The Office Wife (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Larry asks Kate to write about "Office Wives" - executive stenographers whose work creates wife-like bonds with bosses. He's unaware that such stories can reflect reality.

Directed by Lloyd Bacon and Michael Curtiz. Stars Dorothy Mackaill, Lewis Stone, and Natalie Moorhead.

The Office Wife is a romantic comedy about a young woman who gets a job as a secretary and ultimately falls in love with her  married boss. There are some scattered mentions throughout of what the title means, namely that the work secretary does so much in taking care of the working man that there is basically no need for wives anymore. It never really builds on that theme, though, so much as just tosses it out there and then we watch a pretty normal romance happen. This is a very short film, under an hour, so there's not much time to build much of a greater concept or even really a sense of character, although it is very fun to see a very young Joan Blondell play the part of the female lead sister, a much less inhibited character who keeps nudging her sister to pursue the illicit affair. Some of these shorter films from 1930 successfully fit an entire arc into that shortened time frame, but this one feels like it's lacking, although none of the scenes that are here unpleasant or objectionable, just kind of bland.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Office Wife (1930)

📊 Ranked #3122/4029 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 23

lost to Gypsy (#2010 → #2011)

lost to Chungking Express (#3067 → #3019)

beat Anastasia (#3522 → #3524)

beat The Jazz Singer (#3251 → #3264)

beat The Shaggy Dog (#3165 → #3172)

beat Shane (#3057 → #3061)

lost to You Only Live Once (#3090 → #3046)

lost to Where Eagles Dare (#3028 → #3010)

beat Avengers: Endgame (#3045 → #3059)

beat The Iceman (#3043 → #3086)

beat Cracks (#3064 → #3217)

lost to Stormy Weather (#3066 → #3052)