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Although Private Number is nowhere near as gritty as Midnight Mary, it is beautifully photographed (Fox Movie Channel's print is lovely), and Loretta Young is almost as gorgeous here as she was in that awesome precode classic, certainly more beautiful than she was in the 1940's favorites The Bishop's Wife and The Farmer's Daughter.

Loretta looks especially beautiful with Robert Taylor in Private Number; they make a gorgeous couple. Did they ever have a romance off screen? They looked perfectly suited to one another physically.

Favorite scenes take place up at a lake in Maine, although I can't understand why Loretta's character leaves her friend the maid's character (played with pizazz by Patsy Kelly) alone naked on the shore (friend had lost bathing suit in the water). Loretta, instead of helping her, takes off with Robert Taylor's character on his boat, abandoning her friend. I'd never do that to my friend!. In fact that was the most annoying thing to me about the film: Patsy Kelly was always supporting Loretta and Loretta never did anything to repay her.

Basil Rathbone was downright scary as the butler. He was colder and more frightening here than he was with Greta Garbo in Anna Karenina, and that's saying a lot! I like the way Loretta shudders in the beginning after she first meets the butler. It made me laugh. Listen to your instincts, girl, leave! But no, she's coaxed into staying by Patsy Kelly's character, Gracie.

Monroe Owsley has a small but impressive role as James Coakley, a weak scoundrel on the make. He was to die only a year later after a car crash. Jane Darwell and Billy Bevan put in appearances as servants. Marjorie Gateson did well in the role of Robert Taylor's mother. Also worthy of note is the beautiful large dog, Prince, played by "Hamlet". I would love to have an affectionate dog like that! I wonder who his trainer was? He was adorable. When he puts his paw up on Loretta at one point to comfort her, I sighed "Awwwwww!" 8 out of 10 stars.

In a film that was primarily a vehicle for Loretta Young, I'm guessing that Darryl Zanuck did not want to use his favorite leading man Tyrone Power in this remake of Common Clay. Power and Young did do several films together in the Thirties, but they were either equal vehicles or Power predominated. So Zanuck got the services of Robert Taylor who was the MGM equivalent of Power for Private Number.

Or it's possible that Power also took a look at the script and realized that the part Basil Rathbone had would be a show stealer. Or that Basil Rathbone would make it one as the villainous and lecherous butler is the kind of role Rathbone could really sink his teeth into.

Certainly the part is out of the Snidely Whiplash tradition of villains. Rathbone is the tyrannical butler who rules the house servants with an iron hand including 20% kickbacks on their salaries of which the clueless masters Paul Harvey and Marjorie Gateson know nothing and for reasons I can't figure out no one is telling them or complaining. The only who raises her voice to Rathbone is cook Jane Darwell.

When Loretta Young arrives looking for work, Rathbone in true stage villain tradition is willing to forget the kickback for other considerations. But Young catches the eye of Robert Taylor as Harvey's and Gateson's son. They marry in secret and Young keeps her pregnancy a secret for as long as she can.

With Rathbone playing Iago as well as Snidely Whiplash to the parents they move for an annulment. It all gets rather messy in court, but of course it all works out for the course of true love.

Young is certainly beautiful and who wouldn't fall for her. Only toward the end is Taylor given anything to do that requires any real acting on his part. Patsy Kelly playing Patsy Kelly is also fine as Young's best friend. But the one you will really remember from Private Number is Basil Rathbone.

I caught this film for the very first time,as I can remember,on Fox Movie Channel.The lead actor was listed as Tyronne Power instead of Robert Taylor.I don't know whether the fault lies with TV Guide or the cable channel.Maybe both.

I enjoyed watching a young Loretta Young,one of my favorites.The storyline deals with a maid who falls in love,marries and has a baby for her employers son.Basil Rathbone,another one of my favs,plays the wicked butler who cooks up a devilish plot to have her arrested and and discredited in the eyes of her employers and fired.

This old black and white charm took me way back to my childhood days watching Ms Young's television show with similar stories.Released way back in the 1930's,it is a jewel of a picture.

Can you believe TV Guide even had it listed as a comedy?

"Private Number" is a nice little romantic picture about love between the haves and have nots. Representing the latter is lovely Loretta Young, a penniless young woman who decides to apply for a job as a maid and on the other side is handsome Robert Taylor, who happens to be the son of the wealthy couple who employ her. Back home from college for the summer, Taylor presumes Loretta is one of the guests for the party welcoming him home but even after discovering her actual status is bewitched enough by her beauty to still pursue her. Looking on with malice is head butler Basil Rathbone who wants Loretta for himself (his creepy demeanor and malevolent running of the house staff cancels any possibility Loretta would want him). Taylor persuades Young to secretly marry him, planning to announce their marriage after graduation. Trouble is Loretta with child while he is away at school, leading a jealous Rathbone scheme to destroy her relations with the family.

Robert Taylor was only a year into his stardom when this film was made in 1936 and he is once again in the type of role he specialized in at the time, the dashing young heir pursuing a young woman in a Cinderella romance but one that has turns with misunderstandings and mistrust. It's almost the same story as "Small Town Girl", a better picture he also made that year. On loanout here to 20th Century-Fox, the MGM hunk was the undisputed heartthrob of the moment and among the top five box office stars (he would have been unrivalled in the late 1930's had Fox not quickly developed their own matinee idol in Tyrone Power later that year.) Taylor's very good but since Loretta Young was a Fox contractee, her character dominates the story. Gentle and graceful, Loretta was a moderately talented actress very capable in light stories like this one.

The supporting cast is hit and miss. Earthy chatterbox Patsy Kelly steals the film as Loretta's best friend, one of the family's other maids, and the excellent, elegant character actress Marjorie Gateson is quite good as Taylor's mother, taking a shine to Loretta early on and making her a personal maid. Basil Rathbone, alas, was always unsubtle when playing a villain and here he's such a creep it's hard to believe the family would ever believe he was looking out for their best interests. Paul Harvey was also a little excessive as Taylor's father. On the other hand, the underrated Monroe Owsley, is a bit of a surprise. Always cast as untrustworthy dalliances for movie queens (Stanwyck, Mae West, etc.) here he comes across a believable nice guy. We (and Loretta!) should have known better! Kane Richmond, a Robert Taylor type for B movies in that era, has a brief role as the family's chauffeur.

The film audaciously has many parallels with Loretta Young's private life, one wonders if the studio had concocted this little story to put some confusion in the public re speculation about her private romances, as if the public hearing the Hollywood whispers might conclude it was all just a movie plot. Unwed Loretta had just given birth to Clark Gable's child which much of Hollywood suspected but it was never acknowledged until the 1990's when Loretta was near the end of her life. In this movie, Loretta has to fight an annulment so that her baby will remain "legitimate". If that's not nervy enough, how about a scene where Patsy Kelly rhapsodizes about Clark Gable's screen sex appeal to which Loretta whole-heartedly agrees!

"Private Number" is basically just a pleasant but unremarkable romantic drama, the screen equivalent to a paperback romance novel but with beautiful stars and a smooth production to hold your interest.

Loretta Young stars with Robert Taylor in "Private Number" from 1936, also featuring Basil Rathbone, Patsy Kelly, Marjorie Gateson, Paul Harvey, Monroe Owsley, and Jane Darwell.

Young plays Ellen, a new employee at the fabulous Winfield mansion, working as a personal maid to Mrs. Winfield (Gateson). She immediately catches the eye of the cruel, lecherous butler Wroxton (Rathbone) who tells her that things will go well for her if she cooperates and is accommodating.

One night, there's a big party going on when who should sweep in but the young man of the house, Richard (Taylor). Hmm...Loretta Young...Robert Taylor. I wonder what happens.

Ellen's best friend on the staff is Gracie (Patsy Kelly). The two of them go out one evening, but Ellen loses all of her money. A man (Owsley) offers her a ride home. He takes her instead to an illegal gambling parlor which is raided. Ellen, who never entered the gambling part, hides behind a door and is caught and arrested. She has to call Wroxton to bail her out. He files that away for future use.

Ellen and Richard find their mutual attraction too strong and start to see one another on the sly. He proposes marriage before he goes away to finish college. She feels him marrying beneath his station is a big mistake for him, and his family will not approve.

Taylor, an MGM actor, must have been on loan to 20th Century Fox. At that point, the studio was still in its infancy - Tyrone Power wouldn't come along until 1936, Richard Greene until 1938, and John Payne even later. I always felt they put too much makeup on Taylor, and he didn't need it. He and Young make a beautiful and sympathetic couple.

Young was simply gorgeous, about 22 years old then. Patsy Kelly to me always yelled her lines. Rathbone was terrific, absolutely hateful, as Wroxton.

Enjoyable.

This movie has its charms, but it cannot be a "Pre-Code gem," since it came out two years after the Code clampdown kicked in.

It's a little sappy, actually -- it'd have been much better if it HAD been made during the Pre-Code era.

But I do agree that Loretta Young's delightful in it.

This is a nice variation on "Cinderella" , some kind of optimistic "Waterloo bridge" (but whereas Robert Taylor was the handsome noble;Vivien Leigh was a commoner with a racy past ).

Robert Taylor is a Prince Charming every girl dreams of, Loretta Young is a gorgeous Cinderella with bright shiny eyes and teeth which would be ideal for toothpaste advertisements .The nasty stepmother is male : it's the perfidious obnoxious butler ,who rules the servants with a rod of iron;Basil Rathbone is an excellent villain ; and there's the good fairy :Gracie ,the servant with a heart of gold , superbly played by lively Patsy Kelly ( later ,the famous Laura -Louise in "Rosemary's baby " ,with her horrible glasses).

One of those typical, well-made mid-thirties romances that after five minutes you'll think you've seen before even if you haven't. Did the studios had a legal obligation to make this same story at least four times a year?

Twentieth Century Fox had only just set up shop so churning out formulaic, tried and trusted melodramas like this would ensure that some revenue would fill the coffers. There's no question that this is superbly put together but its tired storyline makes this instantly forgettable.

Previously in the early thirties dozens of great films - some actually with Miss Young - used this story but by the time this was made, all Hollywood films had to adhere to the strict morality code that had just been introduced. It wasn't just the restrictions and censorship of the code however which made this film so same and tame.

Those old pre-code pictures had an energy and a confidence that's just not the same after 'the normal way of making films' seemed to be universally adopted. Some of the acting in the very early thirties was sometimes too theatrical but that experimental age gave us melodramas loaded with ten tonnes of incendiary emotion that was designed to explode inside us. The sense of outrage we feel in, for example: SHE HAD TO SAY YES etc. Had by 1936 been replaced by a safe, fireside and cozy mode of storytelling. If this had been made a couple of years earlier, it would have had much more kick.

Nevertheless this isn't a bad film - it's just very, very normal. If you simply want to look at Loretta Young in a maid's outfit or in a pretty dress or in a hat or in a car then this ticks that box. Whilst I'd probably be perfectly content to do that for quite a few hours, I doubt I'd watch this again.

Ellen (Loretta Young) arrives at a mansion seeking work as a domestic. Although she has no previous experience and normally wouldn't have been hired, the cruel head butler (Basil Rathbone) thinks she's a hot tomato and hires her--presumably so he can one day have his way with her. However, the unexpected happens...the son of the family she now works for soon falls for her. Richard (Robert Taylor) is very persistent and eventually they begin seeing each other on the sly. It becomes serious...so serious that he wants to marry her. But if she does, will the family accept her? And what about the cruel head butler? He's not the sort to just give up...especially when he has something he can blackmail her with should he choose to do so.

This is a very interesting film when you realize how tall Basil Rathbone was in real life. He wasn't a small guy...but here the director must be manipulating perspective to make him look much taller and more menacing. So, while he's only less than two inches taller than Robert Taylor, he towers over him...and everyone else. This was actually a smart move and really made him seem all the more awful!

So is this any good? Well, considering the actors, it couldn't help but be very good. Young and Taylor are very good but Rathbone steals the show with his shear awfulness...he really was a terrific villain. Also, in a small role, Monroe Owsley was AMAZING as a pusilanimous jerk...and his courtroom scene is one of the best I've seen in some time. Too bad Owsley died the following year. Well worth seeing and satisfying all around.

Loretta Young is hired as a servant. The son of the family for whom she works is Robert Taylor. Of course, they fall in love. But the scenes in which the two kiss do not support this idea: They hug and nuzzle each other's necks. Possibly there is one brief kiss on the mouth. But these two give no sense of being more than cousins -- and cousins who don't like each other much, at that.

The movie, however, is entertaining. It has a superb supporting cast. Basil Rathbone is deliciously evil as the tyrannical butler who has design on Young. Patsy Kelly is fun (albeit rather bland, toned-down fun) as another servant who befriends her.

The title is a puzzle. I may have missed something. But whose number is private?

Private Number starts off strong and interesting and remains so until the near ending. It's one of those stories where all kinds of hubris, angst, and courtroom drama unfold simply because the two leads refuse to have a simple 10 minute conversation that could easily and readily clear things up. Yes, I know that is a device to create drama and tension but here it only served to annoy me. Especially when having that very brief conversation could improve your life so completely. Anyway, Young and Taylor are very good as the young lovers and Rathbone is excellent as the bad guy. Despite my issues with the near ending of Private Number it's still fairly entertaining and one worth checking out.

Down on her luck "Ellen" (Loretta Young) arrives at "Winfield Manor" seeking a position. She's completely unqualified, but butler "Wroxton" (Basil Rathbone) takes a bit of a shine to her and so she gets a job anyway. Indeed, fairly swiftly she is the personal maid to the lady of the house - but it's the son "Richard" (Robert Taylor) who really catches her eye, and she his. What can they do though - she's a mere servant and he is from the bluest of New York blood? Well they pretend it's Elizabethan times and marry in secret, but that's not their biggest one of those and when the intensely jealous "Wroxton"" finds out, he proceeds to make things distinctly awkward for the couple and for his family. With the odds stacked against them, and misunderstandings galore going on, it's going to be tough for them to remember that they were/are/might still be in love! It's all a bit predicable as far as the story goes, but there's quite an effective on-screen malevolence from an on-form Rathbone, there's also an amiable chemistry between Young and a Taylor who looks much younger than his actual 25 years, and we've even a tiny slice of courtroom duplicity at the end to round things off. Never mind a woman scorned, worry about the butler...!

Dick..!.....Dick!...... Ha ha. Robert Taylor plays a wealthy son called Dick who falls in love with his mother's maid, Loretta Young (Ellen). However, the evil butler Basil Rathbone (Wroxton) also has his eyes on her. And if he can't have her, he is intent on bringing her down. He has a plan to outwit these two lovebirds.....

As has already been mentioned by other reviewers, the first half is better than the second. This is simply because Basil Rathbone has more screen time. He is one severe disciplinarian, the type of teacher you were terrified of at school. An excellent performance.

Unfortunately, the film starts to drift away when Rathbone isn't around and the whole premise is just so stupid. Loretta Young obviously models herself on Joan Collins whilst her friend in-service Patsy Kelly (Gracie) just gets more and more irritating as the film progresses - what a horrible intonation she has.

Still, the film is ok if you look past the ridiculous story - Joan Collins - I mean Loretta Young - would have just been honest about the escapade in the club when she and Taylor hooked up. They also would have come clean to the parents of Taylor. It's obvious. Anyway, listen out for lots of people calling out "Dick!", "Dick!" - ha ha. God knows what the title means.

This is a lovely 1930s film (1936 so not a pre-Code, despite some elements sneaked past the censors), with one of the most beautifully shot romances of cinema in this era.

Both stars - Loretta Young and Robert Taylor - are of course radiant on screen, and the plot is sweet, never getting overly melodramatic. It's also reasonably plausible for film plots of this era (divorce lawyers may have some bones to pick with the court scene, but for a lay audience, it's fine).

At the end of the film it turns out that Loretta Young's character is supposed to be 17. That's possibly the least plausible aspect, since she looks and comes across as far more sophisticated - she was 22/23 when she filmed this.

The supporting cast are wonderful here too: others have commented on Basil Rathbone's sinister and villainous butler, but Patsy Kelly deserves a mention as the sparky friend.

Very enjoyable and lovely to watch.

This is actually quite a good film. It starts off with Loretta Young being interviewed by a butler (Basil Rathbone). He offers her the job even though she has no experience. She thanks him for the offer, walks out and tells the maid that she's not going to take the job because she finds him sleazy. The maid persuades her to take the job and they become friends.

Loretta, however, seems to be a bit dim as she loses her handbag and her money is stolen. After a brawl in a restaurant that her maid friend takes her to, she ends up being arrested in a gambling joint and gets a police record. Rathbone bails her out and uses it against her later on in the film.

Rathbone puts in a good performance as a butler playing a subservient position to Robert Taylor. He presents himself as quite stiff, but the character is well drawn in the writing.

When Taylor strikes up a romance with Young the pace of the film starts to drop off. It is Rathbone's character that makes this film interesting especially his interaction with Young. He may be playing a sleazy character, but that's what the film is about. Not the Taylor-Young romance.

"Private Number" is a most enjoyable film that may be largely unknown among most buffs of older films today. But it has a very pleasing cast , good dialog, beautiful sets and costuming, a dastardly Basil Rathbone, the beautiful voice of a young Robert Taylor, and the gloriously glistening eyes of Miss Loretta Young. How did they do that with her eyes? She was such a fine and watchable actress, her performance here nuanced and anticipatory in her give and take with the troupe, even though the production was likely on a conveyor-belt schedule. It isn't one of the all-time great films, but it is a very good and worthwhile one. The film's subject matter may have even made a lot of those in the 1936 movie audiences a bit uncomfortable.

Roy Del Ruth delivers another firecracker entertainment. Loretta Young is a gorgeous, working girl along the lines of Ann Sothern's Maisie character. She rightfully wins the love of rich boy Robert Taylor with support from a feisty Patsy Kelly and interference from a deliciously snakey Rathbone. There's a perverse sexual undercurrent in Rathbone's performance that's a joy to watch. A pre-code gem!

A cliche I know, but they don't make them like this any more. A movie where every scene is a delight and moves the plot along at a helathy pace. Loretta Young looked about 30 although she was playing a 17 year old and Robert Taylor was suitably dapper. But Basil Rathbone stole the show for me. With modern slavery rife in modern times, it has been around in different guises for many generations. What a beast Rathbone's charachter is and yet he plays it with a stuck up nose and an authority daring anybody to challenge him. Interesting movie that was just an absolute delight.