A Millionaire Amidst the Middle-Class

One of the movies I love best is Rich Man, Poor Girl, an MGM "B" from 1938. Robert Young stars as the rich man, Ruth Hussey is the poor girl: respectively, the boss and his efficient—and quietly lovestruck—secretary. The lovestruck feeling is mutual, and Bob gives it voice in a proposal, but Ruth is wary of the difference between their millionaire and middle-class standings.

In order to prove Ruth's misgivings as balderdash, Bob moves in with her family: the Thayers, an amiable, lovable lot. Heading the family is Guy Kibbee, with the lovely Sarah Padden as his wife. Don Castle and a young Lana Turner act as Ruth's siblings, and a tousle-haired Lew Ayres as the voluble "Cousin Henry."

Cousin Henry's pet topic of conversation is "The Great Middle Class", about which Bob get an earful. Also gotten by Bob in the Thayer household is insomnia, for his bed, to which he goes armed with flyswatter to ward off the winged annoyances of midsummer, is a marvelously uncomfortable davenport. Said insomnia induces Bob to catch a few winks in his office. Rita Johnson, playing his sister, enters to snores which Bob tries to deny:

BOB: I was just lying here, thinking.

RITA: Lucky I came in. You'd have fallen asleep in a minute.

The davenport aside, Bob is crazy about the Thayers, and they about him...and I about this movie.

Something I noticed during the most recent of umpteen viewings, in a scene involving the packing of a steamer trunk: Sarah Padden stands next to the trunk as Don Castle closes it. While leaning over to fix the latch, Don rests his chin on Sarah Padden's arm, and plants a kiss there. Sweet.

Lest it should be thought otherwise, the fine sketch above is not my own handiwork. It was drawn by an MGM staff artist, whose signature looks to me like "Morr Kusnef". Can that be right?