Like many other reviewers here, I saw WIFE VS SECRETARY on TCM (UK) and thought it was a pleasantly diverting 83 minutes (running times are shorter on PAL). I've never been much of a fan of Jean Harlow, but I can see that she laid the groundwork for the platinum blondes that would follow her. Gable is great in the kind of role he excelled at, this one sandwiched between star-making turns in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and SAN FRANCISCO and just three years before the glorious GONE WITH THE WIND. Jimmy Stewart doesn't have much to do as Harlow's troglodyte boyfriend ("Me work, you have babies!") and, honestly, any of MGM's contract actors could have handled the part as well. Hard to believe that Stewart was himself just a couple of years away from beginning his star run in Capra movies like YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938).
But for me, the star of this is Myrna Loy. Already Hollywood royalty when she made this, mostly due to her winning turn in THE THIN MAN (1934), I thought her best performance of this era was her lip-smacking portrayal of Fah Lo See, Fu Manchu's completely amoral daughter, in MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932). Watch the subtlety of her expressions as she first dismisses, the considers, then believes that her husband is dallying with his pretty but brash secretary. It's this sensitive portrayal that makes WIFE VS SECRETARY a cut above the standard MGM melodramas it was surrounded by ...
But for me, the star of this is Myrna Loy. Already Hollywood royalty when she made this, mostly due to her winning turn in THE THIN MAN (1934), I thought her best performance of this era was her lip-smacking portrayal of Fah Lo See, Fu Manchu's completely amoral daughter, in MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932). Watch the subtlety of her expressions as she first dismisses, the considers, then believes that her husband is dallying with his pretty but brash secretary. It's this sensitive portrayal that makes WIFE VS SECRETARY a cut above the standard MGM melodramas it was surrounded by ...