The Hot Heiress

I happened to read about "The Hot Heiress" while looking at a list of Clarence Badger's movies, so I decided to check it out. Pretty hackneyed plot, with a construction worker catching sight of a attractive gal in an apartment across the street, so they start up a relationship, but she has to hide his working-class background from her inner circle.

I think that it's safe to say "Dirty Dancing" did a much more interesting job with this kind of story (at the very least, it wasn't a musical). While this one contains some stuff that wouldn't have been acceptable under the Hays Code, it's mostly nothing interesting.

This film is a Warner's B feature starring Ben Lyon, who never really did find his footing in talkies. Ben was probably best in Hell's Angels as the cowardly brother, Monte. Here he is quite a different sort of character. He's Hap, a riveter on the high rises going up in New York City. Hap is aptly named as he is truly a happy fellow, so happy he's given to singing while he works. Not surprisingly, the occupants of the surrounding apartment buildings do not appreciate the construction noise. Quite surprisingly, they are given to slinging disparaging comments at the workers as if that would actually make them pack up and go home.

One of the occupants of the neighboring apartments, socialite Juliette Hunter (Ona Munson), catches Hap's attention. They have a chance to meet when Hap is busy studying Juliette's finer points as she lounges in her negligee and he misses catching a red-hot rivet which lands in Juliette's bedroom. Hap and buddy Bill run over to retrieve the rivet from the apartment, and sparks fly at first meeting between Juliette and Hap. Hap knows the score, and tells Juliette they would never fit in each other's worlds. However, Juliette thinks they can make it work and meets him for a date that night. Of course, the problem isn't Juliette's broad-mindedness, it's her wealthy parents. Then of course there is Clay, the family-approved suitor for Juliette's hand who attempts to make mischief at every turn for the pair and who is played by the only actor with a sizable role in this film that you may have ever heard of - Walter Pidgeon. Thelma Todd shows up for short periods of time too as one of Juliette's friends, but she has few lines.

This is actually a nice little "feel good" film with light comic moments but nothing laugh out-loud funny, not any real melodrama, and plenty of likable characters. Even the most menacing character in the film - Pidgeon as Clay - really seems quite harmless here. This movie didn't do that well at the box office for exactly that reason - it was harmless light fun. As the Great Depression began to take its toll on the public's movie-going mood in early 1931, they preferred heavier fare such as Public Enemy.

High-rise construction worker Ben Lyon (as "Hap" Harrigan) notices "The Hot Heiress" Ona Munson (as Juliette Hunter) in an apartment window. Although he's only a common laborer, the pair fall in love. They begin dating, with Ms. Munson's snooty friends mistaking Mr. Lyon for an architect. At a swanky charity bazaar, Lyon's co-worker pal Tom Dugan (as Bill Dugan) gets drunk and reveals the truth about Lyon being poor, to Munson's romantic rival, a well-heeled Walter Pidgeon (as Clay).

Lyon, who found success with "Hell's Angels" (1930), is sure-footed on the construction beams, but not a memorable singer. The Rogers & Hart songs weren't their best. Leading lady Munson, from the stage, was most memorable as the veteran prostitute "Belle" in "Gone with the Wind" (1939). The film's staging wasn't bad for 1931, but everything else is ordinary. Lyon's character "Hap" Harrigan has nothing to do with the plainclothes adventure hero "Hop" Harrigan, who was popular in the 1940s.

**** The Hot Heiress (3/28/31) Clarence Badger ~ Ben Lyon, Ona Munson, Tom Dugan, Walter Pidgeon

Handsome Ben Lyon has never been more loose and charming than he is here as a riveter with eyes for a rich girl (Ona Munson). The songs by Rodgers and Hart are clever. The plot heats up when Munson invites Lyon and friends to her country house (which looks like a hotel) replete with huge swimming pool. Another funny bit has Munson going to a chop suey joint and clearly not having a clue about the food.

The supporting cast is top notch, with Walter Pigeon, Thelma Todd, Inez Courtney, and Tom Dugan all doing well and especially Nella Walker as the acidic mother (Oh, stop perspiring!). And while the construction scenes are all back shots, Lyon proves a nimble girder walker. He also has a good singing voice.

Lyon should have been a bigger star, but he always seemed to be cast in these B productions.

Not many musical comedies feature a riveter as the leading man. Ben Lyon is Hap Harrigan singing tunes about how only his mother loves a riveter across the steel beams he traverses with Broadway ease. He and his partner Bill Dugan, played by Tom Dugan, espy the comely Ona Munson asleep with the windows open next door in her high-rise Park Ave. apartment. Gob- smacked by this vision, Hap misses a hot rivet thrown his way and it lands in the apartment and starts a fire. Naturally, the boys hop into the apartment to save this half-naked damsel who is grateful enough to fall in love with Hap. She's out of his league, as they say, but even though she's rich, she likes the simpler things like working class muscular riveters. Rogers and Hart wrote some ditties for the picture. Inez Courtney is the most fun as Dugan's girlfriend and there's a young Walter Pigeon as the snobby alternative. Stiff and confused, he looks to be three feet taller than than everyone else. An early talkie, its still interesting even if just from an archaeological perspective. Boy and girl meet cute, love at first rivet, boy and girl break up, boy and girl end together happily.