Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

C. Carroll Adams In the 1930's most studios seldom re-issued movies. But, Columbia was not run like the other major studios. If Harry Cohn had a week without a new film, he would dust off an older movie that he felt still could find an audience.I was only 3 in 1935, so I was not taken to the original release. I am sure my Granny had seen it because she crushed on Melvyn Douglas. But there could have been a secondary reason Granny took me to the 1938 re-issue. My parents were absolutely anti-spanking, while Granny make it clear she wanted me spanked early and often. Therefore she dragged me to every film she could find in which a child near my age was spanked.Claudette Colbert plays "Julia Scott" the Secretary; Edith Fellows (at 12 plays) "Annabel Barclay" at 9; Melvyn Douglas plays "Richard Barclay" the "Boss" and Annabel's father.These days most user reviews focus on the spanking, which was largely talk. Early in the film it is obvious that the super executive secretary is spanking the troubled daughter of her boss. You see Claudette pick up a hairbrush and pat it against her hand. The tells Annabel "This will hurt you more than me." The girl cowers and asks "What are you going to do?" Smash cut to the hall where the dotty yet sweet nanny and vicious aunt listed to rather crude sound effects of a spanking. Twenty running minutes later, and in story time a couple of days, Julia the secretary has married her boss Richard. At breakfast she tells Richard that she will not be going to the office because she is needed at home.Annabel is on both a hunger and talking strike. When Julia sits down wearing a lovely summer house dress, Richard is upset she will not ride to the office with him. Annabel has a tantrum saying she hates Julia. Once Richard leaves, the girl is cornered. Julia orders her uneaten breakfast be taken to her room. Then Julia reminds Annabel her first spanking was "just a paddy-whacking" but under the New Deal the girl will get an "old-fashioned walloping" which is not shown. But during that morning Julia and Annabel bond.Another 18 minutes of film pass, and a day or so in the story. Julia is at the office taking Richard to lunch. They discuss the playboy "Lenny" who just sold them his family department store. Richard can't find, and Julia knows he is with a lady pal of hers. Out of nowhere she says to Richard "He needs a spanking".I recorded this film from TCM on 5 April 2011, but having seen it on screen, I filed that DVD. When I adored Edith Fellows in "Five Peppers..." I dug out "She Married..." and find it good fun, but then I am now 80 and Granny is not around!

kidboots The strongest female stars with the longest careers were those who combined dramatic roles with comedy or screwball ones. Irene Dunne managed it as did Claudette Colbert. For every "Imitation of Life" or "Private Worlds" there was a "It Happened One Night" or "The Gilded Lily". 1935 was a successful year for Claudette - she made the Motion Picture Herald's "Top 10 Money Makers of the Year" list and usurped Kay Francis' position as the best dressed actress in Hollywood.Julia Scott (Colbert) is a busy executive at the Barclay's Department Store. Being so efficient she runs the whole department without causing a kink in her permanent wave but most of her time is devoted to keeping her boss, Richard Barclay's (Melvyn Douglas) home running smoothly - even though she has never been there!! She gets her chance when she is asked to work overtime and realises the whole house is held to ransom by Annabelle (Edith Fellows), Richard's bratty (that's too mild a word) little daughter. Julia asks for complete authority for a couple of hours and at the end she has fired the servants, spanked Annabelle and made a friend of Parsons (Clara Kimball Young) the nanny.Then "she married her boss" and the comedy gets a bit more conventional as Julia has already put Robert's home life in order before they were married!!! The problem is Robert marries her thinking that she is not like other women - that she is efficient and practical, not womanly and needing love. But she has been secretly in love with him from the start and is dismayed that he wants her to continue in her executive position at the office when all she wants is to be a wife.Edith Fellows definitely showed that movie brats had more fun and for the first half hour she did - throwing major tantrums, going on a hunger strike and just being obnoxious but after Rita took to her with a hair brush, she suddenly became another movie darling - singing, reciting poems, with even a crying scene at the end!!! The movie was extremely fortuitous for Melvyn Douglas, whose career before this was at a low ebb. Columbia was finding it difficult to get a big enough star to bask in Claudette's shadow. Douglas brought to the role his quirky humor and Columbia was so pleased that they offered him a seven year contract and gave his career another kick start.

bkoganbing She Married Her Boss is one of those films where the title says it all, no need for any elaboration. Of course the bride is Claudette Colbert who's been crushing out on boss Melvyn Douglas for years.But before she's a bride Claudette is a secretary and a most efficient one at that. She's got the business well organized, but Douglas's home is something of a shambles with spoiled brat of a daughter Edith Fellows ruling the roost and some crooked household help ripping him off.So it's a business arrangement that Douglas has in mind when he marries Colbert. But he's slow on the uptake to realize that Colbert has romance in mind. Playboy Michael Bartlett is not slow however and he's got a nice singing voice to go with some oily charm.Colbert and Douglas get some nice support from folks like Raymond Walburn as the new butler who gets tanked with Douglas, Katharine Alexander as Douglas's snooty sister and Jean Dixon doing the Eve Arden part before Eve Arden was around.Gregory LaCava directed She Married Her Boss and we're certainly not seeing a director's cut. Harry Cohn's editors at Columbia Pictures butchered this one, the film ends rather abruptly though in truth you know where it all is going. And people who've had loved ones killed by drunk drivers won't find Raymond Walburn careening drunkenly through the streets behind the wheel all that funny.Still the stars and the planets do shine in She Married Her Boss.

SaraX626 Most modern viewers of 1930's comedies will be accustomed to the necessity of suspending disbelief and modern sensibilities to entirely enjoy these films. However, She Married Her Boss contains one or two scenes which make this a difficult task. The main problematic scene is the drunk driving scene which is sufficiently reckless as to be just plain alarming to modern audiences but fortunately occurs at the end of the movie so as not to be troubling throughout. The second such scene however is the (aural) scene of Julia (Claudette Colbert) spanking Anabelle several times with a hairbrush. In modern times, with the idea of physically punishing children being so controversial, this scene refuses to simply fade into the background of the film and become simply a comedic scene and lingers in a slight feeling of unease in watching the remainder of the film despite Annabelle's growing affection for Julia. Simliarly Julia's friends taunts of Annabelle appear somewhat cruel; being adults ganging up on an unhappy child, no matter how obnoxious her behaviour.Although some of the comedic aspects of the film may not translate to a modern audience, the film nevertheless contains some gems of serious scenes - Claudette Colbert's reaction to her husband mocking her for behaving like a woman and his criticism that she is making their marriage "just like any other marriage". Similarly the shop dummy scene can be enjoyed on a number of levels, the drunken comedy is delightful but also wonderful is Colbert's pained expression and declaration that "Julia doesn't live here anymore". Finally my favourite scene of the film, when Melvyn Douglass confronts Colbert after her antics in the shop window appear in the press, effectively calling her "second hand goods". Colberts reactions from resignation, to pride to hurt to confrontation are a pure acting lesson.While some of the comedy may struggle to appeal to modern audiences, the scene of the new bride (Colbert) being carried over the thresh-hold by her new husband's butler remains one of the funniest moments in 1930's comedy and Julia's kicking of the child shop dummy (surely a reaction to her troubled step-daughter) remains a guilty pleasure so that despite some reservations the film continues to work on both the dramatic and comedic levels despite some need to be prepared more than usual to put modern considerations aside to entirely enjoy this.