Third Finger, Left Hand

Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas sparkle in this lightweight romantic comedy. Obviously, the ring on the third finger of the left hand means a gal is married. Myrna Loy is not married, she is an editor who is a 'career gal' at an influential New York-based fashion magazine. But she claims to be married, and her husband is always 'away' and no one has met him. She has increasing difficulty maintaining this fiction, however. Melvyn Douglas discovers the truth and impersonates the non-existent husband, to amusing and sometimes hilarious effect. Well, you can guess the rest. Fun to watch because of Loy and Douglas, though not a masterpiece by any means.

Myrna Loy wears a wedding ring on her "Third Finger, Left Hand" in this 1940 comedy, but she's not married. As Margot, the editor of a popular womens magazine, she tells everyone she's married to a guy named Tony. Why? Because every other woman who's had the job has lost it because of the publisher's wife. He's got a roving eye. Meanwhile, Philip Booth (Lee Bowman) wants to marry her, but she just can't seem to find Tony to get a divorce.

Then Margot meets Jeff Thompson (Melvyn Douglas), an artist who figures out that there's no Tony. So he shows up at her house and announces that he is Tony. Now she's in a pickle, and she can't divorce him without marrying him first.

This is a cute comedy, nothing special, with good acting by the always reliable Loy and Douglas. As he sailed through all these supporting roles, Douglas was hiding a serious, incredible dramatic talent. Fortunately, once he was older and there was no studio to cast him as the other man, he was able to show it.

One interesting thing about this film is the role of the train porter Sam, played by Ernest Whitman, who is pulled into service by Jeff to delay the settlement negotiations en route to Reno. Sam is your typical train porter of those days until he tells Jeff that he's taken law correspondence courses. He then recites law to Philip and Margot and delays the divorce. Very unusual for those days, as is the wonderful character of Oliver Cromwell Jones in "Crash Dive" who is one of the soldiers on the submarine. These good roles for African Americans were few and far between back then.

The story is fun even if predictable, but I have to wonder, what was Jeff Thompson (Melvyn Douglas) thinking? But I'll get back to that.

Margot Sherwood (Myrna Loy) is the editor of a magazine who has a fictitious husband - Tony Merrick - so that she won't get hit on by all of the men who work for the magazine back at a time when smoking and sexual harassment were acceptable in the workplace. It works, but then along comes somebody - artist Jeff Thompson (Melvyn Douglas) - that she would like to see romantically, so she goes out on the town without telling Jeff about the husband. Unfortunately, a drunken would be suitor is also out on the town too and mentions said husband. Jeff is shocked, and Margot explains it was an impulsive never consummated marriage that she intends to end in divorce, but that she cannot find Tony and he is in Argentina somewhere. Jeff uses his journalist contacts in Argentina - funny thing for an artist to have - and discovers there is no husband.

And that is why I ask, what was Jeff thinking when he barges into Margot's home and claims to be said husband? Her dad calls the press, because Margot's family is a prominent one it ends up in the newspapers, and he introduces himself to all of her friends. This could end several ways - For sure Margot is going to cool to him for doing this, maybe she might even announce he is a fraud - there is just no easy out. She does have a bit of fun at his expense when they run into his friends from Ohio and she does her best Jean Harlow as Jeff's saucy hard boiled wife, shocking the small town Ohioans.

So all of this is why Jeff is awful. Margot is awful because, to get out of this predicament legally, she convinces an attorney friend of hers that she is in love with him and would marry him if free of the pretend Mr. Merrick AKA Jeff, and to accomplish this she needs his talents as an attorney. The actors are what make this film, but it is really hard to look at them as nice people after all of the using that both leads do in service of the plot.

One thing nice about the old studio system - MGM had a deep bench of contract players in 1940, not the least of which is Felix Bressart and his homely puss, dishing out homespun compassionate advice in a great supporting role. Also possibly the earliest American film with an African American attorney as a plot device.

I watched this movie just the other night and found it refreshing and yet sweet. I was also amazed how much this movie reflects a lot of problems that some women in positions of authority have with the stigma of not being married. Besides that I will say that the modern romantic comedies borrow greatly from movies such as this yet even though I have seen many romantic comedies I found this movie fresh and almost new probably due to fact that the cliques nowadays evolved from this movie. I will also admit I love Myrna Loy and with a certain degree of bias I enjoy all her movies and love her mere presence in the movie and I was caught unaware of her improvising skill when she did her Brooklyn accent. I found Mervyn Douglas a good match though had a feeling that the character written may have been for William Powell. I found it quick and enjoyable and this is why classics always bring a smile to my face.

While this comedy is about the romantic complications facing a woman executive and the artist who loves her, "Third Finger, Left Hand" provides a rarely seen dignified Black role. When first we see Sam (portrayed by veteran African American actor, Ernest Whitman) he is a train porter speaking in an 'uneducated' manner - employing the type of language structure used by script writers of the time to reinforce negative racial stereotypes. Later, however, a Sam is revealed to have taken college correspondence courses for years and to be someone quite knowledgeable in matters of Law: able to quote court rulings and present effective legal arguments on behalf of his client, the artist. Ultimately, Sam is the hero of "Third Finger, Left Hand", making it possible for the protagonists' love to triumph.