O Amor é Assim

"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.

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...!

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.

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.