User reviews

"My Dear Secretary" is an odd film, as the first and last portions of the film vary so much in quality. The first is brisk and funny--the second is very slow and completely different. It's too bad because if the film could have maintained its pace, it would be an excellent and enjoyable picture. Instead, it's just frustrating to watch.

The film begins with Laraine Day being hired as a secretary to a successful writer. She's excited by this but her excitement soon wanes as she sees that her new employer (Kirk Douglas) is a very immature and undisciplined guy. Again and again, instead of working on his book, he takes the secretary and his friend (Keenan Wynn) out gambling and on spur of the moment vacations!

Despite this portion of the film being hard to believe, it was quite funny--particularly for Wynn, who provided wonderful support. However, completely out of the blue, Day (who is rather conservative) marries Douglas--a wedding that makes absolutely no sense at all. And, as if the unlikelihood of the pairing also threw the writer, the film just languished and stopped being funny. Instead, the marriage soon begins to fizzle and Douglas' attempt to write his next great novel seems to be a bust. There's more to it than this--including Day becoming a great writer herself and a divorce--but none of it made much sense or kept my interest.

Rarely have I seen such an uneven film. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did and can say it's, at best, just an amiable time-passer and nothing more.

The stars of this movie are supposed to be Kirk Douglas and Laraine Day, but it's worth saying right off the top that the movie is worth watching primarily for Keenan Wynn's hilarious performance as Ronnie Hastings. He really is the one who makes this movie.

Ronnie is a neighbour of and assistant to author Owen Waterbury (Douglas.) After writing a best-seller, Waterbury gives a lecture to a writing class and meets Stephanie Gaylord (Day.) Waterbury offers Gaylord a job as his secretary, and she accepts, but what she didn't know is that Waterbury's secretaries don't last very long. He's a bit of a playboy type, and he and Hastings always insist on a certain "type" of secretary (ie, extremely cute) and most of them don't take very kindly to being hit on as soon as they walk through the door.

Basically, this movie deals with the evolution of the relationship between Waterbury and Day. Both play their parts very well, but, as I said, the show is stolen by Wynn right from the beginning, and it all leads up to an ending (again with Wynn as the comedic centrepiece) that I didn't see coming, particularly given what seemed to be Ronnie's taste in women.

All in all, it's good, clean entertaining comedy, with a plot that admittedly gets a little bit tired by the end, but still there's quite a few laughs here. 7/10

An overlooked and underrated gem in the genre of American Screwball comedy, "My Dear Secretary" pits Kirk Douglas and Laraine Day together in a romantic battle of the sexes set against the literary world of the 1940's. The script, complex in its plot as one expects from these brilliant comedies from that era, is flawless, and the performances by Day and Douglas, who demonstrates an early knack for comedic acting sorely underused in most of his later films, are solid. It is Keenan Wynn however as Douglas' wisecracking best friend who does a great deal of scene stealing in one of his most memorable roles. A shame Kirk Douglas claimed a lack of affection for this picture in his autobiography as it is a real treat to watch him in this type of film. Made by low key United Artists at a time when screwball comedy was winding down, it is not hard to see why this picture was overlooked then and is all but forgotten now. In the shadow of the more famous Cary Grant and Roselind Russell et al comedies it is nevertheless an intricate and finely tuned piece of screwball which deserves better recognition. Look for it at the video store, you will pleasantly surprised. And while you're there check out "A Lady Takes a Chance" with Jean Arthur and John Wayne, another sadly under-appreciated comedy from the 40's.

This was much funnier than I expected it to be. I had never heard of it, but it was included in a collection of "Comedy Classics" bought cheap at a dollar store. Most of the movies were dreadful, but this was one the a few that were good.

One doesn't usually think of Kirk Douglas as funny but he is in this. Irene Ryan is, also, and her character bears little resemblance to Granny. Perhaps the funniest in the cast is Keenan Wynn, who delivers some of the best lines in the movie with great flair. Some of the minor characters also very enjoyable.

The writing is also very clever and witty. Great lines abound all around.

The hitherto under-publicised film; My Dear Secretary (1949) illustrates that lead film stars were often there as a marketing tool such as in this example of Kirk Douglas, while the real talents were the character actors, such as in the case of the multi talented Keenan Wynn - see this versatile actor in his highly adept sinister role in Kind Lady (1951). In other words Wynn is the driving force of this film as opposed to the star attraction. In this film Wynn is the comedic talent to the drab cliché straight man role of Douglas'.

Douglas here plays the role of Owen Waterbury, the egotistical writer with a misogynistic womanising streak. In this respect it could be said that Douglas was playing himself. This egotistical persona was merely exacerbated for Douglas' later heroic roles such as in Spartacus (1960). Like his role in Sparticus, in My Dear Secretary,Douglas likes to show off his masculine torso when he puts his shirt on minus vest. This is somewhat of a tribute to Clarke Glable's famous vestless scene in; It Happened One Night (1934).

Douglas' role of the writer Waterbury uses the secretarial school as a licence to his womanising ways, making passes at them and auditioning them for the role of wife, of which is eventually awarded to Stephanie Gaylord (Laraine Day) who plays his bland, docile, door mat wife. That is until she comes into her own with her own award winning novel. This culminates in the roles being reversed as Waterbury becomes the subordinate partner in their marriage. In this respect the film's denouement was ahead of its time, illustrating women as not only a success in their own right, but as the matriarchal head of the family.

Though the acting parts of Douglas and Day were stereotypically bland, the supporting cast are outstanding in their respective roles. This is especially attributed to Wynn. He alone makes the film a must see. Of course, the great Irene Ryan (Mary, the housekeeper) is adept at scene stealing in her minor role.

In sum, this is a film of talented characters with bland stars.

The plot here is just silly and inane, but you HAVE to watch this one for all the big, stupendous names. Florence Bates, (the landlord), Laraine Day, Grady Sutton (was in all those W.C. Field films), Kirk Douglas, singer Rudy Vallee, and of course Granny from Beverly Hillbillies (Irene Ryan) is the sarcastic maid. Girl (L. Day) is in the right place at the right time, and thinks it will be fun to be secretary to famous writer Owen Waterbury (Douglas), but nothing ever goes as planned. Story just goes all around the mulberry bush (there's an old saying)... but it's fun to watch the big names, as they got even bigger in hollywood. Subplot where "Stephanie" the NEW secretary observes as the previous secretary storms around and takes back all her belongings from Waterbury. kind of turns into a competition. This one is pretty good; currently showing on "Midnight Movies" channel. Picture quality is iffy... but sound is pretty good. Could probably use a restoration if there were demand for it. Some fun stars in the early hay days of hollywood, having fun. Directed by Charles Martin; not a lot of info on him.. had written and directed a few things, but not so many. Catch it if you can!

My Dear Secretary proved one thing in the career of Kirk Douglas, comedy was not his strength.

Kirk Douglas has made a career of playing dramatic and egotistical heels, but in this case the director didn't keep him under control. I could not believe that Owen Waterbury could have anyone other than himself fall in love with him.

Plot such as it is has Laraine Day as a student becoming enthralled with writer Kirk Douglas's lecture at her night school and then going to work as his secretary. She's a budding writer also and I think you can see where the rest of this film is going.

There are some nice performances from some of the supporting players. One has to single out Keenan Wynn as Douglas's neighbor and partaker in merriment.

If My Dear Secretary was done today, Wynn's character would be openly gay instead of it just being hinted at. As it is, he camps it up to beat all the Boys in the Band.

Although it might not seem like it at first, My Dear Secretary is a great movie to watch if you're a feminist. Kirk Douglas plays a successful romance novelist known for his womanizing ways. It's the same routine every time he gets a new secretary, until he hires Laraine Day. She starts her new job with a little crush, that fades fast when she sees what kind of man he really is. He insists she work nights, suggests she move into his apartment, and when she tries to get him to work, he keeps making passes!

Parts of this movie are absolutely hilarious, with the endless antics involving Kirk's roommate Keenan Wynn and their attempts to dodge their landlady Florence Bates. Parts are a little quirky, and it's easy to imagine Charles Martin's script adapted into a play. Kirk and Keenan bounce off each other's comic timing wonderfully, and it's nice to see Kirk in a comedy, since he usually made such heavy dramas. If you like quirky, slightly silly romantic comedies with a heart of gold, be sure and rent My Dear Secretary with your girlfriends.

Where has this movie been hiding all my life? Picked it up cheaply mainly to see what a young Kirk Douglas was like, not being a particular fan of his much acclaimed later work. This is a screwball comedy that is really funny, not just because of the situations but with jokes too. I sat wide eyed through much of this barely able to believe what was being said, was indeed being said. Douglas is great and Laraine day fine but Keenan Wynn, perhaps a little influenced by Grouch Marx, is fantastic. Some really great lines and gags and only a little slapstick, mainly surrounding his attempts at domesticity. No boring passages, this is a solid romp from start to finish.

PS Just one thing, my copy is a PAL Region '0' Dynamic Entertainment release on DVD and has a poor snowy picture and a barely tolerable 'ringing' soundtrack. There seem to be various 'public domain' releases, does anyone know of a decent copy?

Steve Gaylord (Laraine Day) has a stupid name. It's a man's name but she's a woman. Anyway, she gets a job as a secretary to best-selling author Owen (Kirk Douglas). However, Owen has no real need for a secretary and uses this position as an excuse to date lots of women with his annoying, hanger-on friend, Ronnie (Keenan Wynn). Secretaries are constantly coming and going. Indeed, Steve - who is a woman - also quits as Owen's secretary only to marry him and write her own best-selling book. Complications and misunderstandings follow before the film finally finishes.

The film is meant to be a comedy. Well, it's just not funny. The plot is ridiculous as we have Steve (who is a woman!) falling in love with Owen and marrying him at the same time as not liking him. She's about to marry Charles (Rudy Vallee) and then she's suddenly in love with Owen after so obviously wanting to see the back of him. It's a nonsense. The story is also very contrived as we have an ending with Steve mirroring the scenes that Owen played out with her at the start of the film. It's all so very obvious.

There is also a fault with the cast. While Laraine Day is mainly good in her role, despite being schizophrenic when it comes to the affairs of the heart - more to do with poor story construction, Kirk Douglas tends to overact. His reactions are over-the-top at times and not believable. His side-kick, Keenan Wynn is extremely annoying with his constant unfunny wisecracks. What exactly is his role? I suspect it is to be funny. He's not. Irene Ryan has a role as a housekeeper "Mary" and she, too, fails to come up to scratch by providing absolutely NO humour. The best character is "Felicia" played by Virginia Hewitt a Veronica Lake look-a-like who wants to break into movies and has the funniest scene in the film. She plays a complete moron very well. It's the ONLY humorous part of the film.

Don't bother with this film unless you want silly. Keenan Wynn wisecracks his way through the film, so of course, on a couple of occasions there is a good line. But it really is not good enough.

The plot has potential on paper, but can't quite hold up on screen, despite its fun, lighthearted feel.

The main characters are horribly mismatched. Although they do have a lot in common: both are far too stubborn for their own good, with nasty tempers and both need to grow up, especially him.

The movie's saving grace, though, is Ronnie, the sidekick. He's tremendous fun! :)

I wouldn't suggest making an evening of it, but if you have some spare time to kill and don't have too high of expectations, it'll give you a few laughs.

This movie was not horrible, but was no where near as good as it could have been.

The settings and costumes were dull, and the actors had zero chemistry, with the exception of a woefully underused Irene Ryan. Even the weirdo sidekick , normally my absolute favourite type of character, did nothing to save this movie. Most of the plot points also left something to be desired. Owen refusing to ever actually write anything was not only not believable, it was also not funny. The marriage was completely nonsensical, and shifted gears from badly done screwball comedy to badly done romantic drama.

As others have said, it all just dragged on from there.

One of my favorite comedies because of the character actors. Keenan Wynns very best droll efforts as the songwriting best friend and neighbor of Kirk Douglas; Florence Bates, a busybody as the owner of the apartment building where they live; Irene Ryan, the building maid who sings "Sniff, sniff where's your handkerchief; kerchoo, kerchoo, gazundheidt to you; Let yourself go and blow; Oh, let youself go and blow" Wynns latest song; Helen Walker, one of Kirks secretaries; Rudy Vallee, as Day's former boss; and Alan Mowbray as the dense detective Kirk hires to watch Day.

As in all screwball comedies, the story is just a framework for the characters to do and say their funny business. And they don't dissapoint. Douglas is a writer who has had a successful first novel and goes to a college to give a class and meets Day who is there as a student, and he hires her as his new secretary. When she arrives the next day, after quitting as Vallee's secretary, Walker goes up in the elevator with her to retrieve her belongings because she has just quit as the last secretary. It gets crazier as Wynn answers the door and receives a slap from the mother of one of the girls Kirk has just interviewed, which he immediately passes on to Kirk. Wynn spends most of his time at Kirks trying recipes which he is hilarious preparing, but no one ever dreams of eating.

More complications and silly goings on but it is all fun and is still one of my favorite videos, which I just watched again today. My rating: 8/10.

I found this video in a dollar store one day, so I don't know if it can be found in a video store, but if you can find it, it is a lot of fun! Irene Ryan (before she was known as Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies) is funny. The running gags in this movie make this a real treat.

Incredibly lousy attempt at a screwball comedy. I'm surprised Kirk Douglas' career wasn't nipped in the bud after this fiasco. Was there a writer's strike? Because it was so poorly written as to seem an intentional satire of what a lousy movie should be. How this load was shoveled into theaters across the country is beyond my comprehension.

This movie has great actors and a great premise, but that's it. The first 20 minutes are promising, but the film falls apart after that. The story and screenplay are confused and the direction heavy handed. Both the script and direction end up as tone-deaf. The film tries to be a lighthearted romantic comedy, but is a jumbled mess. There is no chemistry between the leads and the plot shifts are forced and unnatural. The bits that are supposed to be half-serious, to set up plots changes, come across as serious indeed, and break the attempts at comedy. Keenan Wynn's continuing gags are unfunny and the kitchen scenes particularly so.

Owen Waterbury (Kirk Douglas) is a bestselling novelist and lecturer. Ronnie Hastings is his best friend, enabler, and roomate. Aspiring writer Stephanie 'Steve' Gaylord (Laraine Day) attends his lecture. He hires her as his secretary. Her rose-colored glasses are soon lifted as she becomes disillusioned by his womanizing, chaos, and partying ways.

My print is not the sharpest. Despite the low-res quality, I still wanted to see this for Kirk Douglas. He's not the most well-known for light rom-com. It's not the best use of his skills. This movie has Steve spending more time with Ronnie than with Owen during the first act. Owen is more aloof and inattentive than anything else. It's his world and she's trying to live in it. I wonder if Ronnie needs a much smaller role. That may force Owen to deal with Steve more closely early on. As this movie stands, I'd rather have her end up with the temperamentally-similar Ronnie. The middle has a generally fun tone and I guess that's enough. The bad turn tries to generate conflict. The main problem is that I never bought into the relationship. So it's hard to buy into the breakup. The tone change from comedy to seriousness doesn't really work either. It's interesting to see Kirk Douglas try but I don't think he succeeded.

Every line is a gag in this hilarious romp with Kirk Douglas, Laraine Day, Keenan Wynn and a great support cast. Watching this, and most other comedy romances of the 30s through 50s, it's easy to understand how so many movie fans can conclude that they don't make movies that can compare today.

Laraine Day was known mostly for her dramatic roles over the years, including some pretty good film noir. And, Kirk Douglas was more of an action and dramatic actor. But both are good in this comedy in descending straight roles for the running dialogue of wit and wisecracks carried off mostly by Keenan Wynn. The script was excellent and the combination of characters brought it all together nicely for one big hoot of a good time.

It's hard to understand the low average rating for this film. With only 350 votes as of the time of my comments, I have to conclude that, except for the few other commentors who saw the great humor, most viewers to date just don't like comedy. Or worse -- they may be modern movie mavens who don't recognize real humor. Perhaps the dialogue is over the heads of the crowds that only recognize constant blurs of mayhem, noise and motion.

Given time, and perhaps some more daytime or late night TV airing, this gem of a comedy may catch the eye and tickle the funny bone of more living and breathing humans. If you're one of those, I heartily recommend "My Dear Secretary" for an afternoon or evening of good laughs.