This Is My Affair (1937)

Director:

William A. Seiter

Writers:

Allen Rivkin (story) and
Lamar Trotti (story)

Release Date:

28 May 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | History | Romance

Plot:

Navy Lt. Richard Perry becomes an undercover man out to discover the leaders of a group of well connected...

Plot Keywords:

Bank Robbery | Double Cross | William Mckinley | Trial | Cafe

Cast

Robert Taylor	...	Lt. Richard L. Perry
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Lil Duryea
Victor McLaglen	...	Jock Ramsay
Brian Donlevy	...	Batiste Duryea
John Carradine	...	Ed
Douglas Fowley	...	Alec
Alan Dinehart	...	Doc Keller
Sig Ruman	...	Gus (as Sig Rumann)
Robert McWade	...	Admiral Dewey
Sidney Blackmer	...	President Theodore Roosevelt
Frank Conroy	...	President William McKinley
Marjorie Weaver	...	Miss Blackburn
J.C. Nugent	...	Ernie
Tyler Brooke	...	Specialty
Willard Robertson	...	George Andrews

Also Known As:

His Affair (UK)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #3200) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

This film was made and released before Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor were married. In the oversized, 22-page press book that the studio had prepared for the exhibitors, there were constant references to and blurb lines describing Stanwyck and Taylor as "real-life sweethearts" or "real-life heart interests", etc., stills captions particularly, typical 1930s selling points to be used in the advertising. However, somewhere between the planning and the execution, something went amiss, and the pressbook had an 8x10 snipe pasted on page three with specific instructions: Dated May 26, 1937, and addressed to Exhibitors as IMPORTANT NOTICE. It read: "Delete the phrase "real-life sweethearts" and any similar phase, or any stunts or copy along the same line from all advertising or publicity on THIS IS MY AFFAIR. In utilizing any of the press book materials you will please correct the copy, eliminating the words "real-life sweethearts." Please note that this applies to everything in the press book, publicity copy, ads, exploitation, stunts, etc. Your cooperation will be appreciated." (signed) Charles E. McCarthy-Advertising Manager

Soundtrack:

The Sailor's Hornpipe

An Affair with the President

Did anyone watching this movie wonder if President McKinley got assassinated, because of his secret attempt to unmask one of his confidantes as the kingpin of a crime syndicate? It's a question that was left unexplored here, because, I take it, Americans of the thirties never saw the event as anything but the act of a lone fanatic instead of as a conspiracy. After all, audiences were still recovering from the aftermath of a Depression, and the movies of the time were more concerned with stamping out the Little Caesars and Duke Santees of the day than uncovering political corruption. Allan Rivkin ("The Farmer's Daughter") wrote an interesting story about a naval officer (Robert Taylor) who, in secret correspondence with McKinley, uncovers the linchpin behind a wave of bank robberies in the upper Midwest centered in, of all places, St. Paul, Minnesota. The screenplay gets sanctimonious in the hands of Lamar Trotti, and the script did not inspire William Seiter to more imaginative heights. Brian Donlevy plays the crime boss with his usual menace, while Barbara Stanwyck (of all people) as his half-sister is made to sing (She's barely on-key, like Marlene Dietrich in "The Blue Angel.") and wear big, floppy hats--even in her stage act. The only one I've ever seen on screen who could pull off wearing headgear like these is Mae West, and she was at least in on the joke. Stanwyck, on the other hand, is forced to be unswervingly sincere throughout. Her character Lil and the officer idle on Lake Como and get serious about each other, much to the dismay of Victor MacLaglen who's Donlevy's sidekick, prone to playing practical jokes, and thinks he has it in with her. The acting is uniformly bad; I guess Stanwyck and Taylor were too much in love at the time to care. The story deserved better than this. A secret only you and the President share you would think should take precedence over run-of-the mill movie romance. Unless it involves a cigar and a stained dress...