The Richest Girl in the World

Miriam Hopkins may be the richest girl in the world, but no one knows what she looks like. Under the direction of her guardian, Henry Stephenson, there are no pictures of her, and her secretary, Fay Wray, poses as her, even to her board of trustees, while Miss Hopkins appears to be Miss Wray, which annoys her husband, Reginald Denny. Along comes Joel Macrea, who quite obviously falls in love with Miss Hopkins, and she with him. However, he doesn't realize it, and when they discuss things, he says he expects to marry one of these days, to some nice girl, and if his bride had an immense pot of money, that would be nice. So Miss Hopkins, in a fit of self-loathing pride, pushes him to go after Miss Wray.

This was a big hit for RKO, and they remade it twice. Like many of their shows, the original is best. Among the reasons are that as society changed, the an attempt to update the themes made the movies seem irrelevant. The two ladies are absolutely gorgeous, and The under-rated Nick Musuraca's camerawork is dark and sharp, and flattering, the glossy look that RKO sought in its society comedies.

The show centers on Miss Hopkins, and director William Seiter shows a lot of the movie through her reaction shots. Hers was an odd beauty. She could look like a rubber-faced dolt in high fashion, but dress her in simple styles and no one looked more gorgeous.

In many ways this is a confluence of three talents respected at the time, but largely forgotten now. Miss Hopkins, if she is remembered, is recalled for being in Lubitsch's Trouble In Paradise; Seiter, if anyone thinks of him, for a couple of early Shirley Temple features; and almost no one thinks of Musuraca, who started as J. Stuart Blackton's chauffeur and worked through the 1960s. Just three of the innumerable talents that populated Hollywood during the Studio period.

The other people who worked on this movie were no slouches either.

Thanks to a fine and intelligent script by Norman Krasna and to some very good acting, this is a very entertaining and charming little film, about a "poor" rich girl (sort of Barbara Hutton type), seeking for true, "uninterested" love.

Miriam Hopkins is very good and looks pretty as Miss Dorothy Hunter, "the richest girl in the world", and works very well for the first time (they did four more pictures in the following years) with Joel McCrea, who is thoroughly believable as a regular average guy, being (unknowingly) tested by this heiress, who's pretending to be a secretary.

Beautiful Fay Wray, who had worked with McCrea once in 1932, in the very good chiller "The Most Dangerous Game", also at RKO, is excellent as the heroine's pal and secretary, Sylvia, who has to pass as the millionairess, and old pro Henry Stephenson is just right as Hopkin's Tutor.

This nice little movie (short by to today's standards) has good pacing, real, likeable romance and some funny (not so screwballish)situations, even some pretty racy ones (due to the fact that "married" Sylvia impersonates "single" Dorothy), considering it was made in the 1930s, so I believe it must have been released before the Production Code was fully enforced in 1934.

I came to this film because I'd just seen its musical remake, The French Line, a campy colour affair with Jane Russell, 'presented by' Howard Hughes. The French Line isn't unwatchable, although one may want to peep through one's fingers during the cowgirl dance number, but it is outstandingly dated in terms of male-female relations. Jane Russell's richest-girl-in-the-world is warned from the start that she will put men off with her rootin' tootin' tomboyish get-up & behaviour, but it's her money and power that will really convince them she's wearing the pants.

I am mad about Joel McCrea and I like Hopkins a lot. I wanted to see what the original was like. And of course, because it's the 30s there's no such issue. Men and women can be knockabout pals, Joel McCrea is enchanted when Hopkins thrashes him at billiards, they get drunk together, fall asleep smoochily together and the happy ending is wonderfully engineered: you relax your modern PC concerns even though the penultimate scene features McCrea picking her up (protesting wildly) and (off-camera) locking her in his car. It squeaked into cinemas pre-Hays, too, so the last couple of scenes in particular are pretty racy and very funny. The two leads play beautifully together and Fay Wray is always good.

When a movie stars Joel McCrea, you can pretty much guarantee it will be enjoyable...and so I wasn't surprised that I enjoyed this film. It's cute and enjoyable and Miriam Hopkins is quite nice as well.

When the film begins, you learn that the heiress Dorothy Hunter is a bit of an enigma. No one knows what she looks like and folks about to meet her are curious what she looks like. However, what they don't realize is that this 'Dorothy Hunter' is a fake...hired by the real one (Hopkins) because she wants to retain her privacy. This has created a problem, however. How will she meet men and how will she handle it when she meets a nice guy? Well, she gets to try this out when Tony (McCrea) enters her life. She CONTINUES to pretend to be someone else and her assistant continues to pretend to be Dorothy. The problem is that Tony finds he's falling for BOTH women!

This is a sweet film and the stars do a nice job...almost nice enough to give this one an 8. The script isn't easy to believe but the cast do their best to breath life into it.

Miriam Hopkins was an excellent Broadway actress who found a wonderful career in films, even if she never achieved legendary status. In this 1934 movie, she plays the richest woman in the world, undoubtedly a take-off on Barbara Hutton. Desiring to find a man who can love her for herself and not her money, she and her secretary switch identities when there's a potential suitor around.

The game gets dicey when Hopkins meets the man of her dreams, Joel McCrea, and let's face it, he was the man of many women's dreams - tall, handsome, boyish, and athletic. The story continues from there with the usual mix-ups.

As one of the posters pointed out, the secretary, played by the beautiful Fay Wray, is a married woman, which means that Hopkins is actually posing as a married woman and Wray as a single one - this is a long way of saying the film was probably released before the code hit.

Hopkins and McCrea made a good duo, and good thing, because they appeared together several times. This is a pleasant and short comedy, worth seeing for its stars and '30s ambiance.