Wife vs Secretary

Plot

Magazine publisher Van Stanhope (Clark Gable) and his wife, Linda, (Myrna Loy) are celebrating their third wedding anniversary. They are very much in love and Van gives Linda a diamond bracelet. However, Van's secretary, the beautiful Helen "Whitey" Wilson (Jean Harlow), is thought by Van's mother (May Robson) to be a temptation to Van. Linda refuses to listen to all of her friends and Van's mother as she trusts Van. In truth, she has all the reason in the world to trust him, as his relationship with Whitey is strictly business.

Meanwhile, Whitey's beau, Dave (James Stewart), is very uncomfortable about her relationship with Van as he calls one night while they're having dinner to ask that Whitey help him finish work at a party. When Dave asks Whitey to marry him, Whitey refuses, and buries herself further in her work.

When Van has to be very secretive to buy J. D. Underwood's (George Barbier) weekly, for fear that his rival will buy it instead, only Whitey is permitted to know, providing still more conflict between Van and his wife.

When Van returns from his business meeting with Underwood, and tells Linda that he has been at the club all day, Linda discovers that he has not been at the club but rather has been out with Whitey, who was merely helping him prepare for his discussion with Underwood. At a skating party, Linda is too sick to skate. As Van and Whitey skate together, Linda hears from one of the wives there that Van and Whitey are most likely having an affair. When Linda and Van get into the car, they fight when Linda requests that Van have Whitey moved to another employer. Van refuses and Linda ignores him for the rest of the evening until she calls him back to make up.

Van plans a trip for himself and Linda, but when he learns that Underwood is at a conference in Havana, changes his plans and won't permit Linda to accompany him while he works. Whitey learns of important information regarding the rival paper, which results in Van bringing her to Havana to close the deal. While celebrating the successful closing of the deal, they develop a drunken attraction to each other but do not consummate this attraction. When Linda calls at 2 am, Whitey answers the phone, and she assumes they are having an affair.

Van returns to New York only to have Linda ignoring him entirely and asking for a divorce. Lonely, he asks Whitey to accompany him to Bermuda as a friend, which she, having fallen in love with Van, agrees to. But, realizing that Van will never love her as much as he loves Linda, Whitey visits her on the ship that Linda has planned to take to Europe. Whitey challenges her to go back to Van, telling her that she would be a fool to let him go. After resistance, Linda meets him in his office, and they make up. Whitey is then met by Dave, and they make up as well.

Cast

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $1,350,000 in the US and Canada and $717,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $876,000.