Hot Saturday (1932)

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Nancy Carroll stars as a young bank worker who loses her job and becomes the subject of gossip after she spends a night with a rich womanizer, played by Cary Grant. Even though Carroll never did anything improper, the town saw her arrive at a big party with one man (Edward Woods), and leave with another. Yet a third man (Randolph Scott) visits town and confesses his love to her. As her mother (Jane Darwell) condemns her and the town thumbs their noses at her, what will she do?

Hot Saturday moves briskly and the cast carries the film admirably. Carroll overacts here and there, but is certainly a sympathetic lead. Grant is even better, putting on the charm so effortlessly, it’s hard to imagine how anyone wouldn’t fall under his spell here. Scott’s role is relatively small, but the camera loves his face. And Jane Darwell (The Grapes of Wrath, The Devil and Daniel Webster) is one of those ‘comfort actors’ it’s always great to see again. The film also features a cool, underlit dance sequence and a remarkable amount of outdoor, on-location photography (rare for films of the era).

Best of all, Hot Saturday was released before the Hays Code was enforced, which means it does not have to end in a safe, morally sanitized fashion. I like the ending — but if it were released just a few years later, you can bet it wouldn’t have ended the same way.

Hot Saturday is also noteworthy for introducing Cary Grant and Randolph Scott to each other. The two men became life-long friends, living off-and-on in a beach house together for ten years following the end of the production. It was long rumored that the two were romantically involved, and that the studio sent women to the beach house to throw off the tabloids. We’ll never know the truth. Grant died in 1986. Scott reportedly put his head in his hands and wept upon hearing the news. He died just a few months later.