Acteurist oeuvre-view – Jean Arthur – Part 6: MORE THAN A SECRETARY (1936) and HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937)

There's Sometimes a Buggy

In this week's entry in our Jean Arthur Acteurist Oeuvre-view series, we look at Alfred E. Green's comedy More Than A Secretary (1936) and Frank Borzage's genre-defying screwball melodrama History Is Made at Night (1937), pairing Arthur with up-and-coming romantic lead Charles Boyer. We compare More Than A Secretary with Green's better-known film about sexual politics in patriarchal office culture, Baby Face, and the possibly influential blending of genres and the lovers' achievement of Borzagean transcendence in History Is Made at Night, which gave Arthur her most glamourous role up to that point.

Time Codes:

0h 1m 00s: MORE THAN A SECRETARY (1936) [dir. Alfred E. Green]

0h 36m 37s: HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937) [dir. Frank Borzage]

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!

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