Private Number (1936 film)
Private Number is a 1936 American drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Loretta Young, Robert Taylor and Basil Rathbone. It is sometimes known by the alternative title of Secret Interlude. It was based on the play Common Clay by Cleves Kinkead which had previously been made into a film of the same name in 1930. Following the more rigorous enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code after 1934, many of the more salacious elements of the earlier film were left out.
| Private Number | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Film Poster | |
| Directed by | Roy Del Ruth |
| Produced by | Raymond Griffith Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Written by | Cleves Kinkead (play) William M. Conselman Gene Markey |
| Starring | Loretta Young Robert Taylor Basil Rathbone Patsy Kelly Joe E. Lewis |
| Music by | Cyril J. Mockridge |
| Cinematography | J. Peverell Marley |
| Edited by | Allen McNeil |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot summary
Ellen Neal is hired as servant in the house of the wealthy Winfield family by the butler, Thomas Wroxton, who covets her romantically. Wroxton rules the household staff like a tyrant, demanding a large cut of their weekly wages as his "commission". To his great irritation, Neal resists his advances. Instead, during the family's vacation in New England she becomes romantically involved with the Winfields' son, Richard, who is a college student. They secretly marry and she falls pregnant by him before he returns to college. When the Winfields are told by a vengeful Wroxton that she is pregnant they are initially sympathetic until discovering that the child is their own grandson. A prolonged divorce suit then follows until the couple are finally reconciled.
Main cast
- Loretta Young as Ellen Neal
- Robert Taylor as Richard Winfield
- Basil Rathbone as Thomas Wroxton
- Patsy Kelly as Gracie
- Joe E. Lewis as Smiley Watson
- Marjorie Gateson as Mrs. Maggie Winfield
- Paul Harvey as Perry Winfield
- Jane Darwell as Mrs. Meecham
- Paul Stanton as Rawlings
- John Miljan as Sam Stapp
- Monroe Owsley as James Coakley
- Billy Bevan as Frederick
- George Irving as Judge
- May Beatty as Grandma Gammon
Bibliography
- Bernstein, Matthew. Controlling Hollywood: Censorship and Regulation in the Studio Era. Athlone Press, 2000.