The Private Secretary (film)

The Private Secretary

Original British trade ad
Directed by Henry Edwards
Produced by Julius Hagen
Written by George Broadhurst
Arthur Macrae
H. Fowler Mear
Based on The farce by Charles Hawtrey (The Private Secretary) and the book by Von Moser (Der Bibliotheker)
Starring Edward Everett Horton
Barry MacKay
Judy Gunn
Oscar Asche
Music by W. L. Trytel (uncredited)
Cinematography Sydney Blythe
William Luff
Production
company
Julius Hagen Productions
Distributed by Twickenham Film Distributors Ltd (UK)
Release dates
September 1935 (UK)
Running time
70 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

The Private Secretary is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Edward Everett Horton, Barry MacKay, Judy Gunn and Oscar Asche.[1] It is an adaptation of the play The Private Secretary by Charles Henry Hawtrey.

Plot

Wealthy Englishman Robert Cattermole returns from a trip to India to discover that instead of achieving success, his beloved nephew Robert has got into such debt that he now disguises himself as a mild-mannered minister to evade his creditors.

Cast

Critical reeption

TV Guide felt the comedy of the Victorian farce "didn't translate well into later times. Horton and Sim (in a secondary role) serve as the film's saving graces with some nice comic moments" [2] and Sky Movies agreed, calling the film "a mostly dismal British farce stickily directed by former acting superstar Henry Edwards, but held back from disaster by the pawkily amusing performances of Edward Everett Horton, dithering delightfully in the leading role, and Alastair Sim, offering a lugubrious contribution as Mr Nebulae." [3]

References

External links