The strangely named producer Leo C. Popkin made Ma chère secrétaire (1948) as an independent feature released through United Artists and, after paying for up-and-coming stars for the film, did not have much left over for the sets which seem cramped and leave the movie with a "filmed play" look. After its release, Popkin's epic went into the public domain.
When previous secretary is grabbing her possessions as she quits, she snatches a small statuette from the piano, exclaiming "my aujourd' hui", which is an adverb meaning (loosly) "nowadays". What should have been used is "my objet d'art" meaning a small work of art which isn't a painting. Might have been a joke by the playwright to indicate the departing secretary thought she was more sophisticated than she really was.
The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
Ma chère secrétaire (1948) was the initial producing effort of Harry M. Popkin for United Artists release.
According to a report in Modern Screen magazine in October 1948, there were considerable arguments on the set between Harry M. Popkin and Laraine Day.
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