I first caught a glimpse of this film on a Sunday morning on a local independent station. The film was abruptly pre-empted for a college wrestling match or something. Until recently I was not able to revisit this film in it's entirety, but I remembered one thing that stood out, Evalyn Knapp. She is a mixture of silent actress Bessie Love and talkies Jean Harlow and Barbara Stanwyck. The obvious attraction to this film today is the presence of John Wayne in the male lead. Got to give him credit for doing something other than riding a horse and for trying his hands at something purporting to be drama. Others have complained that this movie was put on DVD and not restored to better condition. Got to understand one thing, this film has been in the public domain for so long it is lucky that it survives in any condition. It is a poverty row film, from something called Showmen's Pictures, sheesh never heard of em. The negative and first generation materials of this movie have probably long since gone out of existence and all that remains is the sub-par 16mm prints floating around in public domain. It was available on several low budget home video labels during the videotape years. Albeit the original print quality probably wasn't all that good to begin with but the picture is what it is. The plot of this movie has been reiterated by some of the other posters so it need not be repeated by me. So I'll get back to the thing that stood out for me before that college game interrupted my original viewing, Evalyn Knapp. She is perhaps the real star of this near 'dog' of a picture and she provides the grasping factor of 'cheesecake'. While she is presented as Wayne's love interest the producer's(and I agree) felt that she could add eye candy value to a hard to sell low budget by wearing slinky form fitting dresses. For being the female lead, we first see her in the film 30 minutes in and she is given nothing more to do than utter several lines and walk in and out of scenes with several tight fitting dresses. Arthur Hoyt(from the silent LOST WORLD)plays a secretary to Wayne's dad and ogles Knapp on several instances and who could blame him. So for many a depression era out of work guy in the audience he would be glad to enjoy a few minutes of Miss Knapp's figure before leaving the theatre back to the miserable reality of the Great Depression. So there's nothing more to be gotten out of this flick but Evalyn Knapp does really save the flick for this viewer and on a historical basis it provides a glimpse into John Wayne's early dramatic abilities.
Review of His Private Secretary
