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.

 

Taxi (1932)

“I'd like to bury the hatchet - right in their thick skulls.”

            Taxi begins with newspaper headlines blaring how there is a war of taxi cab companies. Consolidated has been bullying other companies out of business by hitting their cars and threatening other drivers away from certain areas. Two Consolidated drivers try to keep Gramercy  cab driver Matt Nolan (James Cagney)from taking a customer where he needs to go. The two drivers did not figure in that Matt is a hot head and would fight back.

            The spook Buck Gerard from Consolidated is sent to scare off Pop Reilly. Pop has been working the corner of the street near the diner where his daughter Sue (Loretta Young) works for six years. Buck tells the old man he better leave the corner by the next day or risk his neck. Pop is not backing down. Buck goes to a guy around the corner and tells him to ram the cab making it look like it an accident. Pop is furious when his cab is hit he knows the guy hit it on purpose. Out of frustration Pop shoots the driver. He is sent to jail but only for ten years since he is older and the judge understood his situation.

            Matt knows Sue. He goes to the diner and tells her he is taking her out that night. He takes her to a meeting at the cab company. He thinks she will be on the company’s side and call them to fight for her father who died that morning. Sue does not want them all to fight like Consolidated she wants them to stand their ground without violence. Matt is upset with her and tells her he wants to hit her. Sue gets her hit in and runs off for the subway.

            Despite their anger towards each other Sue and Matt begin dating. At a dance competition Matt gets mad at the guy who beat them and he starts a fight. Everywhere they go Matt has to start trouble. She tells him since he cannot get his act together they are through. Sometime later Matt comes by her apartment and sweet talks her into forgiving him. As his hugs her he puts an engagement ring on her finger. Sue gives him one more chance.

            The night they got married they go out to a nightclub with their friends and Matt’s brother Danny. Buck is also at the club with his girlfriend Marie. Buck is drunk and when he sees Matt he immediately starts bothering him. Marie sends a note over to Sue to meet her I the bathroom. Marie tells Sue she does not want anything to happen to Buck. She loves him even though she knows he is not a good guy. Sue does not want Matt to get into any trouble either so she agrees to do what she can to help. Buck says the wrong thing to Matt and the two men start to fight. Buck pulls out a knife to kill Matt but Danny comes between them. Unfortunately Danny dies.

            Now Matt is hell bent on getting even with Buck. Sue and Marie do their best to keep their men away from each other. Before Matt can get to Buck, Sue gets to their apartment to warn them. Buck hides and Matt looks around for him. Marie blocks the door to the closet where Buck is hiding. The police come to the apartment looking for associates of Buck’s. They move Marie away from the door and Matt shoots it. Buck had moved away but he died after falling from the window.

            Sue is ready to leave Matt. All their furniture has been moved out. Matt comes by again to say he is sorry.

            I did not know what Taxi was about. Going off the poster I was thinking it was a somewhat funny film. It was a straight up drama. It was not bad but because I was not expecting a drama I got a bit bored with it. Plus, the story was boring. It was a mix between a romance and a revenge story and both of those stories usually bore me to absolute tears. James Cagney really never does anything for me he always seemed to play the same tough guy characters. Loretta Young was great. Taxi was alright. If you like Pre-Codes or Loretta Young or James Cagney then it is worth watching. 

Ladies in Love (1936)

“The trouble with us is all we talk about is love.”

            I am not a romantic girl at all. Sometimes I think about what it would be like to be totally in love with someone and have someone be totally in love with me. But those thoughts are usually thought of after I watch a romantic or rom com movie. The next day I am usually so busy thinking of just me with school and work the last thing I want to think about is that someone else in my life. At this moment in my life I cannot handle a boyfriend. Never mind all the drama that usually goes into having one! Two of my best friends have boyfriends. When we are all together they talk about their boyfriends. I do not mind though because I like their boyfriends and they are not the only thing they can talk about. I cannot imagine having friends that all they do is talk about their boyfriends more than I can imagine me having one right now. Thank god! In the 1936 film Ladies in Love all three friends can talk about is love.

            Susie Schmidt (Loretta Young) and Yoli Hayden (Constance Bennett) move into their new apartment. When they walk into the building they find their third roommate and their other friend Martha Kerenye (Janet Gaynor) has already made herself at home by taking a shower. Martha tells the girl an old superstition her gypsy nurse told her: they have to count all the corners in the room then sit down and make a wish. Susie and Yoli count eight and then sit down: Susie wants a hat shop like the one she used to work in and Yoli wants to marry a rich a husband. Martha in the bathroom counts four and wishes for a real home, a husband, and kids.

            One of Martha’s many odd jobs is taking care of experimental rabbits for a Dr. Rudi Imre (Don Ameche). On that particular day Martha was late to take care of the rabbit. Rudi is not too happy with her because the rabbits need to be on a strict schedule for their medicine. She tells him that she moved into a new place a little farther away so it took her extra time to get there. Rudi is upset with her and lets her go.

            At the apartment Yoli boyfriend John comes by with his friend Count Karl Lanyi (Tyrone Power). Susie opens the door and is immediately in love with Karl. Karl asks Yoli to take Susie to a party that night. Susie hears Karl ask Yoli about her going to the party. Yoli tells her that Karl is engaged to another woman already but that does not bother Susie too much. At the party Yoli’s friend Ben tells her he can see that Susie in love it is all over her face. He talks to Yoli about the night she met John. Ben had been talking to her before John walked in. Ben is upset that Yoli is upset about John going away. John and Yoli go to leave the party but happily decide to stay.

            The following day Martha goes to see Susie in the stage show she is in. Martha asks Susie if she knows any men she might be able to sell a tie to. Susie tries to introduce her friend to a magician named Sandor but the magician just brushes Martha off. Martha gets seated in spot very close to the stage. During one of his tricks Sandor calls Martha up on stage. She tries to sell him a tie not realizing she is in the act. Sandor tricks her about buying a tie and giving her money. After the show Sandor needs help getting his shirt off. He fired his help so Martha helps him. He needs a tie too. Martha makes a deal with Sandor to buy a tie for a smaller price and she can become his maid. That day Susie had told Karl she was in love with him. After the show Karl is backstage waiting to take her out to dinner.

            Meanwhile, Yoli and John are at his place. They see legs dangling on the arm of one of his chairs. When they go over a young girl is there. The girl’s name is Marie (Simone Simon) and she is kind of related to John by marriage. Marie tells them that she ran away from. Her mother was trying to make her do something she did not want to do. John is nervous about her staying there and what it might look like to people.

            Martha has been working for Sandor for three weeks. She bosses him around. She tells him to stop drinking and he gives her a bull story that he has a nervous disorder that makes his hand shake just to get her sympathy.

            Susie goes to Karl’s apartment. He is not there but she waits. She sees a note from his fiancé on the table. She reads the letter. The fiancé wrote that they can be married at the end of the week just like he wanted. Beyond crushed Susie leaves the apartment in a hurry.

            Martha goes to see Rudi. She tells him she is working for Sandor and Rudi gets a little jealous thinking she is in love with Sandor. She gets mad at him and leaves in a huff.

            That night Susie goes out with John and Yoli. She sees Karl walk into the club. A man who gossips sees Susie and talks to him about Karl. To avoid speaking to Karl she goes off with the man when Karl comes up to her.

            Rudi waited for Martha outside the theater. He apologizes to her and takes her out to dinner. He gets jealous of Sandor again when Martha mentions the magicians. Martha gets very upset with Rudi for analyzing her when he cannot analyze himself. She storms out of the restaurant.

            Marie has run away from her boarding school. She confesses to him that ever since he had taken her out to lunch when she came sever years ago with her mother for vacation she has been in love with him. That is the reason she ran away from home. Marie manages to get John to marry him and take her to South America. John is truly happy around Marie.

            Sandor admits to Martha that he hired her because he was lonely and he was hoping she would fall in love with him. Martha does not love Sandor in any way. He kisses her and then says he thought he was losing his grip. Martha runs out of the apartment.

            Susie watches from a café Karl walking into a church with his bride to be married. At the apartment Susie drinks too much champagne. Martha shares in a bit of Susie’s misery and drinks some champagne as well. Susie is so depressed she puts sleeping syrup in her drink to kill herself. She put the glass down near Martha’s and Martha winds up picking Susie’s glass.

            Yoli goes to the train station to see John. She sees Marie going with him. Yoli walks off of the platform and Ben is there waiting for her. When Yoli comes home Rudi is there trying to keep Martha awake. Susie feels awful she cannot believe she just almost killed her best friend. Rudi comes to check on Martha and Sandor comes in at the same time. Sandor thinks Martha tried to kill herself because of him. She starts laughing and cannot stop when he says that. Rudi plays some game with Sandor to get him out of the apartment. Rudi tells Martha he got a real job and wants to marry her.

            The ladies move out of their apartment. Susie got her store thanks to some help from Yoli and Ben. Yoli marrying Ben who has really loved her. They all cannot believe all that has happened to them since they had moved into their apartment.

            The cast was fantastic. I loved seeing Janet Gaynor, Loretta Young, and Constance Bennett together. Gaynor was so adorable I could not take it. She looked and sounded like such a little kid she was perfect as Martha because Martha was in so many ways a dreamy little girl. Young was gorgeous and wonderful. I liked how Susie could not stop talking when they first moved in she was so excited. Bennett is a great actress. It seemed like she did not want to be making the film though. Maybe it was the character but it looked like Bennett was not giving the part her all. Don Ameche did not have his mustache and I could not believe how much more handsome he was without it! I loved him and Gaynor together they were so cute. Tyrone Power is actually listed in the credits as Tyrone Power, Jr. His father was an actor so I guess to distinguish the young from the old they put Jr. at the end. Not too long later they dropped the Jr. Power is not really in the film that much. This was mostly likely one of his very early films for Fox.

            Ladies in Love was a cute film. Although I am far from the romantic type I did like the story.  The story was good because Susie did not really get what she wanted. All the ladies had to go through heartbreak and silly things (in Martha's case) to get to where they wanted and what they wanted. Secretly sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be in love. For now I just live vicariously though film characters which is all I have time for right now! Haha. Ladies in Love is definitely worth watching especially if you like any of the cast members.