More Than a Secretary (1936) review - Jean Arthur is a total joy

If you love Jean Arthur's squeaky voice and her sharp, no-nonsense charm, you need to watch More Than a Secretary tonight. It is a total blast for anyone who misses the snappy, fast-talking comedies of the 1930s. But if you get annoyed by silly romance plots where a simple conversation would solve the whole movie in five minutes, you will probably want to throw your remote at the screen. 📺

The whole setup is beautifully ridiculous. Jean Arthur plays Carol, who runs a business school for typists. She gets tired of this health-nut magazine editor, played by George Brent, constantly firing her graduates. So she goes to his office to give him a piece of her mind.

Naturally, because this is 1936, he immediately mistakes her for someone looking for a job. And instead of saying, "Hey, I actually own a school," Carol just goes along with it because she thinks he is cute. 🤦‍♂️

George Brent is okay here, but he's playing this weirdly intense health freak who drinks raw egg yolks or whatever. He runs a magazine called Body and Soul and basically wants his secretary to be a machine. The real star is Jean Arthur, obviously. She has this amazing way of looking incredibly smart while doing something completely dumb.

There is this one scene where she's trying to take dictation while he is pacing around, and her face just says everything. She doesn't even have to speak; her eyes do all the heavy lifting.

I kept thinking about how different this is from other romantic comedies of the era, like I Take This Woman, which goes for a much heavier vibe. This one just wants to make you giggle at how absurd offices used to be back then.

Also, we have to talk about Lionel Stander. He plays this gruff associate editor who looks like he wandered in from a gangster movie. His voice sounds like he eats gravel for breakfast, and every time he is on screen, the movie gets fifty percent funnier.

There is this one incredibly weird bit where they start talking about "health foods" that sound absolutely toxic. I think they mention some kind of weird celery juice diet. It is funny how some things from the 1930s never actually changed.

The middle of the movie drags a tiny bit when the inevitable "other woman" shows up. Dorothea Kent plays this blonde who is supposed to be the "dumb secretary" stereotype. She does her best, but the character is written so thinly it feels a bit exhausting to watch.

You can feel the writers trying really hard to stretch a twenty-minute misunderstanding into a full feature. Sometimes it works, sometimes you just want them to kiss and get it over with.

Still, the dialogue has that lovely, rhythmic speed. People don't talk like this anymore, which is a shame because it is so much fun to listen to.

It is not a masterpiece, but who cares? Sometimes you just want to watch Jean Arthur roll her eyes at a handsome idiot for eighty minutes. 🤷‍♀️

A few things I wrote down:

• The sheer amount of paperwork on these desks is terrifying. How did anyone find anything?
• Lionel Stander's suit looks like it weighs about forty pounds.
• That one scene where Jean Arthur tries to look "glamorous" by putting on ridiculous makeup. It's wonderfully goofy.
• The way George Brent says "efficiency" makes it sound like a swear word.