Robert Z. Leonard directed After Office Hours, a minor crime drama, written by Herman Mankiewicz.
Grade: C+ (** out of *****)
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The routine narrative is elevated by its star cast, Clark Gable and Constance Bennett, then at the prime of their popularity.
(Gable made the film after winning the Best Actor Oscar fir Capra’s 1934 screwball comedy, It Happened One Night).
Gable plays Jim Branch, a newspaper editor who falls for wealthy socialite Sharon Norwood (Constance Bennett), after having fired her as a reporter.
It happens while he’s trying to solve a murder mystery, involving her childhood friend Tommy Bannister.
When Jim discovers that Sharon is involved with the murder’s participants, she becomes even more attractive to him.
Popular at the box office, the film earned $759,000 in the US and $522,000 abroad, resulting in a profit of $492,000.
Cast
Constance Bennett as Sharon Norwood
Clark Gable as James “Jim” Branch
Stuart Erwin as Hank Parr
Billie Burke as Mrs. Norwood
Harvey Stephens as Tommy Bannister
Katharine Alexander as Julia Patterson
Hale Hamilton as Henry King Patterson
Henry Travers as Cap
Henry Armetta as Italian diner owner
Charles Richman as Jordan
Herbert Bunston as Barlow, Norwood’s butler
Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Murchison
William Demarest as police detective
Rita La Roy as Branch’s Society Girlfriend
Credits:
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Written by Laurence Stallings and Dale Van Every; screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz
Produced by Robert Z. Leonard, Bernard H. Hyman
Cinematography Charles Rosher
Edited by Tom Held
Production company: MGM
Distributed by Loew’s Inc.
Release date: February 22, 1935
Running time: 72 minutes
Budget $366,000
Box office $1.2 million
