Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

bkoganbing In this pre-Code drama Kay Francis stars as the fashionable editor of a chic magazine who has no time for other than her job. Which leaves her playboy husband Kenneth Thomson all kinds of idle hours to play with perennial other woman Claire Dodd.When sporting goods salesman David Manners tries to sell her a rowing machine, he walks off with the job of her new secretary. And Kay ends up admiring more than David's work ethic.Man Wanted which contains no really steamy scenes nor any kind of suggestive language still could never have been made after the omnipresent Code was adopted. It has a way too casual attitude toward infidelity with Manners, Francis, Thomson, and Dodd all quite willing to keep things going. When Kay learns of Thomson's cheating, she's quite relieved actually because she and Manners can now kanoodle.Although Man Wanted cannot really make its mind up whether it's comedy or drama, it's still a good film and most typical of the films that Kay Francis was starring in at the height of her career.

calvinnme ... and I say that with all due respect to Mr. Manners. I really enjoy his films. This film is just full of stuff you couldn't do or insinuate after the production code. Besides all of the precode naughtiness going on, you certainly couldn't have a woman rescuing a man from a life of dead end jobs and financial struggling. Tom (David Manners) is a man - a Harvard man at that - in a rut of a job selling athletic equipment at a retail store. He's reluctantly engaged to Ruth (Una Merkel) whose chatter seems to annoy him but not enough that he'll make a clean break of it. His big chance comes when high-powered magazine editor Lois Ames (Kate Francis) has her secretary quit late at night and Tom, who is there to demonstrate a rowing machine, offers to pitch in and help. By night's end Lois has offered the secretarial job to Tom. Tom's paychecks grow with his performance and his job responsibilities - steadily from 50 to 250 a week - big money in the Depression.Unlike films from the late 30's on where the male boss is chasing the secretary around the desk, this one has the flirtation growing subtly with Lois initiating matters. At first it's little things such as Lois making sure their feet touch under the desk. Pretty soon though Tom is feeling the attraction too. The hitch here - Lois is married to Freddie, who apparently has his own money and doesn't need to work and therefore doesn't - he likes being an idler.This movie is very modern and intelligent in how it handles the marriage. The beginning of the film has Lois and Freddie seemingly in love, going to lunch together, kissing and acting affectionate. They say it doesn't matter that they're so different, they love each other anyways. They seem to mean it when they say it too, but the marriage is a mistake and time and their attraction to other people more suitable to their individual habits - Freddie to a partying socialite (Claire Dodd) and Lois to hard working Tom gradually has the two drifting apart.After the production code began to be enforced this film would probably end with Freddie seeing the error of his wanton ways and deciding that he wants to run the magazine, Lois deciding that she wants to have babies and Tom - the fallen somewhat kept man - slinking off into the sunset alone. Instead this film ends intelligently - I'll let you watch and see how. It says much about how people will choose unhappy stability over taking a chance and possibly winding up truly happy. Recommended for fans of precode films and definitely for fans of the elegant Kay Francis whose appeal is timeless.

blanche-2 "Man Wanted" was made in 1932 before the Code was put in place, and it's quite entertaining, starring the beautiful Kay Francis, David Manners, Una Merkel and Elizabeth Patterson. Francis plays Lois Ames, a sophisticated, glamorous publisher who works constantly. Her old secretary (Elizabeth Patterson) won't work overtime, so she's fired. A man, Tommy Sherman (Manners) who has come to sell her something impresses her, and she offers him the secretarial job. He accepts and becomes invaluable to her, moving up in rank. All the time, he's falling in love with her. He has fiancé (Una Merkel) and Lois has a husband, Freddie. Freddie lives off of his wife, and though she loves him, she realizes that he has affairs. In one scene, Freddie is on his way to an assignation when Lois comes home unexpectedly early. Freddie goes with the moment, and they're both in the mood. Just before she gets into bed, Lois finds the other woman's hotel key. She puts in on her husband's pillow and feigns sleep.Dieterle does a good job with the pace of the film. The gender references are quite interesting. Tommy assumes the female publisher he'll be meeting will be an old hag and is surprised to see such a young, good-looking woman; nothing is made of her hiring a male secretary. One wonders, though, had she a very capable woman secretary, would she have risen to a higher position? It's something to think about.

sobaok This was the first of five outings together for director William Dieterle and Kay Francis. It's highly entertaining and contemporary in feel. Managing editor Kay hires David Manners as her male secretary. Her man-about-town husband, Kenneth Thomson, could care less as he has his eye on playgirl Claire Dodd. When Kay discovers that the emotional charge between her and hubby is lacking and for what reason, she's dissapointed, but holds no grudge. The way this is all written is quite human and provocative. Lovely photography by Gregg Toland(who later did CITIZEN KANE) is impressive. Supporting cast includes Una Merkle and Andy Devine. Kay gives a breezy, yet sensitive portrayal and the film is watchable many times over.