MovieChat Forums > More Than a Secretary (1936) Discussion > Mr. Gilbert + Mazie Don't Make Sense

Mr. Gilbert + Mazie Don't Make Sense

posted 18 years ago by MissGirlFriday
4 replies | jump to latest

Mr. Gilbert opting to hire Mazie and then fool around with her didn't really make a whole lot of sense. At first, I thought he was doing it to help out his friend. But was mixed up why he would feel so much loyalty to a completely unestablished character. Then I thought he was doing it to make Miss Baldwin jealous. Since there were no scenes of Mr. Gilbert having a good time with Mazie, this seemed like the usual way to set up this kind of dupe. In the only scene with them out together, Mazie looks bored. But no! The explanation was that Mr. Gilbert finally wanted to sow his wild oats. Huh? It just didn't add up. Does anyone else think the narrative was tweaked after the film was shot?

Just a weird glitch in an otherwise enjoyable movie.

"Wake up John Doe. You're the hope of the world."

[–] countrygirltori 16 years ago

That part of the story confused me. What I got out of it was: Mr. Gilbert was having somewhat of a midlife crisis and Mazie was really paying attention to him. He does seem bored when he is with her though. And I don't understand why he couldn't just fire her in the end? Mazie said that she wasn't leaving and was going to stay as long as she wanted, but doesn't he still have the right to fire her?

[–] joyce-miller3-1 14 years ago

It took me watching a few times to get it. After Fred and Carol had the real steak and martini dinner, the Lionel Stander character observed that Fred had changed and was acting chipper. That was before Fred met Maizie. So, apparently, Fred was beginning to have feelings for Carol. Maizie came along before he had a chance to recognize his feelings for Carol.

He was ready for a carefree relationship and Maizie was at the right place at the right time.

It wasn't unil Carol AND Maizie were both gone that he realized that his change of attitude was because of his feelings for Carol, not Maizie. He said that he had been feeling different for weeks and he had just realized it was because he was in love with Carol.

[–] kleepeel 12 years ago

Oh my goodness! I am watching this movie right now and just thought the same exact thing. I mean, what happened?! Oh okay, well I guess he's just a big ninny then. I don't care for characters in movies who, especially when they are men, don't seem to know their own mind and make really foolish choices. So the story kind of lost me after that development. This movie was okay, but I'll probably never watch it again. I only watched it because Jean Arthur was in it, whom I ADORE! Now I need to watch 'Talk Of The Town' or something to get the lukewarm taste of this movie out of my system.

[–] mathmaniac 8 years ago

I was a little surprised that Maizie was able to take over her boss so easily. But now I'm thinking that he was easily led because throughout the movie, he has been slowly moving away from being the stodgy health nut with so many rules. That is where he was, what he was, at the very beginning. He is NOT there, he is not that, at the end.

He didn't drink alcohol, then Carol orders martinis for the two of them and he says, 'Well, it's OK once in a while...' Time passes, Carol has been making changes at the magazine and probably in the way the office runs, and now he is ripe for a night at Atlantic City getting perfectly sloshed - with Maizie.

Carol admits that she feels like she's to blame for creating this new man - and now it's going to be something that she regrets!