User Reviews

This is the original version (later remade) of Bob Hope's Thanks for the Memory (without the cool songs) and was viewed online. Storyline (beware of spoilers): After Steve Merrick has his first story published, he proposes to his girl friend Anne, who refuses on the grounds that she loves him for all the wrong reasons. They finally agree to marry for one year, stipulating that if they are not happy at that time, they will separate. After one year, Steve and Anne are still happy. Steve, however, is jealous of Anne's friend, Gilbert Morrell, a publisher who urges Steve to give up his day job and concentrate on writing. Against Steve's wishes, Anne gets a job at their friend Biney Hatfield's Paramount theater, and Steve quits his job. Steve writes at home, but becomes frustrated with household chores and with relying on his wife for an allowance. He becomes suspicious when Anne spends evenings after work with Gil, and angrily decides to throw a going-away party for their neighbor, Luella May Carroll, who has been trying to seduce him for months. Anne confides in Gil that she is pregnant, but she does not want Steve to know. Gil gives her some money as a loan so she can quit work if she needs to. When Anne gets home she finds their friends there, but no Steve, who eventually comes in with Luella. He is angry because he feels like a "kept man." When Anne shows him the check from Gil, telling him it is his first payment for his book, he sees it is made out to her and accuses her of having an affair. They separate but after three months meet again to sell their apartment, and make plans to divorce so Anne can marry Gil. While showing the apartment, they realize they are still in love, however, and reunite, with Steve delighted at the prospect of becoming a father.

Carole Lombard was still pretty stiff before the camera, there was no sign of her fun loving personality to come and Norman Foster was all bluster but no substance as her husband. However, this is an interesting curio to check out and observe.

In this below average comedy a man was convinced to stop working and start writing and then things got bad.

Steve Merrick (Norman Foster) insisted Anne (Carole Lombard) marry him. She refused initially because she didn't want him to have to worry about taking care of her. She preferred he devote his time to being an author and not bringing in a weekly check.

You see, once they marry, Anne would have to stop working and be a homemaker. Steve would have to take care of the both of them and he couldn't do that while trying to write a book that may or may not be a big seller. Such a thing as a dual income household was strictly for the poor. No woman was going to work in an upright, respectable, American home.

Anne succumbed to Steve's proposal when he said that they could do a trial marriage. If after a year she still wanted out, he'd grant her a divorce.

Yeah right, like that would happen. I've seen enough of these movies to know that divorces are never easily granted, and for whatever reason people have to go to Mexico and France to get divorces (I'm not sure how a divorce in another country would be legally recognized in the U. S.).

A year passed and the two were just as happy as they were on day one, so Anne decided to re-up. One of the conditions of Anne's subscription renewal was that she'd work and Steve would work on his book. She practically strong armed Steve into quitting his job. It was either allow her to take care of things so he could quit to work on his book or she would leave him. He took option A.

It wasn't long before Steve was miserable. He felt like a "kept husband" and if you've watched "Kept Husbands" or "Platinum Blonde" then you know that self-respecting men don't like being financially supported by their women. Steve couldn't keep house and write his book and he was unhappy. Personally, I didn't understand why there was so much to do in the apartment when only two people lived there. It's not like they had kids, yet Steve was always busy with cleaning, answering the phone, and answering the door.

He angrily left Anne when she threw it in his face that she was taking care of him. She didn't help matters by going on lunch dates with an old crush, Gil (Theodore von Eltz). They split in a raucous fashion and I couldn't help but think, "Anne, you're pretty dumb."

She didn't know men, and more specifically, she didn't know her own husband. He was perfectly happy working full-time, taking care of the love of his life, and working on his book part time. Anne insisted that he'd eventually lament not being able to work on his book full-time because he had to take care of her. It sounded like projection. It was probably a feeling she had, yet she insisted that Steve would be miserable taking care of her.

If that wasn't obtuse enough, she was less than understanding of Steve's struggling being a stay-at-home-husband. He didn't want to do it, so of course he was having trouble with it. Then, for her to go out with Gil and dismiss Steve's feelings about it was an additional blow. Anne pretty much had no pulse on her husband's happiness and ruined a good thing because of it.

Free on YouTube.