This Is My Affair (1937)

In 1901, President William McKinley (Frank Conroy) secretly assigns a young naval officer (Robert Taylor) to go undercover and infiltrate a gang of bank robbers. This mission is secret and nobody knows about it other than the President and the naval officer. Directed by William A. Seiter (ONE TOUCH OF VENUS), this is the second of three movies that Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck made together. It's a stodgy crime movie that no amount of star power can help and it needs all the help it can get. Stanwyck is wasted in a generic romantic role and she seems overwhelmed by the turn of the century costumes. As a hulking brute in love with Stanwyck, Victor McLaglen is at his most irritating. Which leaves Taylor's undercover agent and Brian Donlevy as a smooth bank thief to try and hold the movie together but it's a dull affair. Even at the film's race against time finale, Seiter can't manage to whip up any tension. Surprisingly, Graham Greene (working as a film critic) had good things to say about the movie. Go figure! With Sidney Blackmer and John Carradine.