The Private Secretary (1935 film)

The Private Secretary is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Edward Everett Horton, Barry MacKay, Judy Gunn and Oscar Asche. It is an adaptation of the play The Private Secretary by Charles Henry Hawtrey. It was made at Twickenham Studios.

Premise
A timid and dim-witted clergyman is duped into helping a playboy avoid his creditors, inherit his uncle's fortune and get the girl.

Cast

 * Edward Everett Horton as Reverend Robert Spalding
 * Barry MacKay as Douglas Cattermole
 * Judy Gunn as Edith Marsland
 * Oscar Asche as Robert Cattermole
 * Sydney Fairbrother as Miss Ashford
 * Michael Shepley as Henry Marsland
 * Alastair Sim as Nebulae
 * Aubrey Dexter as Gibson
 * O. B. Clarence as Thomas Marsland
 * Davina Craig as Annie

Critical reception
TV Guide felt the comedy of the Victorian farce "didn't translate well into later times. Horton and Sim (in a secondary role) serve as the film's saving graces with some nice comic moments", and Sky Movies agreed, calling the film "a mostly dismal British farce stickily directed by former acting superstar Henry Edwards, but held back from disaster by the pawkily amusing performances of Edward Everett Horton, dithering delightfully in the leading role, and Alastair Sim, offering a lugubrious contribution as Mr Nebulae."