REGENT THEATRE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20181, 9 March 1931, Page 4

REGENT THEATRE.

I "THE OFFICE WIFE." "The Office "Wife," which -will bo the attraction at the Begent Theatre during the; prevent week; does mot convince one that; domestic happinoas is as seriously menaced" a*, is suggested by the story. This lack of ;conviction-"is due probably to faults in"dramatic construction rather than to the acting: of the principals, Dorothy Hackaill and Lewis Stone; which is satisfying enough to atone greatly for the picture's other weak-; nesses: strange, but nevertheless true, that films each as this one/ depicting all the ineincerity and moral or mental ineptitude of sophisticated American society, do not satisfy thf desire for good entertainment; , There ate two "offioe wives" in the picture, lie wis Stone is the fortunate - "office husband." - Tb* first girl is plain, unlovely, but ; loving. She carries out her secretarial duties punctiliously, and at the same time lavishes a wife's oaw on her employer. But. his discovery. of her iove for him leads to her resignation,- Hie second secretary.is-'the beautiful Dorothy - Mafckaili, - who'>entenr"on Ber duties during the hero's honeymoon. She alec loves and resigns, but her employer's wife has proved unfaithful, and the disillusioned husband finds' comfort in eccepting tho secretary's resignation, cm the condition jlipwever that she will mairy him# There id one well-nigh impossible in which "his first wife—presumably—tells Mm without a blush of her infidelity; he replies with a declaration of hU love for the ofiloe-girl, and they put with a platoitic kiss.'. Suiely evoh pfople .soullessl- - ■ .Lewis Stone seems to have been hampered, iiu" his characterisation' by an excessive desire on the part of the directors to "star" Miss Mackaill, who certainty makes a charmine "office' - v Thfire is an unusually ■ interesting programme of supports.