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This Is My Affair

1937, Movie, NR, 99 mins

This Is My Affair: Review

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A combination crime-love story and semi-musical set against some true facts, THIS IS MY AFFAIR was the second teaming for off-screen lovers Taylor and Stanwyck. The results may or may not have been what caused them to wait 27 years until they worked together again in THE NIGHT WALKER. The story is set in the early years of the twentieth century. Taylor is a young navy man who had served heroically at Manila under McWade (as Adm. Dewey). A gang of bank robbers have been terrorizing the Midwest; using modern methods, they appear to have been able to bypass security systems, have ways of obtaining bank keys, and seem to take whatever they want whenever and wherever they want. This series of robberies is causing the populace to wonder if banks are safe, so money is being withdrawn and stuffed back into the mattresses whence it came. The President himself, Conroy (as the ill-fated McKinley), arranges to have Taylor resign his commission and disappear, then emerge again as another person with no history, the reason being that Taylor has been secretly handed the role of breaking up the bank robbery gang. The only person who knows about it is the President. Now undercover, Taylor arrives in Minnesota where he begins hanging around with nefarious types. He soon meets Stanwyck, a singer in a saloon owned by McLaglen, who is the leader of the bank robbers. McLaglen's sidekick is Donlevy, the half-brother of Stanwyck. Taylor uses Stanwyck to worm his way into the bank robbers' confidence, and he is soon accepted. He is bothered by the fact that he is falling in love with Stanwyck, but his duty to his country is more important to him so he continues his plan to expose the crooks. Taylor becomes one of the mob and goes on a job with them. They don't know that he's anonymously tipped off the authorities so when they are all captured, he is one of them and he assumes he can get out by calling upon Conroy. The entire group is sentenced to be executed and that includes Taylor, because McKinley is assassinated by crazed anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition on September 6th, 1901, in Buffalo, New York. (The wounds were not dressed correctly and McKinley lived eight more days until dying of gangrene.) Blackmer (as Teddy Roosevelt) takes over the reins of the nation and Stanwyck has to make a direct appeal to him in order to get Taylor out of the shadow of the gallows. By this time, Taylor has the names of the higher-ups who have been providing McLaglen with the information on the banks, but it may be too late. Stanwyck has to use all sorts of wiles to get to the closely guarded Blackmer but she is desperately in love with Taylor and just manages to catch Blackmer's ear. Taylor is released once Blackmer hears the truth and the two lovers wind up in a clinch at the fadeout. Darryl F. Zanuck was in charge of production at the studio and used his pen name of "Melville Crossman" to supply the story, which had some basis in fact. Since Zanuck was so busy, the film was actually produced by Kenneth MacGowan, who received "associate producer" credit on the picture. There really was no novel by the name of The McKinley Case that we could uncover. Franchot Tone and Alice Faye were the first choices, then Don Ameche was announced. Taylor was under contract to MGM and must have been on a loan-out. He and Stanwyck married two years after this. Despite having once been a chorus girl in the "Ziegfeld Follies" and other stage reviews, Stanwyck never had much of a singing voice. She was coached by composer Jule Styne in the singing of the Mack Gordon, Harry Revel tunes, which included: "I Hum a Waltz," "Fill It Up," and "Put Down Your Glasses, Pick Up Your Girl." Blackmer's portrayal of Roosevelt was so well done and his face was so well disguised that he submerged his personality entirely and darn near became the "Bully Boy" president. A well-made picture with an authentic period feel about it. leave a comment
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