His Private Secretary (1933)

Directed by Phil Whitman. Starring Evalyn Knapp, John Wayne, Reginald Barlow, Alec B. Francis, Natalie Kingston, Arthur Hoyt.

Low-wattage rom-com from the pre-Code era with John Wayne taking a break from those B-Westerns he made before his Stagecoach breakthrough to play a skirt-chasing playboy who is so immediately enamored with a minister’s granddaughter (Knapp), he marries her right away, which doesn’t please his banker father (Barlow), suspicious the young woman is a gold-digger. Guess what she does next? (It’s right there in the title.) Slow rhythms, weak jokes, tepid chemistry, and (of course) a poorly-cast male co-lead all add up to a meager showing, which feels much longer than its mere 60-minute runtime. Most John Wayne buffs haven’t seen this one, and for good reason.

36/100