his alcoholic tendencies - actually, he's an excellent doctor. Later, listen for Stanwyck to tell Taylor he smokes too much.

*** His Brother's Wife (1936) W.S. Van Dyke II ~ Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Joseph Calleia, Jean Hersholt

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.