She's Got Everything (1937)

With classic films there is always one guarantee: the main actress and actor will come together at the end despite whatever obstacles come their way. Sometimes that plot gets a little tedious to watch over and over again especially with comedies. With comedies things can get too silly and too out of hand with the obstacles or even the plot is too much and too silly. She’s Got Everything is one of those types of comedies.

            Carol Rogers (Ann Sothern) has just come back from Europe to find her house in complete chaos. Her father has just died and all the people he owed money to from the grocer to the dressmakers to the furniture store are all packed in her house taking their things back. She scares them out of the house so she can be alone. Carol tells her aunt Jane (Helen Broderick) that she wants to get a job so she can start paying some people back. She feels bad that she never asked her father if he needed help instead she ran off to Europe.

            A man named Waldo Eddington (Victor Moore)snuck into the house and stayed when everyone else left. He talks to Jane about a rich miner in South America that was crazy about Carol but she did not like him. Waldo owned some horses that her father had kept and wants her to marry the miner so he can be paid as well. To do this, he says, they must get backing from a few people just so that Carol has some money.  Jane likes the idea but neither of them want to tell Carol of their plan. Waldo goes to three of the people who the father owed money to and they are suckered into giving five hundred dollars each.

            Waldo puts in a call to Fuller Partridge (Gene Raymond) who owns a coffee company. He wants to sell one of the horses to him but Fuller does not want a horse. Fuller happens to mention he needs a secretary and this gives Waldo the idea to tell him about Carol. Carol gets the job as Fuller’s new secretary. One of her job requirements is that she will have to test the coffee the company makes so Fuller can have an idea of what women think of it. The only problem Carol hates coffee. After her taste testing Fuller takes Carol out for a walk in the park. It starts to rain and he immediately comes down with a cold. Over a few days she helps him to get better.

            A few days later at work Carol faints. A doctor tells her and Fuller that she is overworked and underfed. She needs a vacation. Fuller sends her away for a while to get better. The three backers follow Carol, Waldo, and Jane on their vacation. Waldo finds out that Fuller is worth more than the minor and now their plans change to trying to bring Fuller and Carol together. Waldo calls Fuller with the story that Carol is so sick she is delusional and keeps asking for him. Now the problem is trying to get Carol to look delusional and sick and call out Fuller’s name. He happened to meet an illusionist and hypnotist. The hypnosis does not work on Carol but it does somehow work on Jane.

            Waldo and Jane have fun dancing and spending time together. He wants to marry her but that all changes when he reads the newspapers the next morning and thinks Carol was just setting him up. Instead of coming straight out with the situation with her, Fuller tries to get her to be the one who walks away. He orders weird things for breakfast, wants to buy her clothes and picks the ugliest ones, and even goes out in the rain and gets them both a little sick. She gets fed up with him and he finally tells her what is wrong. Carol swears she had nothing to do with what was said in the papers. When he gets back to the hotel Fuller sees Waldo talking to the press and realizes he is the one who spilled to the papers.

            Waldo explains everything to Fuller. Fuller tries to call Carol to talk to her bust she does not want to. He goes to her house and asks her to marry him. She says yes but she is not too happy. The next day Carol leaves Fuller jilted at the altar which was her plan the whole time. He finds out that Carol and Jane are leaving for Europe. He manages to get his trucks to block the car Carol is in and needless the say that they fall back in love and get married.

            She’s Got Everything was alright. This was a B movie for RKO. It was made very well and the cast was very good. You can tell the story was definitely a subpar B movie story. Ann Sothern was wonderful she is always a delight to see in a film. Gene Raymond just does nothing for me but I will say he was better and more entertaining than in some of his other films I have seen. Helen Broderick and Victor Moore are hilarious together. I did not really like the characters of Fuller, Waldo, and Jane. I found them annoying. They were all using and wanting Carol for their own purposes and that I did not like… probably because I like Ann Sothern a lot and I did not like seeing her taken advantage of. The entire plot got too out of hand with the supporting characters they were too silly and, I felt, barely moved the story along.  She’s Got Everything I only suggest watching if you like Ann Sothern or the other three leads.