Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

SimonJack The plot for "His Private Secretary" is a good one. It's a variation on a common theme for later films about a rich father who rues that he has a son who has been spoiled. Only, the screenplay for this film is not very good. It has holes in places and isn't tightly put together. The quality overall is crude and rough.The film was made by Mascot, one of the Tin Pan Alley studios of the time. It's an early John Wayne film – one of the first in which he is credited and has a lead. Even then, Evalyn Knapp is billed ahead of him. But like so many other players from Tin Pan Alley, she never went much further in film and was forgotten by the 1940s. Wayne is one of a small number of players who got a start in the bottom rung of movie makers but who climbed to the highest rung and stardom. The acting is so-so here, but it does show that Wayne had some talent and early on was comfortable in front of the camera. He would go on to make many more films of various genres, including a host of dime Westerns before the 1939 John Ford film, "Stagecoach," that caused his star to rise.

Uriah43 This is one of those movies that a person is going to have to make several allowances for in order to enjoy it. First, this movie was very short (60 minutes). Along with that, it seems to be filmed in segments and doesn't flow smoothly from one to the other. Quite choppy. Now, part of the reason for both of these aspects is probably to contain costs. And I fully understand that in lieu of the fact that this movie was produced during the Great Depression. However, these factors really stood out and gave the entire film a rather cheap feeling to it. Fortunately, there are a couple of good things going for this movie too. For one, it has John Wayne ("Richard Wallace") as the leading actor. Granted this is one of his earliest films and he doesn't quite have the screen presence he commanded in his later years. But that's only to be expected. Another good thing was the performance of Evalyn Knapp (as "Marion Hall"). She was really special. Be that as it may, these two ingredients couldn't quite overcome the weaknesses I mentioned earlier. As such, while the movie is definitely cute, I have to give it an average rating.

csteidler Grumpy millionaire businessman Mr. Wallace is fed up with his wild son. The young man is out late again, the "girl crazy young squirt." Eventually the wayward son arrives home; the old man corrals him, assigns him to yet another position in his company, and orders him to be on the job at 9:00 a.m.The son, of course, is John Wayne. He doesn't look totally convincing as a prodigal rich kid, but really is hard to resist. His new job is going to be as a bill collector, and he has a hilarious scene practicing in the mirror—wagging his finger and demanding payment. The plot moves fast…the Duke has a kind of girl friend who is an obvious gold digger. He goes outstate to try and collect a debt from a small town minister. The minister's granddaughter (Evalyn Knapp) is quite spirited, very pretty, and is not impressed with Wayne's spoiled overconfidence in his own charms. Naturally, he quickly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, back home, the gold digger is plotting to marry him at her earliest opportunity….In what is a long story compressed into a matter of moments, Knapp winds up married to Wayne and working incognito as his old man's secretary. It goes on from there but never really gels as a convincing story. Evalyn Knapp is really pretty good as the granddaughter—her performance is lively and covers a nice range of emotion and expression. Also, her character has virtually all of the brains in the entire picture. Reginald Barlow is energetic as the often scowling, occasionally crowing millionaire dad. John Wayne is kind of funny…he has a kind of odd charm, even in a role so unsuited to his talents. He seems to be at his best—most natural—in a couple of scenes with a neighborhood kid who eggs him on and helps him out. It's not believable for a minute, partly because everything happens so fast and (often) for so little apparent reason. Enjoyable enough, however, if only for the presence of Wayne and the nice performance by the wonderful Evalyn Knapp.

suesuth-2 Though the quality of the film is not too great (hey, it IS from 1933!), it is a good little movie, and the entertainment value exceeds the quality (at least in the version we watched).It is fun to see John Wayne in this atypical role. He plays the part of a fun-loving rich playboy, whose father wants him to settle down and start working in the family business. When he does the ultimate in settling down, by getting married, his father is convinced the wife is a gold-digger. How she convinces him otherwise is clever and well done, and shows the value of being a positive person with initiative.MOST of the other comments on this movie say it so well, but I wanted to add one more very positive comment for the film.If you are a John Wayne fan, you should definitely watch this movie.