Private Number (1936)

Private Number begins by showing a head butler being a jerk to the other household staff. The head butler Wroxton (Basil Rathbone) is a tyrant. If one thing is out of place on anyone he berates them mercilessly. The only other help that dares to stand up to Wroxton is the old cook and she just fights a battle she cannot really win.

            A young girl named Ellen Neal (Loretta Young) comes to the house answering an ad for a new maid. Wroxton takes a liking to her because she is young and pretty. He does not leave a good impression on Ellen she finds him oily and no good and runs out of the house. Another maid named Gracie convinces Ellen to stay on at the house.

            Ellen eventually becomes the maid to Mrs. Winfield, the lady of the house. Mrs. Winfield is very nice to Ellen and treats her more like a friend than hired help. With this new position Ellen makes more money. Being a crook Wroxton usually takes a cut of everyone’s pay but since he has a soft spot for Ellen he lets her keep all her money.

            Richard Winfield (Robert Taylor), Mrs. Winfield’s son, comes home from college for winter break. He throws a big party for his friends who tagged along with him. Ellen comes to the house in street clothes and Richard believes her to be one of the guests. He starts flirting with her and dances with her too. After their dance Ellen lets Richard know she is his mother’s maid.

            One night Gracie takes Ellen out to a bar in the City. A fight breaks out at the bar and Ellen winds up leaving with a man who had been flirting with her. The guy takes her to an apartment that was actually an illegal gambling racket. The police raid the apartment and since she was there Ellen gets arrested with the others. She calls Wroxton to come bail her out and he obliges since he still thinks he has a chance with her. In the car he lets Ellen know that the family is going away to Maine for the summer and they usually let the house workers go in that time until they return. He wants to keep Ellen on thinking he will finally be alone with her. Turns out the next day Mrs. Winfield asks Ellen to come up to Maine with her.

            Richard is also in Maine. He gets his flirt on with Ellen and is nothing but kind to her. She knows her place as his mother’s maid and tells him they cannot be together since it will cause a scandal but Richard does not seem to care at all. On Ellen’s birthday, Mrs. Winfield gives her a gorgeous new dress and Richard takes her out on the lake. He tells her he loves her and wants to marry her in secret before he leaves for his senior year of college and they can tell everyone they are married when he is done with school. Ellen, yet again, tries to make him understand that she is his mother’s maid but he does not, yet again, care.

            Richard leaves for college and lets Ellen have his dog while he is away. Soon Wroxton finds out what is going on and even figures that Ellen is pregnant. Since she has always refused his advances out of spite he tells the Winfields. Ellen tries desperately not to tell them who the father is but then she lets it be known that Richard is the father. Wroxton makes things ten times worse when he produces the receipt for her bail from jail. Mr. Winfield tells Wroxton not to give Richard any of her letters if Ellen is to write him.

            Months go by with Ellen living at a family friend’s house with her baby in the middle of nowhere. Somehow detectives find Ellen and serve with court papers to annul her marriage with Richard. Richard has no idea his parents sent out detectives to annul the marriage. He does not want to do that.

            Drama comes hot and heavy with a courtroom scene that was not too bad. Wroxton tried to bribe the guy who took Ellen out to the apartment she was arrested at to say that they did more than just go to the apartment and it wound up awesomely backfiring big time for both the guy and Wroxton.

If you have seen any old film you will know that Richard and Ellen wind up happily together.

Private Number was alright. I am not down with stories that deal with differences between classes and baby mamma drama. Sometimes they can work but most of the time I found those stories so damn boring. Loretta Young and Robert Taylor were great together and their characters were not too bad. Basil Rathbone was perfect as the slimy, nasty, no good butler. If you are a fan of any of the actors Private Number will be worth watching, if not skip it.

 

Small Town Girl (1936)

“Really love him. Will ya?”

            Ever feel like your life was stuck in a rut and all you wanted to do was escape and start a new life? For the past few years I have definitely had the feeling my life has been stuck like every time I try to move forward I get pushed back further. My life in very routine which sometimes is good because I have ADD and anxiety but sometimes the routine gets old. I long to travel and dream of moving somewhere on my own. Sometimes I even dream of finding a nice guy that can take me away from everything… but let’s not spread that dream of mine around I am not that kind of a girl to talk about romantic feelings. I also have a feeling that I was meant to be more than I am. Maybe everyone has those feelings but lately those feelings have been very strong. The 1936 film Small Town Girl was perfect for me to watch with a main character who wanted more out of life.

            Every year thousands of people come driving through Kay Brannan’s (Janet Gaynor) hometown for the Harvard vs. Yale football game. She stands outside her family’s store watching all the cars drive by and even lets some boys sweet talk her as they wait in heavy traffic. Kay walks back to the store after walking down the street. She is frustrated with her life she feels there is something more and that she is just stuck. She has a boyfriend named Elmer (James Stewart) who is predictable in every way. Kay lives at home with her parents and her sister and brother-in-law. Every night they have the same conversations at dinner and even the same foods depending on the day of the week.

            That night Kay has enough of her family and of Elmer and goes for a walk. She is almost hit by a car as she crosses the street. The car is driven by a young man named Bob Dakin (Robert Taylor). He stops the car and apologizes. He sees Kay is pretty and starts flirting with her. He is trying to get to a tavern and asks Kay for directions but he does not pay attention he just stares at her. Bob has Kay go with him to the tavern. She does not want to go in an first but he begs her to come in and have some fun.

            After their partying Bob wants to take Kay down to Boston even though he is ridiculously drunk. He gets lost in a town. He comes up with the idea to find the Justice of the Peace to ask for directions. Kay is worried about her family not knowing where she is and wants to go home. Bob comes up with the idea that they should get married when they go see the Justice of the Peace. Kay knows she should not take advantage of Bob in his drunken state but she sees their marriage as her way of getting out of her small town life.

            Back on the road, Bob falls asleep at the wheel and Kay steers the car just in time to keep it from crashing. Both of them fall asleep until the morning. When Bob wakes up he at first does not remember what has happened so Kay helps jog his memory. He looks down at his pocket in his coat and sees the marriage certificate. Bob tells her he has a lawyer friend that can keep the marriage out of the papers but she reminds him that the night before the Justice of the Peace recognized Bob’s name and called the papers.

            Bob brings Kay to his parents’ home in Boston. The father asks if Kay is a friend of
Priscilla, Bob’s fiancé. Bob and Priscilla were supposed to be married in two weeks. Bob walks out of the room and Kay breaks down and tells the parents that they were married the night before. Bob asks his father if he can the whole matter and have the marriage annulled. The father says he has fixed many his problems in the past this time he is not taking any action because it would look like exactly what happened. Bob tells Kay that they will stay married for six months then get divorced. Kay says she will do that because she likes his parents. The press comes to the house. He tells the reporters that he has known Kay for months and that Priscilla was the one who broke their engagement.

            To keep up appearances Bob and Kay go on a honeymoon on his family’s yacht. Priscilla comes to see them off only to take a look at Kay and see that she is not a threat to her and Bob getting back together. Kay is a little hurt because she does really like Bob. The unhappy couple play nice with each other in front of the crew but once the crew are gone they are cold as ice to each other. One night the rough ocean gets the best of Kay and she goes to bed sick as can be. Bob is a doctor and tells her she will feel better if she goes out on deck to get some fresh air. Kay does not want to listen to him so instead she suffers in bed. Bob has enough of her complaining, grabs Kay, and carries her outside. The next day Bob comes down with a cold. Kay tries to help him even though he does not want her help. Kay makes a remedy of hot water and lemons. Bob reluctantly drinks her remedy since he is too sick not to. As she takes care of him Bob tells Kay that he is tired of being  grouch and from then on they are nicer to each other.

            Back in Boston, Bob is always away at the clinic at the hospital. Kay really loves Bob and is upset that he is always away and always talking about Priscilla. They go to a party at the hospital one night. The head doctor of the clinic is there. The doctor is not very nice to Bob to begin with and to make matters worse he sees Bob talking to Priscilla all night instead of being with his wife. That night Bob tells Kay that he is going down to the clinic when he is really going to Priscilla’s. A few hours later the clinic calls looking for Bob. One of his patients, a little boy with a metal plate in his head, is in trouble and needs to be operated on right away. Kay calls at Priscilla’s. The woman just tells Kay that Bob cannot go to the clinic and that she should make an excuse for him. Kay has come to know Bob’s patient and knows the boy would be very let down if Bob was not there for him. She goes to Priscilla’s apartment and drags her husband to the clinic. Bob performs some of the surgery but feels like he does not have what it takes right then and there to complete it.

            In the morning Kay goes to Bob’s father and tells him that she is going back home. She admits it is because Bob is still in love with Priscilla and she cannot compete with that love. The father lets Kay know that he and the mother wished it would have worked out between her and their son. He also tells her that if she ever needs anything to come to them since she has become like a daughter to them.

            Kay goes home and realizes her family is not as bad as she thought they were. They still have the same conversations and still talk the same way and live the same way but she knows how to deal with it. Kay gets the paper for her father and sees headlines on the front page about Bob goes to Reno to get a divorce. She goes out for a walk and crossing the street she is almost hit by a car. It is the same and the same driver. Only this time he could not seem to find his way to Reno.

            Small Town Girl started off well and then just went in a completely different direction. What happened was the character of Bob Dakin became a complete jerk. He was so nasty to Kay. The ending kind of did not make sense to me because the whole time Bob acted like he did not love Kay and then right at the end he comes in like a knight in shining armor wanting her back. I guess you could say he was mean to her because he did not want to fall in love with her but you would never guess he was. Robert Taylor and Janet Gaynor were adorable together. I cannot never get enough of Gaynor in her films she was so adorable. Small Town Girl started off great, as I mentioned. It was as if I was seeing my dream being played out on the screen. I wished it had stayed that way instead it turned into a kind of moral lesson for women of 1936 to not dream so big and to not take advantage of drunken men and marry them or you will have a miserable life. Watch Small Town Girl only if you are a fan of either Janet Gaynor or Robert Taylor.