Directed by: Charles Martin

Starring: Laraine Day, Kirk Douglas, Keenan Wynn, Helen Walker, Rudy Vallee

STORY

Aspiring writer Stephanie “Steve” Gaylord thinks she has landed the opportunity of a lifetime when successful novelist Owen Waterbury hires her as his secretary.

There is just one problem.

Owen seems to be interested in almost everything except writing.

His apartment doubles as an office, his working habits are practically nonexistent, women constantly wander through his life, bills pile up, interruptions are endless, and his wonderfully chaotic friend Ronnie Hastings only adds to the madness.

Steve came to work for a literary genius.

Instead, she finds herself trying to organize a charming, irresponsible playboy who appears determined to turn his professional life into one enormous party.

But underneath the arguments, exasperation and flying sparks, something else is happening.

Steve is falling for Owen — and Owen is falling for Steve.

Marriage should solve everything.

Naturally, it doesn't.

When Steve's own talent as a writer begins attracting attention, professional jealousy joins romantic jealousy, and suddenly the battle isn't simply between a secretary and her impossible boss — it's between two writers trying to figure out whether love can survive ambition, ego and a typewriter.

MY DEAR SECRETARY is a fast, breezy romantic comedy filled with verbal sparring, eccentric characters and a wonderfully different side of Kirk Douglas.

AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS
A VERY DIFFERENT KIRK DOUGLAS

Audiences accustomed to the intense, muscular dramatic performances that would define Kirk Douglas's career may be surprised by the light comic performance he gives here.

Douglas plays Owen Waterbury as charming, maddening, egotistical and thoroughly irresponsible — and clearly has fun doing it.

Even more interesting: MY DEAR SECRETARY arrived very early in Douglas's movie career.

He had made his film debut only two years earlier in THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946) and had already appeared in films including OUT OF THE PAST (1947) and I WALK ALONE (1948).

His career-changing performance in CHAMPION was still ahead of him in 1949.

That makes MY DEAR SECRETARY a fascinating snapshot of Kirk Douglas before Hollywood had completely decided what a Kirk Douglas movie star was going to be.

LARAINE DAY GETS TO GIVE IT RIGHT BACK

Laraine Day's Stephanie “Steve” Gaylord isn't simply there to admire Owen Waterbury.

She wants to be a writer herself.

That gives the movie an especially entertaining reversal when Steve's literary ambitions begin becoming very real and Owen discovers that having a talented writer for a wife isn't quite as comfortable as having an admiring secretary.

KEENAN WYNN — COMEDY TROUBLEMAKER EXTRAORDINAIRE

Then there is Keenan Wynn as Ronnie Hastings.

Ronnie is exactly the kind of friend an irresponsible writer like Owen Waterbury absolutely does not need — which makes him exactly the friend this comedy needs.

Wynn barrels through the picture creating chaos, puncturing serious moments and helping give the film its screwball rhythm.

LOOK WHO'S HERE — IRENE RYAN!

Yes, THAT Irene Ryan.

Years before television audiences knew and loved her as Granny on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, Ryan appears in the supporting cast.

It's one of those wonderful AIN “WAIT — IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS?” moments.

AND RUDY VALLEE!

Singer, bandleader, actor and one of America's earliest genuine mass-media heartthrobs Rudy Vallee appears as Charles Harris.

By 1948, Vallee had already been famous for roughly two decades and had successfully transformed himself from crooning idol into a remarkably effective comic character actor.

ONE MAN WROTE AND DIRECTED IT

Charles Martin both wrote and directed MY DEAR SECRETARY.

The film therefore carries one comic sensibility from screenplay through production — particularly noticeable in its rapid movement between romantic comedy, domestic farce and screwball chaos.

BEHIND THE CAMERA

The film was photographed by Joseph F. Biroc, who went on to an extraordinary career that included everything from film noir and television to major Hollywood productions.

Decades later, Biroc would win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) with Fred J. Koenekamp.

THE MUSIC

The score was composed by Heinz Roemheld, an enormously prolific Hollywood composer whose career stretched back into the early sound era.

A CARDINAL PICTURES PRODUCTION

MY DEAR SECRETARY was produced by Cardinal Pictures and released through United Artists.

Producer Harry M. Popkin presented the picture, with Leo C. Popkin serving as producer.

$100,000 FOR THE STORY!

Here's a particularly good AINTOID:

Contemporary trade reporting cited by the American Film Institute says Harry M. Popkin purchased the story rights for $100,000 — serious money in 1948.

The project was originally expected to be released through 20th Century-Fox before ultimately becoming a Cardinal Pictures production released by United Artists.

A LITTLE HOLLYWOOD TIME CAPSULE

MY DEAR SECRETARY captures a particularly delightful strain of postwar Hollywood comedy:

Apartments become offices.

Writers somehow survive without actually writing.

Publishers appear at precisely the wrong moment.

Secretaries run everything.

Friends refuse to leave.

Romance destroys productivity.

And everyone is dressed beautifully while the entire world falls apart.

Now THAT is a comedy.