The Richest Girl in the World (1934)
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The Richest Girl in the World stars Miriam Hopkins in the title role, Joel McCrea as her love interest, and Fay Wray as her friend and secretary. I had never seen a Miriam Hopkins film before this one, but I thought her wonderful. I found her to be one of those actresses who can convey a head full of thoughts with just her expression. Hopkins and McCrea would go on to make four more films together after Richest Girl.
So what happens in a movie about the richest girl in the world?
When the Titanic sinks, baby Dorothy Hunter is left without parents but with their enormous fortune. She grows up under the care of her guardian John Connors, who keeps her hidden from the public eye. By the time she's grown up, Dorothy hold the title of richest girl in the world - except nobody in the world knows what she looks like.
Intrigued yet?
Dorothy is engaged to a man named Donald (played by George Meeker), but he breaks off the engagement and confesses he has fallen in love with someone else. Besides, Donald tells Dorothy, he would never be sure if her was marrying her for her money. It would always be a major factor in their relationship. Dorothy isn't as distressed by his rejection as she is by the idea that she may never find someone who loves her for herself and not her fortune.
Here we pause to admire Dorothy's outfit in this scene. The costumes for the film were designed by the wonderful Walter Plunkett of Gone With the Wind fame. Just look at that collar!
Since it's too late to cancel her engagement party, Dorothy and her secretary/confidante Sylvia decide to switch places - Dorothy's way of warding off fortune-hunters. "Dorothy" (Sylvia) will play hostess while "Sylvia" (Dorothy) goes relatively unnoticed. 1930s Hollywood adored the mistaken-identity trope and used it in dozens of films (The Gay Divorcee, Three of a Kind, and Top Hat, to name a few).
Though it may be difficult to pity the richest girl in the world, it's startling to see how people disregard Dorothy as soon as she assumes the role of her secretary. Free and unnoticed, Dorothy escapes during the party to the billiard room. Lo and behold - there's Joel McCrea, just playing pool by himself. She challenges him to a game, and after winning 60 dollars from him, asks him what he thinks of his hostess Dorothy.
He is seemingly uninfluenced by Dorothy's wealth and status, confessing that when the right girl comes along, it won't matter to him how much money she has. This impresses Dorothy a great deal, and she takes a liking to the man, whose name is Anthony "Tony" Travers. She's also relieved to be herself and drop the heiress identity.
He in turn is drawn to the down-to-earth nature of the heiress's "secretary".
The plot thickens. Tony invites Dorothy to go canoeing, but she leaves to get a sweater and returns to find Tony gone. He's out on the lake in a canoe with Sylvia, who he believes is Dorothy. Confusing, huh? Well, it confuses Dorothy too. She had thought Tony was different, a man who wasn't drawn to her fortune. Seeing him out on the lake with the girl he thinks is the heiress, Dorothy feels slighted.
She hops into a speedboat with Sylvia's husband Phillip (remarkably relaxed about the whole situation, a nice change from the constantly-jealous-husband character in many of these films). Dorothy and Phillip tip over the canoe with the wake from the speedboat, launching Sylvia and Tony into the water.
Dorothy “rescues” Tony, and leaves Phillip to help Sylvia back to the overturned canoe. Back at the house, Tony waits for his clothes to dry by the fire while he and Dorothy have a few drinks and a chat. He explains that he wouldn't marry "Dorothy" for her money, but it certainly wouldn't prevent him from marrying her either.
She realizes that she's fallen in love with Tony, but she needs to know that he loves her regardless of her position, so she keeps up the secretary charade. The rest of the film is a series of "tests" that Dorothy sets for Tony to make sure he wouldn't choose "Dorothy" if he had the chance. After a while you wonder why she doesn't just reveal herself, as it's pretty obvious Tony loves her more than he was ever interested in "Dorothy".
The four go up to Dorothy's Adirondack lodge, where Dorothy convinces Tony to propose to "Dorothy".
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| Tony and the marvelous Adirondack lodge set (pre-code.com) |
She assumes that if he really loves her, he won't do it. Imagine her dismay when he announces he's engaged to "Dorothy", with his arm around a very-uncomfortable Sylvia! In the end, all turns out as it should be, and Tony chooses love over money - or so he thinks. Dorothy never reveals her true identity on-screen, leaving you to assume she does so after the movie ends. Sylvia is free to return to her Phillip - and all is well.
This movie was nominated for a Best Story Oscar (it was written by Norman Krasna), but lost to the crime film Manhattan Melodrama. It was remade in 1944 as Bride by Mistake, with Laraine Day as the heiress and Marsha Hunt as the secretary.
I'm excited to watch the remaining Hopkins/McCrea films after watching Richest Girl. I thought they had good screen chemistry - whether you believe in it or not, it certainly makes a storyline more believable. Could the plot have been straightened out even without Dorothy's "love tests"? Yes. Was it fun to watch them play out? You bet.
The plot may have been questionable at times, and there were definite now-why-would-you-do-that moments, but I quite enjoyed Richest Girl. Watch it for the costumes, for the Transatlantic accents (Dah-ruh-thee!), for the sets - Art-Deco extravaganzas worthy of the title character - and to see whether you can keep Dorothy and Sylvia straight!
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