The Richest Girl in the World

Agree with prior comments. Nice period piece that you'll see elements of other ones to come like His Girl Friday. Screenplay got Oscar nom. Fay Wray had RKO's biggest grosser King Kong previous year, 1933. Then made 11 pictures before this one in 1934! Studios really pushed their people. Of course, many were of the "play" type and of short length so the Formula could roll them along. That's both good and bad. This one does hold interest tho. Great faces on the women and high style Art Deco look.

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.

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.

Heiress Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) was left an orphan by the Titanic sinking. She is known as the Richest Girl in the World. She was raised by fellow survivor John Connors who kept her in reclusive isolation. So much so that only her inner circle knows what she looks like. When she is to meet her business managers, her secretary Sylvia Lockwood (Fay Wray) takes her place as her double. Her fiancé cancels their wedding and she's perfectly fine with it. She didn't love him anyways. After his comment, she wonders if any man would love her for her and not her money. Instead of announcing the cancellation, she continues with the engagement party where she meets Tony Travers (Joel McCrea) while pretending to be Sylvia. She keeps pushing him to woo the heiress Dorothy as a test of his real motivation. Sylvia is eager to join the ruse despite her new husband's objection.

This has some fun screwball concept. It's able to stay light and fluffy. The main issue is that Tony has to thread the needle in this movie. He has to play along with Dorothy's crazy test but he also can't play along with her. The story is actually set up for a love triangle but this movie isn't trying for one. Everything is kept light as there is never any doubt of the two leads getting together. No matter how hard Dorothy pushes, Tony is never really convincing in his pursuit of rich Dorothy. This is fine but it could have been more interesting.

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.