RICH MAN, POOR GIRL

US, 1938, 72 minutes. Black and white.
Robert Young, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey, Lana Turner, Guy Kibbee, Sarah Padden, Rita Johnson, Don Castle, Virginia Grey.
Directed by Reinhold Schunzel.

Rich Man, Poor Girl is an MGM supporting feature, a star vehicle for Robert Young. There is a very strong cast led by Lew Ayres as well as a strong leading lady in Ruth Hussey. Lana Turner had made a few films at this time but has a very strong role here (at the age of eighteen or nineteen). After a few smaller roles, she would appear in four significant films in 1941, Ziegfeld Girl, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Johnny Eager and Honky Tonk. The supporting cast includes Guy Kibbee, always a comic character, as well as a very sympathetic Sarah Padden as the mother of the family.

The title reveals all. As the Depression years were coming to an end, MGM made this film, based on a play which is evident in many of the scenes, about a rich man, sympathetic, who learns how the other half lives by becoming engaged to his secretary. He is challenged all the time by the cousin of the family, played by Lew Ayres, unable to keep a job, yet offering reflections on the great middle class and its being unjustly by society.

The family consists of Guy Kibbee and Sarah Padden as Ma and Pa, Don Castle as the brother who works with his father, Ruth Hussey as the daughter who is the secretary, Lana Turner who is ambitious for wealth and society life.

There are quite a number of discussions about the rich and their not understanding the poor, patronising the poor. It also focuses on the poor wanting to be self-dependent and not dependent on charity. There is a crisis when Robert Young’s character tries to arrange a job for Lew Ayres and he reacts very badly.

However, the gist of the film at the end is the millionaire deciding to give his millions away to establish a hospital that would treat the great middle class. The family then become scrupulous and want to talk him out of it. However, there is a pleasant compromise as he endows the hospital but also then gets a home for the family, much more upmarket, and gives the father an opportunity to establish a partnership in a new factory.

The film is strong on the characters and the dialogue. Robert Young gives yet another pleasant performance. Lew Ayres was to continue variations on this kind of screen persona for many years (though blacklisted because of his conscientious objection in World War Two). There are humorous scenes in the dinginess of the house, upset at a huge banquet, sailing on a yacht.

The film was directed by Reinhold Schunzel, a German actor who had directed a number of films in Germany, moved to the United States at this time and made a few MGM films including Balalaika.