The Office Wife - Dorothy Mackaill

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Lloyd Bacon
USA 1930

Early Talkie titanness Dorothy Mackaill stars in this steamy pairing of racy dramas that tested the limits of the censors - and of marriage! The Office Wife features Mackaill playing a “welcome danger to the tired businessman” while sharing the screen alongside a scene-stealing and clothes-shedding Joan Blondell (in her sophomore screen appearance!). Party Husband finds ex-Ziegfield Girl Dorothy playing the better half of a thoroughly “modern marriage” whose openness threatens to bring about its premature end. Fellow Ziegfield alum Mary Doran plays the coquette whose intended conquest of the free-thinking hubby (James Rennie) starts to throw the couple’s “understanding” awry.

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Theatrical Release: 23 August 1930 (USA)

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DVD Review: Warner Home Video (Dorothy Mackaill Double Feature - Warner) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Warner Home Video Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	0:58:24
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.48 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Dolby Digital Mono (English)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • 2 films on 1 disc DVD Release Date: December 13th, 2012 Keep Case Chapters 6

Comments

We already reviewed two features starring underrated Dorothy Mackaill - Safe in Hell and Love Affair from "Humphrey Bogart - The Columbia Pictures Collection". Both films featured a risque and very natural performances by the star and it was astonishing her name is not as well known, maybe because she rarely appeared in films after 1934, when the pre-code era ended.

Thankfully Warner Home Video released two double features as part of their growing Warner Archive Collection. The Office Wife and Party Husband are standard pre-code dramas with some raunchy humor and plenty of women in different states of undress, most memorable is Joan Blondell taking a bath in The Office Wife. Both un-restored films share a single progressive dual-layered disc. The mono soundtrack is limited for the limited technology of the early talkies, and the prints have plenty of marks, specs and extensive grain is some scenes. But considering the films' age and rarity we are recommending this release only for the stellar performances of one of stars of the pre-code era.

- Gregory Meshman

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