User reviews

Miriam Hopkins was an excellent Broadway actress who found a wonderful career in films, even if she never achieved legendary status. In this 1934 movie, she plays the richest woman in the world, undoubtedly a take-off on Barbara Hutton. Desiring to find a man who can love her for herself and not her money, she and her secretary switch identities when there's a potential suitor around.

The game gets dicey when Hopkins meets the man of her dreams, Joel McCrea, and let's face it, he was the man of many women's dreams - tall, handsome, boyish, and athletic. The story continues from there with the usual mix-ups.

As one of the posters pointed out, the secretary, played by the beautiful Fay Wray, is a married woman, which means that Hopkins is actually posing as a married woman and Wray as a single one - this is a long way of saying the film was probably released before the code hit.

Hopkins and McCrea made a good duo, and good thing, because they appeared together several times. This is a pleasant and short comedy, worth seeing for its stars and '30s ambiance.

When a movie stars Joel McCrea, you can pretty much guarantee it will be enjoyable...and so I wasn't surprised that I enjoyed this film. It's cute and enjoyable and Miriam Hopkins is quite nice as well.

When the film begins, you learn that the heiress Dorothy Hunter is a bit of an enigma. No one knows what she looks like and folks about to meet her are curious what she looks like. However, what they don't realize is that this 'Dorothy Hunter' is a fake...hired by the real one (Hopkins) because she wants to retain her privacy. This has created a problem, however. How will she meet men and how will she handle it when she meets a nice guy? Well, she gets to try this out when Tony (McCrea) enters her life. She CONTINUES to pretend to be someone else and her assistant continues to pretend to be Dorothy. The problem is that Tony finds he's falling for BOTH women!

This is a sweet film and the stars do a nice job...almost nice enough to give this one an 8. The script isn't easy to believe but the cast do their best to breath life into it.

"The Richest Girl in the World" is reclusive Miriam Hopkins (as Dorothy Hunter). She attracts men, but wonders if it is possible to find true love. After breaking off an engagement, Ms. Hopkins meets attractive Joel McCrea (Anthony "Tony" Travers) in her regular guise, pretending to be pretty secretary Fay Wray (as Sylvia). Hopkins uses Ms. Wray to switch roles, so she can play pool rather than attend business meetings. When Mr. McCrea meets Hopkins, he is quite taken, but winds up on a canoe date with Wray, instead. Hopkins and Wray's husband Reginald Denny (Phillip "Phil" Lockwood) knock their boat over. Hopkins decides to test McCrea by encouraging him to pursue "fake" heiress Wray. It sounds silly, but everyone manages to make it mildly engaging. Norman Krasna's script even received an "Oscar" nomination. Mentor Henry Stephenson (as Connors) and maid Beryl Mercer (as Marie) are also good.

****** The Richest Girl in the World (9/21/34) William A. Seiter ~ Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Reginald Denny

Thanks to a fine and intelligent script by Norman Krasna and to some very good acting, this is a very entertaining and charming little film, about a "poor" rich girl (sort of Barbara Hutton type), seeking for true, "uninterested" love.

Miriam Hopkins is very good and looks pretty as Miss Dorothy Hunter, "the richest girl in the world", and works very well for the first time (they did four more pictures in the following years) with Joel McCrea, who is thoroughly believable as a regular average guy, being (unknowingly) tested by this heiress, who's pretending to be a secretary.

Beautiful Fay Wray, who had worked with McCrea once in 1932, in the very good chiller "The Most Dangerous Game", also at RKO, is excellent as the heroine's pal and secretary, Sylvia, who has to pass as the millionairess, and old pro Henry Stephenson is just right as Hopkin's Tutor.

This nice little movie (short by to today's standards) has good pacing, real, likeable romance and some funny (not so screwballish)situations, even some pretty racy ones (due to the fact that "married" Sylvia impersonates "single" Dorothy), considering it was made in the 1930s, so I believe it must have been released before the Production Code was fully enforced in 1934.

Miriam Hopkins may be the richest girl in the world, but no one knows what she looks like. Under the direction of her guardian, Henry Stephenson, there are no pictures of her, and her secretary, Fay Wray, poses as her, even to her board of trustees, while Miss Hopkins appears to be Miss Wray, which annoys her husband, Reginald Denny. Along comes Joel Macrea, who quite obviously falls in love with Miss Hopkins, and she with him. However, he doesn't realize it, and when they discuss things, he says he expects to marry one of these days, to some nice girl, and if his bride had an immense pot of money, that would be nice. So Miss Hopkins, in a fit of self-loathing pride, pushes him to go after Miss Wray.

This was a big hit for RKO, and they remade it twice. Like many of their shows, the original is best. Among the reasons are that as society changed, the an attempt to update the themes made the movies seem irrelevant. The two ladies are absolutely gorgeous, and The under-rated Nick Musuraca's camerawork is dark and sharp, and flattering, the glossy look that RKO sought in its society comedies.

The show centers on Miss Hopkins, and director William Seiter shows a lot of the movie through her reaction shots. Hers was an odd beauty. She could look like a rubber-faced dolt in high fashion, but dress her in simple styles and no one looked more gorgeous.

In many ways this is a confluence of three talents respected at the time, but largely forgotten now. Miss Hopkins, if she is remembered, is recalled for being in Lubitsch's Trouble In Paradise; Seiter, if anyone thinks of him, for a couple of early Shirley Temple features; and almost no one thinks of Musuraca, who started as J. Stuart Blackton's chauffeur and worked through the 1960s. Just three of the innumerable talents that populated Hollywood during the Studio period.

The other people who worked on this movie were no slouches either.

Heiress Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) was left an orphan by the Titanic sinking. She is known as the Richest Girl in the World. She was raised by fellow survivor John Connors who kept her in reclusive isolation. So much so that only her inner circle knows what she looks like. When she is to meet her business managers, her secretary Sylvia Lockwood (Fay Wray) takes her place as her double. Her fiancé cancels their wedding and she's perfectly fine with it. She didn't love him anyways. After his comment, she wonders if any man would love her for her and not her money. Instead of announcing the cancellation, she continues with the engagement party where she meets Tony Travers (Joel McCrea) while pretending to be Sylvia. She keeps pushing him to woo the heiress Dorothy as a test of his real motivation. Sylvia is eager to join the ruse despite her new husband's objection.

This has some fun screwball concept. It's able to stay light and fluffy. The main issue is that Tony has to thread the needle in this movie. He has to play along with Dorothy's crazy test but he also can't play along with her. The story is actually set up for a love triangle but this movie isn't trying for one. Everything is kept light as there is never any doubt of the two leads getting together. No matter how hard Dorothy pushes, Tony is never really convincing in his pursuit of rich Dorothy. This is fine but it could have been more interesting.

Hopkins is Dorothy Hunter, the richest girl in the world who has her secretary front for her in public. Due to her wealth she is positive that she will never fall in love. Once she meets McCrea though, she falls and falls hard.. The only question - can he pass the test? Will he prefer Wray, because he thinks she's the rich one, or will he go for Hopkins, pretending to be the secretary. Charming and fun romantic comedy. Hopkins looks really lovely.

The Richest Girl in the World in 1934 meant Barbara Hutton. Her exploits made her the Paris Hilton of the day. Did anyone seriously think that by titling the lead character Dorothy Hunter that RKO wasn't trying to cash in on Hutton's reputation?

Miriam Hopkins as Dorothy Hunter is naturally concerned with both privacy and wanting to know if she would really be marrying someone for love. She's hatched a scheme with her secretary Fay Wray to in public exchange identities. But that may come to an end soon as Fay is looking to marry Reginald Denny.

But along comes Joel McCrea who's got his own ideas about supporting himself in the true McCrea tradition. Hopkins crushes out on him big time and he falls for her thinking she's the secretary.

I can't say more, but any movie fan can take this plot from here. Still the leads are at their best and the film is good entertainment.

But who was RKO kidding?

Agree with prior comments. Nice period piece that you'll see elements of other ones to come like His Girl Friday. Screenplay got Oscar nom. Fay Wray had RKO's biggest grosser King Kong previous year, 1933. Then made 11 pictures before this one in 1934! Studios really pushed their people. Of course, many were of the "play" type and of short length so the Formula could roll them along. That's both good and bad. This one does hold interest tho. Great faces on the women and high style Art Deco look.

A light comedy, in the vein of what would later be 'screwballs', with some specific detail that affects the outcome, which only a few years later, with the approval of the Hays Code, would have been censored.

Although it is a story that we have seen more times since then, the one about the rich girl who, in order to be wanted for herself, pretends to be something else, giving rise to a series of misunderstandings, is seen quite pleasantly, thanks to the good interpretations.

Despite the predictability of the plot and the fact that the characters lack some substance, it contains scenes with a certain magic every time Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea are together. The couple would later make four more films together, to take advantage of that chemistry.

Mistaken identity has always been a classic theme of comedy; many comic characters in Shakespeare or Moliere, for example, disguise themselves as somebody else, but the device is even older, dating back at least to the days of the Greek and Roman theatre. The advantage of this device is that it enables the dramatist to make the most of the ensuing confusion for humorous purposes.

The plot of 'The Richest Girl in the World' is one with which classical dramatists would have felt at home. The central character is Dorothy Hunter, the heiress to a large fortune. (The similarity of surnames suggests that the model for Dorothy may have been the Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton). She is worried that potential suitors will love her for her money and not for herself. She therefore changes places with her attractive secretary Sylvia. If any man shows an interest in the supposed 'Sylvia' (who is really Dorothy in disguise), she suggests to him that the supposed 'Dorothy' (really Sylvia in disguise) has fallen in love with him and would welcome a proposal of marriage. The real Sylvia is happily married and has no interest in any of Dorothy's suitors; the point of this charade is that if the man shows any interest in the fake 'Dorothy' he has thereby failed the test and proved himself unworthy of the real Dorothy's hand. The film chronicles Dorothy's attempts to play this trick on her latest beau, Tony.

This plot could have been the basis of an intriguing comedy, but it is not really developed well enough. This is less the fault of the actors than of the script. In this age of the turgid three-hour blockbuster it seems strange to criticise a film for being too short, but an hour and ten minutes were not sufficient to bring out all the comic possibilities of the situation, and the conclusion of the film is both rushed and muddled. (Perhaps the film was originally the B-movie in a double bill with a set, and limited, running-time, which would explain the scriptwriter's haste to get everything tidied up as soon as possible.) Dorothy's elderly guardian, Jonathan, does suggest that she may be guilty of psychological cruelty in pushing her deception of Tony so far, but the film makes no attempt to explore the deeper implications of her behaviour. Her wealth is, after all, an important part of her identity, so by posing as her own secretary she has effectively persuaded Tony to fall in love with her under false pretences. The film, however, prefers to ignore the philosophical implications of this deception.

Like many comedies of the period, this is a light film, in the sense that it is lighthearted but also in the sense that it is lightweight. Even in the era when it was made, it was probably seen as no more than an amusing trifle. It has not stood the test of time well, and today comes across as trivial and faded. 5/10

Recently jilted poor little rich girl "Dorothy" (Miriam Hopkins) is fed up always being pursued by gold-digging boyfriends and so hits on the idea, with the help of her executor "Connors" (Henry Stephenson), of swapping places with her dedicated secretary "Sylvia" (Fay Wray) and then seeing if she can't meet a man who likes her for herself. That man might just have come along in the form of "Tony" (Joel McCrea) but with the whole scenario being built on a pyramid of lies and with the real husband of "Sylvia" (Reginald Denny) getting just as confused by proceedings, this all starts to look distinctly dodgy. Now to get anything from this, you have to pretty much suspend common sense. Even in the 1930s, the identity of the heiress would never have been so easy to conceal as it appears here. Even her own board of directors don't seem to recognise their own boss. Thereafter, the film really belongs to Hopkins because she delivers quite a skilful portrayal of a selfish, spoiled and really quite unpleasant girl who coasts along through a mire of caviar and lobster completely unaware of just how fortunate she is. It does have moments of levity, usually at the hands of Denny but it's all just a little too contrived to remain very funny for long. How the other half lived!

This film's script received an Oscar nomination, casting further doubts on that award's legitimacy. It seems more like one of those films they made up as they went along.

It opens with a reporter getting a tip from a steamship employee, who acts like he's risking his job, if not his life, that Dorothy Hunter is about to arrive in New York. Despite her being "the richest girl in the world" and apparently in her twenties, it seems no one in the world has ever seen a picture of her. Reporter, his source, his editor and his newspaper thereupon disappear from the film.

Next we see Ms. Hunter at a meeting of the trustees in charge of managing her fortune, but on advice of her attorney doesn't sign their document but takes it home with her. As you've no doubt learned already, this is because she is not Ms. Hunter. Why does Ms. Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) have her secretary (Fay Wray) pretend to be her? Well, there wouldn't be much plot if she didn't. Other than that, there's no apparent reason.

For a recluse, Hunter seems to get around quite a bit and be quite sophisticated, though neither her personality nor surroundings evoke "the richest girl in the world." She has a fiance who dumps her rather cavalierly, which she treats with indifference. She throws large parties. Yet no one except her old family lawyer and presumably her ex-fiance seems to know who she is.

Then she meets Joel McCrea and falls madly in love with him, but to test him she tells him Wray, who's quite a dish, is the real Ms. Hunter and does everything possible to throw them together, including giving him money and ordering Wray to go along with the gag.

McCrea's character varies from scene to scene from naivete to cynicism to opportunism puritanism and we get no sense of why Hopkins is so smitten and desperate for him, but it's all resolved eventually, if unconvincingly.

1934 was kind of the cusp between the frankness of the pre-code movies and the sexual evasiveness of the later "screwball" comedies and this film seems unsure of which side of the cusp it's on.

Excellent cast, clever dialogue in spots. OK if you like this sort of escapist fare about the love lives of the very rich and you're not too fussy about loose ends.

I came to this film because I'd just seen its musical remake, The French Line, a campy colour affair with Jane Russell, 'presented by' Howard Hughes. The French Line isn't unwatchable, although one may want to peep through one's fingers during the cowgirl dance number, but it is outstandingly dated in terms of male-female relations. Jane Russell's richest-girl-in-the-world is warned from the start that she will put men off with her rootin' tootin' tomboyish get-up & behaviour, but it's her money and power that will really convince them she's wearing the pants.

I am mad about Joel McCrea and I like Hopkins a lot. I wanted to see what the original was like. And of course, because it's the 30s there's no such issue. Men and women can be knockabout pals, Joel McCrea is enchanted when Hopkins thrashes him at billiards, they get drunk together, fall asleep smoochily together and the happy ending is wonderfully engineered: you relax your modern PC concerns even though the penultimate scene features McCrea picking her up (protesting wildly) and (off-camera) locking her in his car. It squeaked into cinemas pre-Hays, too, so the last couple of scenes in particular are pretty racy and very funny. The two leads play beautifully together and Fay Wray is always good.

Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea do a fine job with this soap produced in the 1930s during The Depression. Audiences at the time wanted to forget about their troubles, and Hollywood fantasies like these were the perfect escape from reality.

Hopkins plays a rich heiress who hides her identity from McCrea by being an average secretary. She does this to find out if a man can care for her for more than her money. The conclusion is fairly predictable, but it is the trip, not the destination, that is important for this film.

Contemporary reviews were very positive but from a distance of almost 90 years 'The Richest Girl in the World' does not look that good. Stories of rich women who fall for relatively poor men have been told many times, and often better than here. There are two originals aspects: First, the rich girl (Miriam Hopkins) has a secretary (Fay Wray) who impersonates her to shield her from media attention, and second, she designs a number of tests to determine whether the poor man (Joel McCrea) is really in love with her or only with her money. These tests all involve pairing off Wray and McCrea in ever more extreme ways. It is this latter aspect that makes the whole story feel contrived and unconvincing. As for acting, the lead actors are all doing well. If this is an enjoyable piece of entertainment, it is because of them rather than because of the plot. However, 'The Richest Girl in the World' came out the same year as 'It Happened One Night', where Claudette Colbert was the rich girl and Clark Gable the poor man, which goes to show that Hollywood was able to tell this kind of story in much better ways than director William A. Seiter does here. The upshot is: this is a nice enough film but in no way outstanding.

Miriam Hopkins is Dorothy, wealthy head of a corporation. she's engaged to be married to Don, but she isn't sure if things are A-OK. and look at those co-stars: Joel McCrae. Henry Stephenson, Fay Wray, George Meeker. Wray had just made her HUGE splash in King Kong the year before. (how did she not get at least nominated for that?) and had good roles in Jekyll and Hyde and Heiress. british Henry Stephenson was everybody's uncle, judge, or wise old grandfather. In RIchest Girl, Dorothy switches places with Sylvia, her assistant, to try to get some privacy, a story that has been remade several times over the years. everyone else spends their time trying to get pictures of the "richest girl", who really isn't! Tony (McCrae) spends lots of time with the "assistant", and doesn't give a darn if she has money or not. but when Dorothy offers to introduce him to "the rich girl", he jumps at the chance. ahhh, the intrigue. all secrets must come out! what will happen when that occurs? it moves right along. directed by Bill Seiter. the king of comedies. had worked with some greats. check out his story on wikipedia dot com.

Actually, this was Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea's very first film together, and it worked! The chemistry between these two is very good and its a fun story. Basically, filthy rich Miriam is sooo tired of guys chasing her for her money. In a neat switch, she takes her secretary's job, becomes a working gal, and snags young and handsome Joel McCrea. This is peppered with some terrific actors, notably Fay Wray (fresh from KING KONG!) and always stuffy Henry Stephenson, among others. This is from the Late, Late Show vault that we all grew up watching and its good to see it back in circulation! This may be on dvd, or sold without the case, but keep watch for its re-issue. Recommended fluff!

Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) is the "richest girl in the world". She switches places with her secretary (Fay Wray) in order to find a man who won't just love her for her money.

I went into this thinking it was going to be a comedy. Boy, was I wrong.

The Richest Girl in the World is a dreary romance film from RKO. The script so awful (and somehow got nominated for an Oscar!), and the film squanders the talent of Miriam Hopkins. She does her best in a thankless role, but she is saddled with the uncharismatic Joel McCrea as her co-star. McCrea is a not particularly good actor at the best of times, but he's pretty awful here. This film is rather like McCrea's earlier film Chance at Heaven, where he plays a unlikable sap whom the heroine somehow falls in love with. Fay Wray and Reginald Denny are good in supporting roles.

Overall, this one's a stinker.

Richest Girl in the World, The (1934)

** (out of 4)

Miriam Hopkins plays Dorothy Hunter, the richest girl in the world who also happens to be a recluse. Mrs. Hunter always sends her secretary (Fay Wray) out to pretend to be here. One day at a party Hunter, pretending to be the secretary, meets a man (Joel McCrea) who claims that he could fall in love with a rich woman even if she didn't have money. This RKO comedy was certainly inspired by Barbara Hutton, who at the time really was the richest girl in the world. The built up love story was probably the creation of someone in the RKO front office but the end results are fairly disappointing considering the cast involved. The story itself is the biggest problem as is goes from A to B to C without anything new being done and by the time the film is over you can't help but feel as if you've witness nothing but one cliché after another. The highlight of the film would be a scene where McCrea and Wray are out in a canoe when a jealous Hopkins comes up in a large part to tip them over. This sequence was a very funny one but there aren't too many laughs after it. McCrea and Hopkins made enough films together to be charming and they do that here. The two of them bring their characters to life even though the screenplay doesn't offer them much. Wray is also pretty good in her role but again, the screenplay doesn't give you anything. In the end this is a completely forgettable movie that most people will overlook so unless you're a fan of the stars then it's best to just keep this one in the vault.