WHEN LADIES MEET (1933)

Wife vs. mistress: Ann Harding and Myrna Loy

WHEN LADIES MEET (1933). Director: Harry Beaumont. NOTE: Some plot points are given away in this review.

Novelist Mary Howard (Myrna Loy) has had a sort of long-time boyfriend in Jimmie Lee (Robert Montgomery), who is hopelessly in love with her. But Mary has fallen for her married publisher, Rogers Woodruf (Frank Morgan), and is examining the situation in her latest, unfinished novel. She thinks the heroine, who is also having an affair, should intelligently talk things out with her paramour's wife, an idea that the men who read her book, at least, think is crazy. But then Jimmie concocts a scheme where he manages to get both wife, Clare (Ann Harding of The Unknown Man), and mistress -- and eventually the husband -- in the same house during a weekend in the country, and the scenario Mary has envisioned may play out differently than she expects.

Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy

When Ladies Meet is a frank, interesting and well-played comedy-drama whose best scene is when the two women talk about husbands, affairs, mistresses and infidelity without Clare being aware that Mary is her husband's latest girlfriend, and without Mary knowing that Clare is her lover's wife! Then the husband shows up ... Although Loy never quite seems bright enough to be a serious novelist (yet her character is rather naive) and Harding overplays a couple of moments, both ladies give good (not great) performances. Also notable are the boyish Montgomery as the mischievous Jimmie, and Alice Brady [Three Smart Girls] as the ever-talkative and amusing Bridget, who is hosting the country weekend along with her architect-boyfriend, Walter (Martin Burton).

Frank Morgan: a young woman's dream of bliss? 

A decided weakness of the film is the miscasting of Frank Morgan as the publisher. Not terribly attractive and with a distinctly negative aura in this, Morgan is a bad choice to play a lover boy. It might make more sense if Mary was an aspiring author, and wants Morgan's help and tutelage, but while pretty young woman do on occasion become attached to much less appealing older men, this pairing is a bit much to swallow. Woodruf turns out to be a real pig in any case. Harding has some very good moments coming to some hard conclusions abut her marriage, although Loy underplays her rejection scene way too much. Whatever its flaws, When Ladies Meet is absorbing and entertaining. It was remade eight years later with the same story, much of the same dialogue, but with a completely different cast. Loy and Harding also played rivals in The Animal Kingdom. 

Verdict: Illicit romances never run smoothly. ***.