I really like a Davies comedy. Marge (Marion Davies) plays the secretary of a novel writer named Freddy (Robert Montgomery) who thinks she’s a frump, when secretly she’s hot.
This story is more about sexism and abuse than it is about writing, but writing is a large part of Marge’s job. Marge has been repeatedly fired after ducking the advances of many bosses. In order to earn a steady income, she puts on an unflattering brunette wig, shapeless clothes, and thick glasses. She’s hired as a stenographer for a publishing agency full of male authors writing romance under women’s names. She’s assigned to Freddy Matthews, a best selling author who has difficulty focusing on his work.
Marge, determined to keep her job, foils Freddy’s attempts to go on dates or take long lunches. She is especially good at keeping him away from his type-A girlfriend who monopolizes his time. Freddy realizes that Marge is good at her job when she temporarily quits when his girlfriend accuses her of having a thing for Freddy (which she does). I would also like to point out that Freddy has a classy, British butler who is Black. This is so rare in an old movie that I did a double take. Apparently, his name was Frederick Clarke and born in London. He didn’t get a lot of work in Hollywood. I could go on a tangent about this, but I better not.
Freddy goes to look for Marge, however he finds her in her normal clothes and blonde hair, thinking the pair are two different people. He takes out blonde Marge and I had flashbacks of watching Jem as a child. Seriously, she should have dumped her boyfriend. He was dating her, but in love with Jem and ddin’t know they were the same people! What were they teaching us 80s children?! In the case of this film, Marge and her roommate decide to tell Freddy that blonde her is out-of-town until the book is finished. She’s determined not to be herself again until the book is finished because Freddy will get sued by a film studio who already bought the rights to the book.
You probably know how all of this will end. Marge makes a good task manager and sounding board for Freddy’s writing. But I also feel like she should have steered clear of Freddy. He’s irresponsible and impractical. My guess is that he was well-off before his books starting selling, otherwise he’s be more worried about finishing his book.