First starring role for some guy named Grant, but most newspaper ads touted Carroll. 

WARNING: SPOILERS

“He seems like a fine fellow.”

That’s Cary Grant’s talking about Randolph Scott’s character, to whom he might lose the leading lady, Nancy Carroll, in “Hot Saturday,” directed by William A. Seiter. Since in real life Grant and Scott became housemates shortly thereafter and for much of the 1930s, with the 21st-century assumption that they were longtime lovers, ironies abound.

“No A-name draw in its cast.”

That was Variety’s take on “Hot Saturday,” which was the first starring role for Grant, and for which Scott, who shows up more than a third of the way through, is third-billed. Considering what both men—particularly Grant—became, ironies abound.

Roaring ’30s
It’s an odd little film—an adaptation of a 1926 novel but set in July 1932 as if the Great Depression wasn’t happening and people weren’t suffering. Its concerns are ’20s concerns: young people in roadsters, free-spirited women and the ruin small-town gossip can bring.

It’s set in the town of Marysville, in the state of wherever, and Ruth (Carroll) is the cute little flapper who works at the bank to whom all the men flit and flirt—including Archie (Grady Sutton), a fat bank teller who’s apparently all hands but who seems gay, and Conny Billop (fourth-billed Edward Woods), the reedy-voiced, hair-combing BMOC. In finally landing the date with Ruth, he also gets to say the title line: “Shall we we make a hot Saturday of it?” And we know what Gene Cousineau says about title lines. 

Into this picturesque berg, which a title graphic tells us has “one bank, two fire engines, four street cars, and a busy telephone exchange,” comes wealthy playboy Romer Sheffield (Grant), who scandalizes the community by apparently living in sin with Camille Renault (Rita La Roy). I assumed we’d get some innocent explanation to shame the gossips—she’s his sister, etc.—but this is pre-code, and, yep, apparently they are living together. But ol’ Romer’s like every other boy in town and has an eye for Ruth. He even goes into the bank to flirt with Ruth, leaving Camille to stew and steam in the car. The movie treats this as Camille getting her just desserts but it’s rather caddish behavior, and soon Camille is off to warmer climates. “Good,” Romer says, “she’ll probably get a nice coat of tan.” A nice coat of tan. Never heard it said that way before.

When Romer gleans Conny has Ruth locked up for Saturday night, he invites all the kids over to his lakeside estate for an afternoon party, then horns in on Conny’s time. He takes Ruth for a long walk along the lake, and by the time they return most everyone is gone, and now it’s Conny’s turn to stew and steam. At the lakeshore dance hall, Conny rents a boat, makes a pass at Ruth, is rebuffed, then motors them into a private cove to attempt worse. When Ruth escapes onto the shore, Conny abandons her there. She is forced to walk back to Romer’s place. Unlike Conny (and Archie, and…), Romer isn’t all hands. He’s calm and understanding—handsomely fixing her a drink and listening to her travails. He’s basically the perfect gay boyfriend—the man from dream city.

So who gets in trouble for Conny's loutishness? Ruth, of course. Her rival, Eva (Lilian Bond), sees her being driven home very, very late by Romer’s chauffeur, Conny lies about what happened, and soon the gossip mill is churning about her and Romer. Within 24 hours…

• Two neighbor ladies close the window to her
• Two bank customers snub her
• The Women’s Social League kicks her out
• She's fired

It’s very “The Trial,” isn’t it? Someone must have traduced Ruth B., for without having done anything wrong… Except her mother (Jane Darwell, playing awful, well) thinks she has done something wrong—partying the way she does; hanging with the crowd. Her father, whom everyone calls “Senator,” is calmer and more understanding.

Ruth not so much. She panics. Feeling sullied and trapped, she looks for a way out. Hey, a family friend, Bill Fadden (Scott), has recently returned to town to do a geologic survey for an oil company, and he’s always liked her. So she runs to see him—through a downpour, gets lost, collapses, and he has to rescue her. He also has to remove her wet clothes (off-screen) and put her under a heavy blanket with just those bare shoulders showing. But he’s aw-shucks about it, and looks like Randolph Scott, so it’s cool. 

Anyway, the town, or at least Eva and Conny, are not done with her. Ruth and Bill have an engagement party to which they invite all the awful town gossips, including Eva and Conny, and to which Eva and Conny invite ol’ Romer. It's a scheme, see? Since he’s there, everyone talks, Bill overhears the rumors and is scandalized. He all but calls Ruth a whore. Elsewhere, though, the tide is turning. Everyone thinks Eva and Conny were pretty low inviting Romer. 

So which gay guy gets her in the end? The perfect gay boyfriend, of course. He’s top-billed. He was just beginning to be Cary Grant but he was still Cary Grant.

Seventh-billed
A few notes.

At Romer’s, there’s an Asian bartender, Archie speaks to him in pidgin English, he responds with the Queen’s version, and Archie all but goes “Whaaaa?” to the camera. So they were doing that bit back then.

Listerine is referenced. So is Marlene Dietrich, a Paramount star with whom Grant co-starred the year before. The script ain't much, but I like this phone conversation Ruth has with a customer as Romer waits in the wings to talk: 

Yes, Mr. Smith. The balance is correct. Perhaps you failed to deduct the government tax. …  Yes, there's a two-cent tax on every check you write. … Oh no, no. Not just for Democrats. The Republicans have to pay it, too.

You have to feel for Edward Woods. Two years earlier, he was tapped to star in “The Public Enemy” but lost the role to James Cagney. Here, struggling to stay on, he loses the girl to Cary Grant. Someone should’ve let him know both actors would wind up kind of iconic. Even today he gets no respect. I don’t know who chooses IMDb avatars for dead actors, but Woods’ image isn't his face but a photo of “Ted Lewis on Broadway,” with, in the right-most third, a poster for this movie: “Hot Saturday.” His photo on the poster is looking up at Nancy Carroll. Despite being fourth-billed, he’s not even mentioned among the six listed actors.