Her Secret
Cast & Crew
Warren Millais
Sari Maritza
Buster Collier
Alan Mowbray
Ivan Simpson
Monaei Lindley
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Upon learning that his son Johnny has been jailed again for drunk driving, wealthy Chicago industrialist Nils Norton arranges for him to be sent to Tucson to run a gas station. After his father advises him that if he ever meets a good woman to stick to her, Johnny boards a train on which he meets his friend Ermine, who is on her way to the University of Arizona. They drink and neck as she confesses her love for him. In Tucson, across from the gas station, Johnny finds a waffle shop run by a naïve girl from Georgia named Waffles. Johnny tells her to call him "Sugar" and, to her delight, calls her his sweetheart. The next morning, Waffles is disappointed when Johnny breaks a breakfast date to drive with Ermine and her friends to the desert. Later, Johnny returns drunk and fights Waffles' friend Tex. Upset, Waffles tells Johnny that she is going with Tex to a cabin, and this greatly disturbs Johnny. The cabin, located on Tex's property, actually houses Waffles' sick mother, who, Waffles learns, will not live much longer. When Ermine is interrogated by the university dean about her drunken trip to the desert, she says that she got the liquor from Waffles. As the dean approaches the shop to investigate, a fight breaks out inside. Blaming Waffles for contributing to the delinquency of the students, the dean instructs the student council to have the students boycott the shop or have their social privileges taken away. Reconciled, Johnny and Waffles confess their love for each other, but when Waffles refuses to promise never to go to the cabin with another man, he leaves in disgust. Although the dean forbids joyriding to the Mexican border town of Nogales, Johnny accompanies Ermine there and promises to marry her during a drinking binge. Johnny then flirts with a cafe singer on his lap, which provokes Ermine to fight the singer. Soon all the cafe's patrons participate in the melee, and many are arrested, including Johnny and Ermine. Johnny's father visits the station and, attracted to Waffles, kisses her, whereupon she slaps him. After learning that his son is in jail, Norton bails him and his friends out. At the campus dance, Waffles, to make ten dollars to buy her mother orange blossom perfume, does a quaint Southern dance and humiliates herself before the students. Upon seeing Johnny with Ermine and hearing from his father of Johnny's past phony protestations of love, Waffles runs away to the cabin. While she is there, her mother dies. The next morning, Johnny tells his father that he realizes Waffles' worth and really loves her. To protect his son, Norton offers to give Waffles anything if she will accompany him to Chicago. Not understanding his supposed lascivious intent, Waffles asks for one thousand dollars, which she needs to bury her mother in Georgia, but Savannah, her mother's black maid, chases Norton with a mop. After Savannah explains the situation, Waffles and Johnny confess their love and go with his father to Georgia.
Director
Warren Millais
Cast
Sari Maritza
Buster Collier
Alan Mowbray
Ivan Simpson
Monaei Lindley
Rex Armond
Jack De Wees
Barbara Luddy
Leila Mcintyre
Johnny Hymes
Grace Valentine
Mary Lee Manning
Bert James
Crew
Ben Bischoff
Robert Bradfield
M. G. Cohn
Red Crawford
Harry David
Ralph Delacey
Don Donaldson
Bert Eason
Jamie Erickson
S. Edwin Graham
Charles Henley
Martin Jackson
Corson Jowett
Donald Mackenzie
Peverell Marley
Ray Mcdevitt
Helen Mitchell
Ken Walton
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Waffles. No release date has been located; however, the film was reviewed by Film Daily in December 1933. In August 1936, the film was submitted to the PCA for a certificate of approval by Olympic Pictures Corp., and after two shots were deleted, the film, then called The Girl from Georgia was given a certificate number. The film was reviewed under that title in The Exhibitor in November 1936. A number of names on the screen credits were misspelled: the recording engineer was Corson Jowett; the name of Alan Mowbray, the actor playing "Nils" was misspelled as Allan; and the actress playing "Dean of women" was misspelled as "Lela" McIntyre. The film, estimated to have cost $50,000, according to a Variety news item, was financed by people interested in the University of Arizona, including the father of Rex Armond, one of the actors, and by some of the other actors. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, this was the first independent production of Oliver Morosco, Helen Mitchell's husband, and the story was based on a play by Maude Fulton. Neither the play nor Fulton were credited onscreen, and no information has been located concerning the play. Mitchell attended the university where the film was shot, according to Variety.
