Behind Office Doors

In the grand tradition of stand-by-your-man films, Behind Office Doors promotes that glorious message of olden days. Mary Astor stars as a secretary in love with one of her co-workers, Robert Ames. Thanks to her intelligence and ambition, she manages to promote Robert up the corporate ladder. Mary remains his faithful secretary, while being in love with him, and Robert repays her by ignoring her and fooling around with other loose secretaries. Mary is a very good girl, in every sense of the word, and while this pre-Code drama is extremely naughty, she isn't. In one scene, Mary discusses the price of French lingerie with her fellow secretary, and in a later scene, she finds a price tag on the floor of Robert's bedroom. In the first scene, Mary attends a party and gets kissed during a game of Blind Man's Bluff, then questioned about how far she'll go during Truth. If you like pre-Code screenplays, add this one to your list.

Mary gives a very heartfelt performance in Behind Office Doors, and while the plot and what she goes through might seem melodramatic to a modern audience, in 1931, it was serious business to be a good girl and remain so. When Ricardo Cortez offers a standing invitation to take Mary to Atlantic City, the audience knows what that means. To a modern woman, it sounds like a fun fling that can be enjoyed without any change to her reputation, but in 1931, it could be life-ruining. I do wish the end of the movie was different, but everything leading up to it was entertaining, dramatic, well-written, and well-acted. Check this movie out if you've never seen a Mary Astor movie, or if you only think of her as Marmee in Little Women. She's the lead and the star, and she holds her own as an old-fashioned girl with strong morals and a loving heart.

This pre-code film is not quite as daring as other precode Hollywood movies, but it holds up very well today and is quite enjoyable.

Mary Astor plays a receptionsit at a paper mill company. She has her eye on Robert Ames, a young salesman with the company. When the boss is forced to retire, Mary Astor pushes for Robert Ames to take the job, and when he does, Mary is promoted to being his secretary. She is secretly in love with him, only he never seems to notice. As he rises in the company Mary Astor is constantly by his side, giving good business advice as well as advice in his personal life. When Ames marries someone else, Astor is so upset he quits, and the company begins to fall apart.

Mary Astor, I feel, has never quite gotten her due in film history. She is a wonderful actress, and watching her in a film role, you are assured you will get a natural performance that will hold up as well as if it had been shot yesterday.

Robert Ames, a former stage actor, is quite good in the role. Ames died shortly after this film. His death was thought at first to have been caused by foul play, but it was determined he had died from too much drinking.

In days past BOD would have been called a 'woman's picture', since affairs of the heart occupy the storyline instead of action, mystery or suspense. Fortunately, actress Astor (Linden) turns in a nicely low-key turn as the under-appreciated power behind boss Duneen's company throne. She craves his affection instead of the compliments he occasionally provides her. Now he's planning to wed a high-society girl even though it's Linden's advice who's gotten him to the top. So what will become of her.

For me, a guy, the flick only has occasional interest as when character conflict comes to the top. Otherwise, the narrative's too talky and stage-bound, even though the gals do go through a number of gown changes on camera (Pre-Code, 1931). Too bad also that a more charismatic actor doesn't appear as Duneen. It's really hard to see how the savvy Linden could get so stuck on such a bland leading man that also weakens focal interest. Then too, the narrative staggers more than it unfolds, the director adding little or nothing. Anyway, I think a mild feminist under-current underlies key points of the plot, which, to me, is really the only reason to catch up with the uneven 82-minutes.

This is a pretty clever, well-acted version of the "modern" 30s woman's fairytale romance. In this case, she helps the man she loves become head of the company while serving as his secretary and eventually wins his love from a scheming social butterfly. Interestingly, her business sense is shown as subtly parallel to her homemaking prowess, and the ladies of the office are depicted as the "powers behind the throne." Lifted way above the average by Mrs. Astor's intelligent performance.

I got this movie on dvd format recently, and although much of the movies from this period are static antiques, due to sound problems and lack of camera movements, this early talkie is not that static and I had fun watching it! Mary Astor's screen presence is strong, Robert Ames' acting is good, and the rest of the cast is uniformly o.k. The plot has neither got big surprises or mysteries, nor is it too sophisticated (let's say it's no Lubitsch), but this modest picture is sincere and definitely deserves a watch. The quality of the image is great, considering it's a 1931 feature. Also note the pre-code "daring" (for then) aspects of the film, compared to movies made in Hollywood from 1934 onwards. A discovery!