Movie of the Week: After Office Hours (1935)

Clark Gable is a fast talking newspaperman and Constance Bennett is the snotty society girl he inexplicably falls for amidst a murder case in After Office Hours.

Clark is take-no-prisoners-newspaper editor Jim Branch, who is determined to dig up a juicy story on a corrupt millionaire. He starts sucking up to the newspaper’s music reviewer, wealthy socialite Sharon Norwood (Bennett), when he discovers she is close to the impending story. After the millionaire’s wife turns up dead, Sharon and Jim disagree on the culprit. Jim becomes determined to crack the case and reunite with Sharon, whom he has now fallen in love with.

Constance is at the bottom of the list as far as Gable leading ladies go. Their chemistry here is about zero, and the plot and script are so weak it’s one of those where you can’t figure out why the heck he is wasting time chasing her.

Constance had recently been signed to MGM and handpicked Clark to be her leading man in her first feature under new contract. They had previously been onscreen together in The Easiest Way four years earlier. In that picture, Constance was the top billed leading lady and Clark had a secondary role as her sister’s husband, an honorable laundryman. In this one, they share top billing although technically Constance’s name comes first.

Constance had been quite the diva on the set of The Easiest Way and Clark had not forgotten how cold she had treated him and his fellow bit players. This did not make for a friendly off-camera between the two.

Billie Burke is far more entertaining as Constance’s twittering mother who is quickly besotted with Clark. Her and Clark have better luck together with the snappier script in Forsaking All Others, but they are still good screen partners here.

Her being absolutely horrified at the idea of Clark dropping Constance off at home at 5:00am and still being in her bedroom at breakfast is hilarious. Outdated but hilarious.

The formula here is rather mundane: another newspaperman, another spoiled heiress draped in jewels and gowns.  There are far better versions of the formula than this rather silly murder caper (It Happened One Night for one!)

There’s not a lot notable here. It’s one of those 1930’s movies that would be better as an episode of a TV show than a movie (it’s only about an hour long, too!) Oh well, probably served its purpose as escapism for Depression-era families with no televisions in sight.

Full review is here

Nutshell review is here

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