When the motion picture began to be a popular form of mass entertainment, there was no small amount of hand wringing over its impact on society.  I must confess to having the same attitude as it regards your mortal soul, which is why I began The Legionnaire.  Around the turn of the twentieth century, the response was to try to make sure such an important medium adhered to certain standards.  Yet, people (whatever that means) will want what they want.  While the more supposedly high-minded demanded moral rectitude in their films, those producing the nickelodeons went for the kind of titillation that had the broadest appeal.  You will not find outright nudity in early cinema as you might today, but they were not above almost any other cheap trick they could devise with their primitive means.  By the 1930s, the stricter minds won out, employing Jesuit priest Father Daniel Lord to pen what became the Production Codes.  The influence of Catholicism on a movie like today’s, Private Number (1936), should be underscored, even if none of the characters confess the Faith.  I mention all this in order to contextualize what I am about to describe to you.

The Private Number in question is Winfield Manor, and the butler at this elite address is Thomas Wroxton (Basil Rathbone).  He exercises a cruel authority over the rest of the staff at this Downton Abbey-esque estate.  The first scene shows him fining maids and other servants for the tinniest infractions, criticizing old men for their age, and liberally threatening dismissals.  Into this harsh work environment enters Ellen Neal (Loretta Young), a seventeen-year-old girl in desperate need of employment.  Still, her situation is not so dire as to ignore Thomas’ creepiness towards her as he interviews her for a position.  She is about to leave when she is prevailed upon by another servant, Gracie (Patsy Kelly), to stay.  Gracie promises to look after Ellen, protecting the new recruit from Thomas’ predations in exchange for friendship.  Despite her misgivings, not only does Ellen stick around, but she flourishes, quickly becoming Mrs. Maggie Winfield’s (Marjorie Gateson), the matron of the home, personal maid.  With such a promotion comes a higher wage, and a little more freedom to go out with Gracie.  On one such evening, after dodging a brawl that breaks out at the club they go to, she is picked up by a gentleman named James Coakley (Monroe Owsley).  He pretends to be chivalrous, offering her a ride home in his car, but instead he takes her to an illegal gambling house.  Over her protests, she is arrested.  The only person she has to turn to for help is Thomas, who is all too eager to comply while professing his love for her.  With difficulty she is able to extricate herself from him, but she is able to return to her normal duties.  It is while attending to these matters that she meets Richard “Dick” Winfield (Robert Taylor), the son and heir to the family fortune.  He is having a party with his college friends when he mistakes her for a guest as she is on her way out to run an errand for Mrs. Winfield.  They have a short dance before she reveals her lowly rank, though this development does not seem to deter him.  With the school year over, it is time for the Winfields to summer in Maine . . . as you do.  Thomas announces that there will be a number of layoffs with the family away, but he tells Ellen that he intends to keep her around so that they can get to know one another.  She is saved by Mrs. Winfield, who invites Ellen and Gracie to go with them north.  Doing so means that Ellen will be spending more time with Dick.  She tries to keep him at arm’s length, citing her station, but he is insistent.  As such, they fall in love.  On her eighteenth birthday, Mrs. Winfield gives Ellen a new dress, inviting her to wear on an evening out.  Without mother’s knowledge, it is worn that night while Ellen is with her son.  As they take a boat across the water to a party, he proposes marriage.  It appears a crazy idea, but she accepts, and they are secretly wedded.  The next day, they return to Winfield Manor and she sees him off to his final year at university.  Upon getting back to her room, Thomas inevitably knocks on her door, renewing his twisted obsession of being with her.  She claims to be in love with someone else, but her vagueness is cleared up when Hamlet, Dick’s pet dog, barks Thomas out of the room.  A few months pass and on a snowy afternoon, Thomas finally obtains the information he needs to ruin Ellen.  Going to Perry (Paul Harvey) and Mrs. Winfield, Dick’s parents, he reports that Ellen is pregnant.  When Perry is about to fire Ellen when she refuses to say who the father is, Gracie angrily speaks up, averring that Ellen is married to Dick.  The Winfields try to buy her off, but she refuses their money and leaves.  More months go by and not long after the baby is born, Ellen receives a notice of annulment.  Gracie and her boyfriend, Smiley Watson (Joe E. Lewis), convince her to fight the legal proceeding.  The attorney they get for Ellen, Sam Stapp (John Miljan), comes up with a strategy of establishing their marriage by pursuing a high-priced lifestyle, something with which she is not entirely comfortable.  Not believing any of it, and only finding out about the annulment after graduating, Dick goes to see an unapologetic Ellen who is going along with it because she thinks he is has fallen out of love with her.  What changes Dick’s mind is learning that Thomas had bribed James, the star witness for Ellen’s side, to testify against his wife.  Dick ends the case before it gets further, admitting to his love for Ellen before the courtroom.  We close with him going to her in the countryside where she had been staying with some friends, and seeing them forgive each other.

The idea of an annulment as we see in Private Number might seem strange to modern audiences, particularly at a time when divorce rates are so high.  The word means something different in a Catholic context.  I have discussed in other reviews when covering classic films that the institution of marriage seems to have been treated differently at this time.  People got wedded quicker, yet stayed together longer, to put it as simply as possible.  I have no explanation for this phenomenon, Catholic or otherwise.  I also cannot completely apply it to today’s film since we only see the elopement and none of the subsequent years.  What I can say is that the Church treats this all with a little more gravity, and it is annulment that I will specifically focus on today.  The Catechism refers to this proceeding as something that should take place only after all other avenues have been exhausted.  This is because in Catholicism, marriage is a sacrament, a holy covenant made between two people before God that no one can break.  There are, unfortunately, too many professed Catholics who may (or may not) have tried to maintain that bond but ultimately initiated divorce proceedings.  I put that in legal terms because I mean precisely that: the lawful separation of what the government sees as a husband and wife. God sees things in another way.  Nonetheless, the Church does acknowledge that there are sometimes special circumstances that would invalidate a marriage. “Invalidate” is key, meaning that it would be argued that the marriage was never fully entered into based on a number of factors, such as a lack of consummation or extreme abuse.  Many Catholics rarely go through with this, though, because they think it is too much of a hassle.  The movie offers an interesting case study in these matters.  Dick and Ellen, by all appearances, did not have a ceremony in a church, so much of this is a moot point.  You do not need Church approval for an annulment without its blessing for the wedding.  However, is what these two go through with in court and the press any less burdensome than a Church annulment?  Granted, this is an extreme case, but it bears comparing.

These last fifteen minutes of Private Number are scandalous, as is much of the rest of the movie, but perhaps not in the same way we would use the word today.  Through it all, Ellen should be praised for her integrity.  She navigates some ill-intentioned men and maintains her innocence the entire time.  If you have eighty minutes to spare, this is not a bad choice on which to use it.