Day-Time Wife (1939)

Day-Time Wife (1939) - starring Linda Darnell, Tyrone Power, Warren William, Binnie Barnes, Wendy Barrie; Dir. Gregory Ratoff; Wri. Rex Taylor (story) and Art Arthur.

For a screwball at the tail end of the 1930s, Day-Time Wife has less in common with the movies frequently associated with the film genre, and more in common with one of those frothy and bubbly 1960s Doris Day battle-of-the-sexes comedies: which isn't a bad thing because the movie is at once way ahead of its time and of its time.

The movie opens with a scene now considered typical of married couples on-screen: the husband has forgotten his wedding anniversary. The lovely Jane Norton (Darnell) climbs from her twin bed with pleasure and anticipation of the day and kisses her handsome husband Ken Norton (Power) awake--and he promptly buries his head under the covers. When he does get out of bed, Ken occupies himself with preparing for work instead of sweeping Jane off her feet in celebration. She employs a few ingenious tricks to get his attention, but to no avail. He rushes off to work with nary a mention of their anniversary, and Jane is left alone.

A few frames later Jane and her best friend, the multiple divorcee Blanche (Barnes), are tippling champagne at the Norton's anniversary party--to which Ken had yet to appear. Jane laughs off inquiries about her husband's whereabouts, and after she receives a telephone call from his secretary crying off, the inebriated guests get up the idea to go visit Ken at his offices. Typically, Jane is in for a surprise, as Ken is not there and has not been all day. The guests slink away to a nightclub, and Blanche takes the wheel by snooping through the desk of Ken's secretary. Jane is sweet and trusting and refuses to heed any of Blanche's insinuations--until they discover a bottle of very expensive perfume called Foolish Night in Miss Frazier's (Barrie) desk.

Jane still refuses to believe Ken could be up to no good with his secretary. She goes home and awaits the return of her husband into the wee hours of the night. Ken sneaks into the house pretty late, dressed to the nines and attempts to slide into the bathroom to change when he realizes that Jane--who, reading in bed, only turned off the light when she heard Ken enter the apartment--is still awake. Still trusting and optimistic, Jane believes Ken didn't forget their anniversary when she catches sight of a package poking out of Ken's jacket pocket! But alas, the package only contains cigars. Jane laughs. Ken laughs. He promises to get her a present the next day, but when he embraces her, Jane smells Foolish Night on his collar.

Jane extracts her revenge in one of the many hilarious scenes contained in this movie. Let's just say that a guilty conscience always reveals itself. Her suspicions confirmed, Jane does not throw Ken out of the house and demand a divorce with huge alimony as we see today. No indeed, she is determined to save her marriage and to figure out why men cheat with their secretaries. Jane's speech about the philandering of a husband lying with the wife's inability to keep his attention may rankle this post-feminist world, but there is a grain of truth in the matter which long-married couples do admit to.

In order to find out what hold secretaries have over their married bosses, Jane of course applies for a secretarial position. She finds it with Barney Dexter, portrayed by the always lovably lecherous Warren William. Dexter is an out and out cad, which, for Jane's experiment is perfect. Complicating matters however, is Dexter's tentative business arrangement with Ken Norton, forcing Jane to scuttle for cover whenever her husband shows up to talk shop with her boss. Along the way, Jane happens to learn a number of interesting reasons why married men go with their secretaries (how intriguing that a 1939 script would reveal how men get off on having an edge over a woman), and manages to turn the tables completely on Ken in one of the neatest tricks ever played on a man. Tyrone Power transmitts the misery of a trapped husband perfectly, while the adorable Linda Darnell is magnificent in her power.

This being 1939 of course Ken and Jane reunite. And while I do feel Jane capitulated a bit too easily to Ken, I found Day-Time Wife to be a shockingly progressive film. It ultimately ended up being less a screwball comedy/comedy of remarriage and more of a critique on marriage. The biggest element that elevates the movie is that Linda Darnell was only 16 during the filming of Day-Time Wife, which was her second for 20th Century Fox. Power himself was only ten years her senior, but both were marvelous, natural actors. And it didn't hurt that both were blindingly attractive. 1939 was a great year for films, of which Day-Time Wife is at the top, IMO.