Hot Saturday (1932) User Reviews

Fun tale of small-town hypocrisy; worth watching for Grant and Scott

[robb_772 · 7/10 · 15 September 2006]

This pre-Code film about the hypocrisy of small town life manages to deviate somewhat from it's conventional outline due to a surprisingly liberated lead character and convincing performances by the three principal stars. Nancy Carroll plays a rather independent young woman who is unfairly given a bad reputation around her hometown, which embarrasses her parents and even endangers her "rebound" engagement with one of her lifelong acquaintances, played by the very hunky Randolph Scott. Both Carroll and Scott are perfectly cast and play their roles flawlessly (Carroll, in particular, expertly handles some difficult scenes), but picture is stolen somewhat by a young Cary Grant as the third point of the love triangle. In what is largely considered his first leading role, Grant is already a sexy, charismatic presence in this film and I defy anyone to try taking their eyes off of him whenever he's on screen.

From a historical perspective, HOT Saturday is also highly interesting due to it's fair amount of surprisingly racy moments; the likes of which wouldn't be seen again in Hollywood until the late-sixties. The highlight is when Carroll forcibly yanks off Rose Coghlan's underwear, and there is even a later illusion to bondage when Carroll appears in gauntlet cuffs. The film also features a surprisingly free-wheeling nature that is uncharacteristic of the era; Carroll's character Ruth is woman who basically embraces her negative reputation and manages to find a degree of liberation in the process, a theme that wouldn't become very popular in movies until nearly four decades later. All of this, in addition to the combustible chemistry between Carroll, Grant, and Scott, render HOT Saturday as a delightfully unconventional film of it's era.

I liked it

[hotangen · 6/10 · 24 September 2012]

I got this pre-code collection of 6 early 30s movies from the library, and the first one into the DVD player was Hot Saturday, starring Nancy Carroll. Surprisingly, Cary Grant, recipient of Paramount's star building process, has top billing, although his is a support role. I've seen Carroll's name and picture in the early 30s movie magazines and knew she was a star, but I haven't seen any of her films before and never would have without this collection.

Carroll is not beautiful, but she has star presence. This film is hers and she is wonderful in it. So likable. And the story of mean gossips who destroy her reputation, she the most popular girl in town, is an interesting one. Looking back 80 years it's so surprising to see how important it was for girls to protect their good name in order to capture a husband. Public and private attitudes toward 'bad' girls certainly have changed over the decades.

I was surprised too at Carroll's mother turning against her. Ouch. But her henpecked father believed in her and came to her defense. That was nice. But it was now time to leave her family, neighbors, 'friends', small town, and go on to greener pastures in the Big City with the rich and oh-so-handsome, debonaire, sophisticated, charming, and nice playboy.

After working at other studios when her Paramount contract ended in 1934, her stardom was fini in 1938. What this tells me is that it requires luck to continue to build a career and maintain a hold on the movie-going public. Carroll, like many other short-lived stars, did not have Colbert's luck or business sense. But that's the way the Hollywood cookie crumbles.

Small town strife

[kidboots · 8/10 · 19 February 2009]

Nancy Carroll was exceptionally pretty and could do anything - she could sing and dance and when given the opportunity was an exceptional actress. A combination of bad temper and bad film roles toppled her from her lofty "Queen of the Screen" pedestal after only a couple of years at the top.

In only his 7th film Cary Grant (looking so young) received top billing over Nancy Carroll (presumably Paramount had high hopes for Grant) but it is Nancy's film all the way.

Ruth Brock (Nancy Carroll) is a pretty bank clerk, who has all the boys in a lather. Everyone is going to Willow Springs on Saturday night and Ruth is going with Connie (Eddie Woods). Romer Sheffield (Cary Grant) is also the talk of the town - the talk is people want him run out of town. After paying $10,000 to get rid of his latest fling, he asks Connie to bring the gang to his place on Saturday for a party.

Ruth is the sole support of her money grubbing family. Her mother (Jane Darwell) is looking forward to the return of Bill (Randolph Scott), a childhood friend of Ruth's, now wealthy and a successful geologist.

When Connie tries "cave man tactics" on Ruth during a boat ride, she jumps ashore and walks back to Romer's house. Earlier in the evening, Romer, who had always been keen on Ruth, got very flirtatious with her, much to Connie's disgust. Connie, driving around looking for her, sees her sitting on Romer's porch. He attempts to "rescue" her but Romer tells him to go back to town and cool off. He goes back to town but for revenge starts spreading rumours about her. The town takes up the story and it spreads like wildfire. Ruth finds she is ostracised and loses her job. In the middle of this Bill comes back and rekindles his romance with Ruth. After a violent scene with her mother - this is a Jane Darwell that is unknown to me. If you have only seen her as the kindly, benevolent matron of Shirley Temple films, it will be quite a shock. I think she badly overacts but it is still something to see.

Ruth runs off in the rain to Bill's digs and after a sexy scene involving removal of wet clothes, he declares his love for her and they become engaged. At the engagement party Bill overhears some gossip about her and calls their engagement off. Connie had maliciously invited Romer - but when Romer arrives he realises what is happening and discreetly goes. Ruth upset by Bill's dressing down leaves with Romer. The next morning Ruth calls in to pick up some clothes and when Bill says he forgives her she says that last night everything the gossips were saying about her was untrue but this morning it was true. She then leaves with Romer for New York and, hopefully, a preacher!!!

Cary Grant was such a natural actor. In the hands of another actor, Romer could have come off stiff and stuffy but Cary made him likable and sensitive. Eddie Woods, who played opposite James Cagney in "The Public Enemy" played Connie and pretty English actress Lilian Bond played Eva. Stanley Smith, who was once a rising star at Paramount and played opposite Nancy Carroll in a couple of early musicals, had the thankless role of Joe. He can be glimpsed in the first scene as a lovesick bank teller and then at Romer's party.

Highly Recommended.

"Is Listerine good for brains?"

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 15 August 2014]

Small town 'nice' girl (Nancy Carroll) becomes victim of rumors that she spent the night with wealthy playboy (Cary Grant). Because of this she loses her job and her boyfriend (Randolph Scott). Decent Pre-Coder with some risqué subject matter. Love the funny scene where Nancy Carroll wrestles her younger sister and removes her underwear. Carroll is cute and has good chemistry with Grant. Cary's very charming even this early in his career. Scott's fine, too. Jane Darwell plays Carroll's shrewish mother. Nice production and small town atmosphere. I saw this on TCM and the print is exceptionally good for a movie this old.

Gossip

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 20 April 2013]

Newcomer Cary Grant was paired with Paramount star Nancy Carroll in Hot Saturday, a film which is most dated, but still packs quite a punch. Nancy Carroll's stardom was beginning to slip while Cary as we know was fast on the rise.

Hot Saturday however is about gossip, something that will eternally be with us. But happy to say some people's attitudes have definitely changed for the better. Nancy Carroll would not be fired today from her job at a bank because of her private life.

Carroll's a popular girl with all the young men of her town, but she's engaged to stalwart Randolph Scott who's a promising young engineer. One of her fellow co-workers at the bank Edward Wood tries to put the moves on her, but she won't give him a tumble. It's he who starts a nasty rumor about Carroll and the town playboy Cary Grant who is guilty of nothing more than offering her a ride home in his car after she ran off from Woods.

Depending on where you are from malicious gossip will probably not have the effect it does on Nancy Carroll. Still it can damage one. Years ago in a former place of work and we're talking now about the 1970s I recall in my office there was a section known as the 'poison pond'. It was where a few women who had nothing else to do but gossip about everything and everyone else around. No escaped their malicious tongues and something like what happens to Nancy Carroll would have been grist for that mill for a month.

Thank God people have a more live and let live attitude, but gossip is still a perennial problem and Hot Saturday deals nicely with it.

Good story about small-town society

[atlasmb · 7/10 · 19 September 2014]

Ruth (Nancy Carroll) is a bank clerk in a small town where the only diversion for young adults is a dance hall named Willow Springs outside of town. Ruth is pursued by a number of young men, including a wealthy playboy, Romer Sheffield (Cary Grant). She is very successful at keeping them all at arm's length, though she occasionally enjoys tempting them.

After Ruth returns home later than usual, the town's rumor mill--spurred by rival Eva--has a heyday. With her reputation ruined, Ruth makes some choices that are life-altering.

The music that accompanies the opening credits might lead the viewer to expect a madcap comedy. It is nothing of the sort. It is a scathing depiction of small-town society. However, the ending--which is, if nothing else, confusing--suggests that the film is (also) a cautionary tale. Whichever way you interpret it, this film is very interesting.

The acting is good. Nancy Carroll shines. Cary Grant and Randolph Scott are strong in their roles.

Paramount Turns Up the Heat

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 6 December 2014]

In small-town Marysville, attractive bank clerk Nancy Carroll (as Ruth Brock) is desired by several young men. She prefers to play the field. One of Ms. Carroll's more ardent admirers is wealthy playboy Cary Grant (as Romer Sheffield). He invites Ms. Carroll and her friends over to his lakeside estate for alcohol and fun, on a "Hot Saturday" night in July. Carroll arrives, on a date with co-worker Edward Woods (as Connie Billop). She refuses to make-out with him during a boat ride, so he dumps her ashore. That's not very gentlemanly. Carroll walks to Mr. Grant's house and he sends her home in his chauffeured car. Jealous banker's daughter Lilian Bond (as Eva Randolph) sees Carroll sneaking in late and spreads the rumor that Carroll spent the night with Grant. Carroll's reputation is ruined...

Soon, girl-shy geologist Randolph Scott (William "Bill" Fadden) returns to town, after seven years. A childhood friend, Mr. Scott discovers Carroll has grown out of her pigtails and into a bra. Carroll sees quick marriage as a solution to her problems. "Hot Saturday" is about malicious gossip, which has turned out to be a timeless problem. It's interesting to see it play out in the 1930s. Director William Seiter and the Paramount studio crew really go to town on "Marysville". The automobiles and fashions gleam. There are almost too many people in early background scenes; probably, everyone ran errands on Saturday. Watch for a scene occurring at just under 15 minutes of running time; in it, Carroll wrestles her squealing teenage sister Rose Coughlan (as Annie) to remove some stolen under-shorts.

****** Hot Saturday (10/28/32) William Seiter ~ Nancy Carroll, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Edward Woods

Great scenes, sets, photography, and interactions...loved it

[secondtake · 8/10 · 24 September 2011]

Hot Saturday (1932)

There are a few early Cary Grant movies where he has a small role, or where he isn't quite the "Cary Grant" we have come to expect (and which he always jokingly said he wanted to become himself). But this one is pure, true Grant, and very early, indeed. But even better, the plot, the mise-en-scene (including town scenes, domestic situations, and a range of outdoor stuff at the lake including a bohemian roadhouse on the water), and the photography are amazing. I mean amazing. There are a few stumbles in the acting, but you get so swept along, and so continually surprised, this won't matter much at all.

The director of all this gets a huge amount of credit, because William Seiter who pulls the best out of the cast and the crew, equally--and who presumably helped choose some terrific location shots as well as matching studio scenes. Seiter was a Hollywood working man director, doing lesser A-list films and making them decent, though none that I've seen (a small fraction of a huge output from the 20s to the 40s) has the energy and flair of this one. And this is an unsung one, definitely worth seeking out.

Likewise, Arthur Todd behind the camera did a dumpload of good if unamazing films, and so it was with the music and set design. But the leading lady is another story. Nancy Carroll really steals the show, even from Grant and the other leading male, the rather wooden and handsome Randolph Scott. She has a kind of live-wire, doll-face quality a little similar to Claudette Colbert, easily as amazing in this film. Carroll supposedly had more fan mail than any actress in this era of Hollywood, and was contracted with Paramount (which was the studio here). But she was so difficult to work with offscreen (rejecting many parts) they let her go, and her career slid, and she probably missed out on another higher kind of stardom.

But here she is alive, sympathetic, and complex on screen. If Cary Grant isn't enough to lure you in, give Carroll her due.

This is of course a pre-code film (widely advertised as such) and in fact the looseness of the events, the morality of the lead, and the suggestive scenes (never explicit) all help make this come alive. The dance and party scenes are so much fun you'll wish you were there, and the cave in the storm as well as the night scenes in the woods are pretty amazing, too. The end will prove, again, both the ability of pre-code films to touch on real life issues, and the need of even these kinds of films to have a moral compass by the end. The very last few seconds takes care of this.

Great stuff. A huge surprise for me.

Nancy Carroll should have been a star

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 23 July 2021]

In small town America, everyone knows everyone else's business, and gossip flies fast. That's why bank teller Nancy Carroll is careful to go out in a big group and never stay out too late. She's usually glad to have a good reputation; but when she has a bad day at the office and her parents won't stop fighting, she doesn't care anymore. She goes out in a big group one Saturday night, but she openly flirts with notorious playboy Cary Grant. When her escort takes her out on the lake for some private time, she wiggles free and runs off to be with Cary instead! Do you think that'll send the gossip mill running?

Although he gets a higher billing, Randolph Scott has a much smaller part than Cary Grant. Cary is the "ungettable get" with tons of money and nothing to do. His pre-stardom makeup makes him look very weird, however, and if you look closely you can get a glimpse of his old teeth. When Scottie McScottie Pants comes on the scene, he's just gorgeous. Messy hair flopping in his face, smiles for miles, and a passion for geology even though there's no money in it. He's got my vote! But who would you pick? Watch this old movie for some pre-Code giggles and a very old-fashioned premise. Nancy Carroll is just as cute as it gets; I wonder why didn't become as big a star as her contemporaries like Carole Lombard or Jean Harlow.

Yesterday's Morality

[howardeisman · 5/10 · 9 December 2017]

I'm so old that I can remember when the morality depicted in this movie was still strong. No sex before marriage. And then make an advantageous marriage. This morality is the basis of this film, and the story which is derived from it seem to reflect some of the twenties silents about wild girls-who really weren't so wild.

In any case, Nancy Carroll Kewpie-doll face, much in style at that time, is mesmerizing. This is one attractive woman.A young Cary Grant is also preternaturally attractive. This is a very early film for him, but he already has that Cary Grant manner about him. Here, he has charm, looks, lots of money, and one hell of a custom build car. Chauffeur driven, of course. Randolph Scott appears late; he is one nice guy. Sort of what Ralph Bellamy became a bit later.

If this movie had a message, it was garbled The whole enterprise was fun, although this clearly was not meant to be a comedy. The serious parts of the movie are so dated, that they play as light comedy, not drama..

Nancy Carroll shines ...

[sws-3 · 10/10 · 2 October 1999]

Nancy Carroll shines as an innocent woman nearly destroyed by >gossip in this very unflattering portrait of small town America. >Now forgotten, Carroll brings sensitivity, depth, and humor to >her performance. An inexperienced but effective Cary Grant is a >man with charm and without conventional morals. The ending is a >surprise.

pretty people, vicious rumors

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 20 June 2015]

Small towns and everybody in your business is the subject of "Hot Saturday," from 1932.

Cary Grant, though in a supporting role, stars in this Paramount film with the adorable Nancy Carroll. Grant was getting the star build-up at the time and had not yet become his "Cary Grant" persona. Having seen a lot of early Grant films, I'd say he was heavier early on and I personally think his nose was different. Just an observation.

Nancy Carroll plays bank clerk Ruth Brock, who is pretty and popular. She's engaged to tall, handsome Randolph Scott. I wouldn't cheat on him either.

When she rejects one of her coworkers, Ed, he starts gossip about her and a notorious playboy (Grant), when all that happened was that she ran away from him and into the woods, and Grant offered her a ride home.

They live in a small town where if you have a funeral with a closed casket, it's assumed to be suicide. So the ramifications for Ruth are bad. She loses her job, for one thing, her mother turns against her, and it gets worse!

Good film and a good example of the mores of the day, and I think there is still a double standard for men's and women's behavior in some areas and among some groups.

Carroll was a real bright light whose looks reminded me of Claudette Colbert's. She made a highly successful transition into talkies and was an enormous star at Paramount throughout the 1930s. She retired in 1938 and eleven years later, began to work in television, and later, returned to her stage roots. She died of an aneurysm in her hotel room during a run of "Never Too Late."

Worth seeing for the leads.

Harper Valley PTA, 1930s style

[1930s_Time_Machine · 5/10 · 7 October 2023]

This takes a while to get going, indeed the first half hour is pretty dull. It is worth sticking with it though as eventuality it evolves into a mature little drama about small town prejudice and petty small mindedness.

Nancy Caroll gives a give an outstanding performance as Ruth, a pretty but very normal, and ordinary girl who lives in a town called Marysville where the national sport seems to be gossip and pernicious tittle-tattle. Unlike many female lead roles in the 30s, Ruth is her own person, she's not someone who's prepared to just be someone's possession. Through no fault of her own, she acquires the wrath of the town gossips and is soon treated like a pariah by the whole nasty little town.

The two men in her life who might be able to help are her sweet childhood sweetheart and the local millionaire playboy. In a twist from the usual 1930s plot-line, the sweet childhood sweetheart turns out to be the bad 'un whereas the millionaire playboy (Cary Grant) is the knight in shining armour.

The natural and modern style of acting along the oppressiveness of the insular and mundane life of the town gives this picture a real sense of authenticity. Director William Seiter as usual delivers a believable story which you can empathise with. Nobody is particularly memorable, nobody stands out from the crowd. This makes it all very true to life but not especially exciting. Everything however happens so fast that it never has time to get boring although a bit of humour might have given it some extra sparkle.

Overall, it's a very well acted and well directed drama about that judgmental and snobbish attitude which although still pervades society today was endemic during this more pseudo moralistic time. It's not particularly shocking or revelatory and not really that memorable but it's an interesting glimpse into a former time.

A small town drama about gossip, lies, mistrust, and love in the end

[SimonJack · 7/10 · 28 March 2022]

Cary Grant's star had risen enough by the end of 1932, that he would get top billing in this film, and soon, in all of the movies that he would make. But the main star of this film is Nancy Carroll. While she is quite good, and an attractive actress, she only had the leads in a few films and mostly performed in second roles or supporting roles until she would end her relatively short career in TV.

Along with Grant and Carroll are Randolph Scott in a role that's barely much more than a cameo, with just four brief scenes. But his appearance is enough to change the future of Carroll's character. She plays Ruth Brock, while Scott is Bill Fadden and Gant plays Romer Sheffield. Also here are Jane Darwell as Ida Brock, Lilian Bond as Eva Randolph and Edward Woods as Connie Billop.

Billop's character is person one might like to poke in the nose (for a guy) or lay a hard hand (for a gal). But Eva and many of the town gossips could all use some dressing down too.

While the townsfolk gossip about a lie that was perpetrated by Billop, Sheffield has remained a gentleman throughout. When Fadden thinks the worst of Ruth and their wedding is off, she has but one choice. It's a good film that shows the evil and harm of lies. Several old films had town busy-bodies spreading gossip on the telephone. Sort of like modern young people, especially, posting all sorts of fiction about themselves on social medial with cell phones.

The only incongruity in the film is at the end. Although Sheffield clearly has fallen for Ruth, her quick change from loving Bill and wanting to marry him, to a lifetime of affection for Romer is a little hard to believe. Part of her problem in the first place was that she wouldn't at least tell her parents the truth about her night out when Billop forced himself on her at the lake and she had to get out of the boat to get away from him. But, this is Hollywood, so it's nice to think that Ruth's reward was a happy life married to the wealthy Romer Sheffield, traveling and seeing the world. And, of course, having a family and other things that make life really fulfilling.

The Cast Makes the Film Worth Watching

[Michael_Elliott · 10 March 2017]

Hot Saturday (1932)

*** (out of 4)

Ruth Brock (Nancy Carroll) lives in a very small town where everyone knows the other person's business. The whole town loves to gossip with a lot of it being about Romer Sheffield (Cary Grant) who is a notorious womanizer. One day Ruth and Romer strike up a friendship and a jealous man decides to spread a vicious rumor and pretty soon the whole town turns on Ruth.

HOT Saturday is a morality tale about how stupid people in stupid small towns like to play moral cops and will throw away anyone they feel is beneath them. Obviously this film could hit home even today as gossip still runs rampant and is even more so on something like social media. If you're looking for a flawless movie or even a classic one then this really isn't that but at the same time it's a rather charming and entertaining film that's certainly worth watching.

It should go without saying but the highlight of the films are the actual performances. I really enjoyed Carroll in the lead as she was very believable in the role of the woman with morals who finds herself being attacked by a bunch of rumors. I really did think Carroll got the "good girl" aspect correct and she kept you glued to what was going on. Grant is also very good playing the playboy who isn't quite as shallow as some would believe. Randolph Scott is good as her eventual love interest and Jane Darwell is exceptionally good as the rather bad mother. Grady Sutton also has a nice role as does Edward Woods as a real slime-ball who sadly never gets his due in the picture.

Director William A. Seiter does a good job with the material even though there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here. The story is a quite simple one and it gets its point across without having to become too preachy.

Hot Enough For You?

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 21 October 2014]

Someone recently remarked that I always find some sort of "message" in movies, which is a filthy lie.

The message behind this story of flirtation, misinterpretation, unrequited love, and a spoiled girl's marriage to the rich and unutterably handsome Cary Grant is that gossip is always treated as a bad thing. Old ladies whispering behind curtains, and all that. It's not true that gossip is always a bad thing. It's a means of social control. In the small, stable communities of yesteryear, gossip was a far more effective instrument of social control than the police ever were. Everybody watches everybody else, especially the Argus-eyed children. You can't get away with a damned thing. If you try, you get caught.

The Old Order Amish have brought this form of punishment to a state of near perfection. Ever hear of an Old Order Amish cop? No. They don't need any. The miscreant is simply "shunned", as would be a cheater at West Point.

In this case, a cute but flirtatious Nancy Carroll works at a bank. (This is in the depths of the depression.) All the boys try to date her, but she's a lady and given to teasing and bamboozling the local goons. One of them is the cocky Ed Woods; you might remember him as Jimmy Cagney's buddy in "Public Enemy."

The youngsters from the bank, the soda shop, and other institutions of the young are invited to a party at the house of the immensely rich Cary Grant, who shows an interest in Carroll, and she him. But Woods is her date and he takes her for a rowboat ride and is all over her like an aardvark in heat until prim Carroll is forced to abandon the boat and walk around the lake to the nearest house, which is Grant's mansion. He's polite, cheerful but thoughtful, and sends her home in his car.

But that rotten Edward Woods begins spreading the rumor that she spent the whole NIGHT at Grant's palace, and I guess we all know what THAT means. Nobody will talk to her, her mother scolds her, her friends desert her, and she's fired from her job at the bank. What's worst, the man who has loved her from afar, as they say, for seven years, has just returned from college That would be Randolph Scott, a geologist, and the rumor leaves him shaken and angry.

The ending implodes. Carroll runs away, back to Grant's estate, and actually DOES spend hours alone with him. I dread to think what went on. Then she and Grant run away together in Grant's glass and enamel circus wagon. It's unfair. Scott has shown himself to be a nice guy, morally upright and devoted to Carroll. Yet she throws her licentiousness in his face after he's come to apologize, and without giving him a chance to speak, she takes off.

The corollary message is this: Girls, always marry a terribly rich man who looks exactly like Cary Grant and forget about all that baloney about "faithfulness" and "love." After you're married for a proper period, you can divorce the rich guy and clean his clock.

Some Like it Hot Saturday

[HarlowMGM · 8/10 · 31 May 2009]

Hot Saturday is neat little pre-code drama with one of Cary Grant's earliest starring roles. Grant is top-billed but the center of the film is actually Nancy Carroll, an enormously popular young actress in the first years of the talkies, 1929-1931 but apparently already starting to slip in 1932 being second-billed to a newcomer.

Carroll is a pretty bank clerk whom all the local boys are crazy about, including scandalous young heir Cary Grant as Romer Sheffield (aren't all Sheffields in old movies wealthy?), who brings out of town girls in to stay at his estate for weeks at a time. When Cary invites the local young people to his home on the lake for a party, they all happily agree even though he is quite infamous among the older folks. Carroll is escorted by local boy Edward Woods. who turns into quite a leech on private boat ride and when Nancy won't come across, abandons her on the other side of the lake. Nancy ends up walking some distance and the nearest home just so happens to be Cary's estate. When she is seen by her trampy rival Lilan Bond coming home in Grant's car, the jealous bitch starts a rumor that spreads like wildfire that Nancy spent the night alone with Cary, a rumor that causes Nancy to lose her job and threatens her long, chaste romance with Randolph Scott.

This little melodrama has an excellent cast (except for Bond, whose line readings are flat) that makes the slim story interesting. Nancy Carroll is cute and does very well with her role, making her part sympathetic at all times but she is saddled with a terrible hairstyle and has on way too much makeup. Cary Grant is excellent as the free-loving hedonist to whom marriage is a no-no but he is surprisingly topped in sex appeal by his friend Randolph Scott as the decent and shy semi-beau of Carroll's. Edward Woods is very effective as the All American pal who turns out to be a major creep and there's a very good performance from Jane Darwell as Nancy's bossy and prudish mother. Hot Saturday is not a classic but it definitely deserves a look if you enjoy pre-codes.

small town gossips always have a field day

[tpea1 · 3/10 · 19 January 2011]

I have read some reviews and feel so many miss the point of this film . The intro gives the gist in a nutshell - ' a busy telephone exchange where everybody knows on Sunday what everybody did on Saturday night -and the rest of the week '.

The film is slow in developing the theme ,but it does a good job of getting all of the characters identified and their traits so the plot is ready to unfold .It unfolds quickly and then the misdeed is set in motion . Conny and Eva are the 2 " hot ones ' on the youth circuit . When they see Ruth coming back in Romer's car , they begin with their havoc . First Connie lies and and then Eva lets the cat out of the bag on the phone in front of her mother .

The film shows how quickly gossip can spread and how the story expands and the changes are received as gospel truth . The cruelty and the harshness continue to grow with the telling and re-telling . No one dare questions the veracity of the charges . Once the gossip gets going , there is no recalling the charges . The tragedy is they will never get their comeuppance because no one will trace the source . That's life in a small town where there is a busy telephone exchange

Then the gossips take over . Ruth's reputation is ruined in one day .An it continues as small towns need to have something to talk about . It grows worse until Ruth is looked upon as the town tramp and fired .

She sees marrying Randolph Scott as a quick way to end the shame , but it wouldn't in reality . She would be years living this scandal down if ever .

This was about as accurate a portrayal of the visciousness of life in a small town as you will find . This truly is a piece of 'Americana 'of life as you will find .

Jane Darwell expressed small town mentality of parents not wanting to be embarrassed by the actions of the children because they have live with the populace . Today , most parents would give it no thought

That is the reason Grant's name was pronounced 'rumor' . The ending was stilted and contrived to tone down the scandal . Ruth was getting away from it all . You see the little hesitation of Ruth as she lifts her head up and then she lays her head on Grant's shoulder . Grant's transformation is stretching one's credulousness . All of the ending was asking too much .

Excellent cast, interesting story, and undershorts

[erinh · 8/10 · 11 October 2009]

Aside from the silly and gratuitous underwear scene, this movie does a good job of telling the story of poor Ruth Brock, a hard-working, put-upon small town girl who is judged and persecuted by her neighbors and so-called friends following a day of fun on an eponymous 'Hot Saturday' in the summer of 1932.

Subsequent events show how much women had staked on maintaining their reputations at that time, a topic that didn't go away with the enforcement of the production code though it lost a lot of its nuance. The expression on Ruth's face in the last frame of this film is so uncertain...she doesn't know if she's doing the right thing, doesn't know quite what she's getting into. I grieve for the loss of that ambiguity in films made in the years to come.

Nancy Carroll is brilliant in the role of Ruth, sparing the audience tedious hysterics and instead portraying the bitterness and frustration of living in a town of petty fools with nothing better to do than tear each other apart. I sort of wish there were two versions of this movie, one starring Carroll and one starring Barbara Stanwyck so I could do a side-by-side comparison. Stanwyck did such a good job with offended righteousness in 'Night Nurse'. But I'd keep Cary Grant in both...young and perfectly cast in the role of the local "disreputable cad" (that's how he's described (aptly) on the label).

But even a disreputable cad can have good points...and keen-eyed, truthful, pre-production code Ruth won't fail to notice them...

I think this one is a bit overrated...

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 16 April 2009]

Wow. After reading through the reviews, I was very surprised to see one gave it a 10 and another gave it 9--even though this sure looks like just another B-movie to me--and not a particularly great one. Now this isn't saying it's a bad film--it just suffers a bit from some less than stellar acting and a plot that's been done better in other films.

The film begins with a lady who appears to be the most desirable lady in town, as every man in town seems to chase after her with their tongues hanging out like the wolf in Tex Avery cartoons. Nancy Carroll didn't look THAT hot, but at every turn men in this hypocritical town pursue her with abandon. The first, a co-worker, is a total octopus on their date and she runs away from this animal and into the arms of the town's noted playboy (Cary Grant). So, although she is a good girl, because she goes home with Grant she's branded a tramp---even though nothing happened! Nice town, eh? Soon after the town begins spreading gossip about her, she's fired from her job and is heartbroken. But, at the same time an old beau (Randolph Scott) returns to town and asks her to marry him. In hindsight, she probably should have told him about these rumors, but considering she's done nothing, you really can't blame her. And, when Scott hears of these ridiculous lurid tales, he foolishly believes them and she leaves him in disgust--after all, who wants to marry a weenie who is so easily swayed? This time, however, she DOES turn to Grant and just doesn't care anymore about what anyone thinks!! And, in a surprising twist, in the last four minutes of the film, she goes from Scott's fiancé to riding to a honeymoon with Grant!! Talk about your whirlwind romances!!

This film is very surprising to watch unless you realize that it's a prime example of a so-called "Pre-Code Film". Films up until 1934 varied tremendously in their morality. Unlike the homogenized films of the mid-1930s and into the 60s, the films made before the strengthened Production Code had such topics as adultery, premarital sex, cursing and even nudity. In HOT Saturday, even though the leading lady is really quite innocent, there is a very strong undercurrent of sex throughout the film and it's quite frank in talking about sexual urges. In addition, it features a few lines where strong language is implied and in the end of the film, the nice lady runs off with a man who is nice but also very sexually experienced!! Plus, there is a small scene where Ms. Carroll strips her sister that is completely unnecessary to the plot and rather crude. This never could have happened if the film had been made a few years later. Having her living happily ever after with a man with Grant's reputation must have ruffled a few feathers in the generally conservative audiences of the day! Plus, considering that all the "good" people of this town are in fact evil hypocrites, this film is quite a hoot to watch audiences react to HOT Saturday.

Unfortunately, while the film is entertaining, some of the acting wasn't great (such as Edward Woods and Scott) and a few of the plot twists seemed contrived. It's really just an average film that also happens to have a healthy dose of sex. But for lovers of Pre-Code films, it's a must-see because of its shocking morality.

NOTE--This movie is bundled with another Pre-Code film, TORCH SINGER, on DVD.

Now This Is the Way to Do a Twist Ending

[evanston_dad · 8/10 · 20 October 2014]

"Hot Saturday" is a terrific little movie, and much better than its IMDb rating would suggest.

This was my first exposure to Nancy Carroll, and it's clear from her performance and screen presence why she was such a major star, if only for a short time. She plays a young woman living in a small town who becomes the subject of rumors when she's seen cavorting with a known rascal, played by Cary Grant, who likewise proves why he rocketed to stardom and stayed there. When Carroll realizes the small-minded people of the town are going to treat her like a floozy whether or not any of the rumors are true, she decides to make them true by giving the town (and Grant) what they want. This happens much to the dismay of her solid, down-to-earth beau, played by Randolph Scott.

I was not expecting this film to end the way it did, and was thrilled at the way it completely defied my expectations. Carroll doesn't see the error of her ways, apologize to her mom and dad and hunker down to a nice, sensible marriage with Scott. Instead, she hops in a car, essentially gives the entire town the finger, and rides off with Grant. Take that, Production Code!!

It was so refreshing to see a film that allows a woman her sexuality without forcing her to apologize for it by the film's end. Sure, she's going to be branded a slut by the town she's leaving behind, but the movie makes the town and the people in it so miserable that the viewer doesn't care any more for its opinion than Carroll does herself.

"Hot Saturday" is on a double DVD bill with "Torch Singer," and the two films together make a dynamite duo.

Grade: A-

Bad Decision Making

[view_and_review · 2/10 · 13 July 2023]

There was a movie released in 1932 called "Big City Blues." It was about the terrible horrors that happened to a small town Indiana boy when he went to New York. By the end he was back in Indiana penniless and narrowly free from prison.

I think "Hot Saturday" was the answer to "Big City Blues."

"Hot Saturday" is about the woes of a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business and they do nothing but gossip about it.

Ruth Brock (Nancy Carroll) was a young bank teller in the small town of Marysville USA. She was pretty and it seemed that all the guys liked her. Ruth was a bit of a flirt and a partier. She liked to have a good time with the boys, but she never went all the way with them. She'd be considered a good girl by some standards and a bad girl by others. She'd also be considered a tease by some standards and a girl simply having fun by others.

After one night of partying that went awry she wound up at the home of Romer Sheffield (Cary Grant), a rich playboy who was interested in Ruth as well. She didn't do anything with him--that time--but she was seen being returned home in his car at 2:30 in the morning.

The gossip machine began abuzzing.

Within a day Ruth's name became mud and she lost her job. All the townsfolk were looking down at the local girl who spent the night at Romer's house.

Was it unfair? Maybe. It's not a modern problem by any means, but in a small town in 1932 women weren't supposed to do things like that. And even if the rumors weren't true, she'd exhibited enough of a flirtatious and "fast" behavior to make everyone readily believe it.

Up until this point the movie was pretty good. The entire scenario was very believable and it was intriguing to see it play out on screen. Then the movie went left.

To clear her name and escape the rumors Ruth decided to marry Willam (Randolph Scott), a childhood friend who was in town to do some geologist work for an oil company. William loved Ruth. Even though he went away for college and became a geologist, he still pined for Ruth. At this point there were no less than four men who wanted Ruth. Apparently she had a powerful pheromone emitting from her that was irresistible.

After a fight with her mom Ruth drove to William's excavation site in the middle of God-knows-where during a storm in order to find him. On the way there she passed out from exhaustion as only a delicate female could. William found her laying in the mud unconscious and rescued her. Then they decided to get married. No questions asked, just wild assumptions about one another when they hadn't seen each other in years.

Well, you knew this couldn't be the end. Somehow Romer would have to be dragged back into the picture and he was. Romer came to Ruth's going away party where William overheard a couple of guys talking about the rumor about Ruth and Romer. Naturally, William became upset and confronted Ruth. She tried to explain that it was all untrue, but her own guilty behavior at the party made William convinced that something had happened between the two of them.

Had William proposed to an unchaste girl?

William stormed away in a huff with all indications being that there would be no marriage. That prompted Ruth to make yet one more impulsive decision. She went to spend the night with Romer.

If I hadn't already thought that Ruth was a bad decision maker, this sealed it. When she came back home in the morning William was there to apologize, but Ruth had already decided that she was going to run away from Marysville and small town life with Romer--another man she barely knew.

The entire movie was an indictment of small towns and small town behavior, and what it can do to a person. But, the fact is; there have been movies about big cities which have had the exact same theme. Even in a big city people have their circle of friends and associates who will gossip and pass judgment based upon seeing some socially unacceptable behavior. What Ruth went through was not at all limited to a small town. She could've just as easily been running from New York had she made the exact same choices.

"Hot Saturday" really wasn't about small towns, or at least it shouldn't have set itself up as such. It was about bad decision making.

Ruth was never established as an unapologetic partying woman who didn't care about what people thought about her. She liked partying, but she was always going to keep it on the up-and-up. She was never going to take anything far enough to affect her reputation. So, when she started fooling around with Romer she had to know what people would say and what they would think. Again, if she didn't care, that's one thing, but that wasn't quite the indication we got. If she didn't care, she would've taken the town gossip in stride, or at the very least she wouldn't have rushed off to marry William.

I thought this movie failed its objective. They tried to make Ruth a sympathetic character and didn't. I found it hard to feel sympathy for a girl who never stopped to think before she acted.

Free on YouTube.

Tepid Saturday

[GManfred · 20 March 2010]

Hot Saturday isn't really a great picture but as a Pre-Code movie with some famous stars it has a certain cachet. Interesting, maybe, but not a must-see. It is a hyperbolic tale about small town hypocrisy and is very tame by todays (lack of) standards - the main topic of discussion wouldn't raise an eyebrow nowadays.

True, there is a scene in which the little sister gets de-pantsed by the big sister for wearing her brand-new underdrawers, but I guess it was more shocking to '30's audiences than now. The big sister, Played by Nancy Carroll, is the main focus of the story. Hadn't seen her before and she was very good, a ringer for Betty White with a cute kewpie-doll face. This was Cary Grants' 3rd film and made a pleasant appearance as the rakish Romer Sheffield, local rich boy ne'er do well. Randolph Scott plays it straight without much to do - no six-shooter and doesn't get to punch anyone.

Recommended for film history buffs. Pretty tame stuff and an OK way to spend 73 minutes, as it moves quickly.

And after ninety years, Anytown USA doesn't seem to have changed much!

[zacdawac · 8/10 · 8 May 2022]

I watched the gripping, powerful and perspective altering 2004 film, Dogville, sixteen years after it was made, during the height of the pandemic and the wind down of the Trump reign. Maybe that one wouldn't have hit me as hard if the day's reality hadn't brought home the fact that towns like that actually exist. By chance, I watched this film for the first time the week that the Supreme Court opinion to strike down Roe V. Wade was leaked. Ninety years after the film was made, these nasty little towns, filled with sanctimonious sexist hypocrites, clearly continue to prevail.

The only two characters in the film who don't define atrocious and who hint that the creative team had some sense of morality were Cary Grant's Romer Sheffield and William Collier's Harry Brock. But then again, Harry was said to be a poor, struggling senator who was clearly whipped into shape by his domineering wife. Though he didn't seem to know about campaign contributions or lobby money, we have to wonder if Harry was a nice gentleman by choice or because he lacked courage. Cary Grant played a wealthy, flamboyant womanizer, much like I'd expect his later day George Kerby character from Topper to have been, in his pre-marriage and pre-Hays code days. In my opinion, being a liberal New York activist, writer and product of the 1960's and 70's, Cary's Romer is a great guy. By the moral codes of the people in town in 1932, and of people who clearly still inhabit the United States in 2022, he was a notoriously evil, horribly promiscuous womanizer.

Was our story's would be heroine, Nancy Carroll's Ruth Brock moral, even by the standards of someone who is planning to travel to Washington DC to protest for Women's Rights and equality? Ruth came to the party with one man and spent most of the evening with another. That certainly didn't show a lot of class or social grace but then, I guess we can assume that her loud and crass mother had influenced her manners. Ruth was supposedly passionately in love with yet a third man, Randolph Scott's Bill Fadden, who represented wealth and a way out of the working class. Ruth was ready to marry Bill, and the implication was she was in bed with him, in the afternoon. By the evening, when Bill had questioned her small town integrity, Ruth was resilient enough to find her way to Romer's bed and to immediately agree to marry him.

Other male characters in this film would be considered near rapists, if not sexual predators, by twenty first century standards. The women were pretty much all hypocritical, judgmental gossip mongers. Again, the two characters I have compassion for, at the end, are Romer, who is giving up his freewheeling bachelor lifestyle for an insincere, shallow opportunist, and Harry, who now has to live alone with his domineering, controlling, equally opportunistic and nasty wife.

So yes, this was a rather good, if essentially forgotten film that truly made me think and that stirred some emotions.

Fast-forward to the underpants.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 2/10 · 28 June 2005]

The male leads in 'Hot Saturday' are Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, who -- in real life -- were house mates at about the time this movie was made. Some people have publicly speculated that Grant and Scott had a sexual relationship. I'll comment that there's very little real evidence for this. I saw 'Hot Saturday' at the Film Forum in NYC, and several people in the audience made nudge-wink noises when Scott's character shyly admitted that he's not very comfortable with women. Scott plays a geologist who's holed up in a cave, and he seems to be interested only in catacombs and stalagmites ... not catamites.

'Hot Saturday' is one of those stories (like 'A Village Tale', or the much better known 'Peyton Place') about a small town where everybody knows about everybody else's dirty linen. There are plenty of rumours in this movie, starting with Cary Grant ... who plays a character cried Romer, but everyone pronounces it 'rumour' as if he were the novelist Rumer Godden. Grant makes his entrance in a dazzling all-white outfit with white buck shoes, topped off by a black trilby. Later, Grant plays a scene in white jodhpurs that would have looked quite fetching on one of the FEMALE characters. The town is called Marysville, for some reason.

I found most of this movie quite boring. Good-girl Ruth (Nancy Carroll) is a friend of rock-hopper Scott but she dallies with playboy Grant. Then she's suddenly eager to marry Scott. He glances in the direction of her midriff and suspects that Grant did something to make her anxious to get married in a hurry. Do the maths. Carroll's father, played by William Collier, is named Harry Brock: the same name as the villain in 'Born Yesterday'.

The only scenes in this pre-Code movie that didn't bore me were three very kinky bits. Ruth accuses her kid sister Annie (the very sexy Rose Coghlan) of stealing her knickers. When Annie denies this, Ruth wrestles Annie onto the bed, hoists up Annie's skirt and yanks the underpants off Annie's body. This sequence is amazing! In a later sequence, Ruth wears a very fetching pair of gauntlet cuffs. Later still, she arrives at Randolph Scott's cave soaking wet from a rainstorm and straight away passes out. When she wakens under a blanket, the first things she sees are her own clothes -- including her bra and knickers -- strung out to dry. I guess that Randolph Scott likes girls after all.

The only interesting parts of this movie were those three kinky bits, and very few people are turned on by gauntlet cuffs ... so that leaves just two kinks, and I'm rating this snore-fest 2 out of 10.