Employees' Entrance

I saw this film recently on Turner Classics. It was a beautiful part of the wonderful past of Hollywood. Warren's great voice still haunts me. It was, as they say "mello as a cello". Real good stuff!! I have become a Warren William fan. I looked up his bio on your WEB. He made a ton of movies with all the top stars of Tinsel Town. He also made some not so good movies, but that's par for the Hollywood story. I have ordered about ten of his movie efforts and look forward with great anticipation in seeing them. Because I was not familial with him till TCM came along and presented some of his work. Sadley he died quite young at 54. Fortunattly we still have him to enjoy with the Hollwood Classics.

... Warren William appears to be the whole show. Sure, you have a great supporting cast, but Warren William's character, tyrannical department store manager Kurt Anderson, is the center of the universe. You dislike his character when you first meet him, but as the film goes along, you begin to understand him and almost pity him by the end of the film. What a brilliant piece of acting.

It's one of several films made in the 20s and 30s centered around those giant department stores of New York City with that special brand of humor and pathos that was so unique to Warner Brothers at the time. Kurt Anderson's curse, besides being completely aware that he would be old and "through" someday just like all of the people that he fired, is to not actually control his empire. He is technically just an employee. He works for the board, for the banks, and the actual owner who seems only good for writing pronouncements for special occasions from his yacht in the Mediterranean.

Loretta Young plays a girl, Madelene, that sleeps with Anderson in order to get a job there - she is starving at the time. Later she develops a romance with Martin West (Wallace Ford), who becomes like a son to Anderson, somebody he is grooming to take over for him someday. The complication is that Martin and Madelene secretly marry because Anderson doesn't like the idea of married executives - they spend too much time at home. This means that Anderson thinks Madelene is still available, and although Anderson is not the marrying kind, he still finds Madelene desirable. Complications ensue.

Albert Gran didn't have too many talking film roles, and in fact this film was released six months after he died. But he is hilarious here as a rather useless executive who Anderson has to keep around because he is related to the actual invisible store owner. Alice White probably has better comic timing here than in any role I've seen her as Anderson's gold digging on-again-off-again mercenary mistress. She is much better as the cherry on top rather than the whole pie.

The running gag for me? The actual owner of the store - you never see him - always starts his letters by saying he is descended from both James Monroe and Benjamin Franklin. As far as I know there is no such person.

This movie has lots of humor, pathos, and suspense. The wonderful cast does a great job. William Warren is, at times, ruthless yet he also displays occasional compassion and a considerable amount of vulnerability. As the no nonsense top boss in a major Manhattan department store he stops at nothing in his quest to keep his store at the top. He thinks nothing of summarily terminating loyal long time store employees if they offend him in any manner. Although all of the cast is superb in their well written roles, make no mistake, this is Warren's film. It moves fast and does none of the slow dragging that many films of the early 1930s suffer from.

A standout performance by Warren William as Anderson, the hard, uncompromising, ruthless and feared-by-most General Manager of a giant department store helps make this a really excellent and interesting film. With climbing profits over the years, the depression has hit the store with a downfall and Anderson is put in complete charge to boost up sales - and he will go so far as to ruin any man who doesn't live up to his high expectations. He likes women, but not for marriage - his motto towards females is "love 'em and leave 'em". He soon meets beautiful Loretta Young who is desperate to get a job at the store, apparently a hard nut to crack (and she, apparently, will do whatever it takes to get it as she spends the night with him at his apartment despite her indication she would like to go home). Anyway - she's hired on as a model even after she said she would like to be hired for her "brain" - okey dokey - and soon has met and married a gung-ho salesman (Wallace Ford) who has been promoted as Anderson's new assistant. Anderson believes that a man should be married to his "job" only - so the marriage is kept a secret, and the workaholic boss expects his assistant to be there by his side pretty much night and day.

Okay, this is a really terrific pre-code film, entertaining through every scene, and featuring one of my thirties favorites, Warren William, who pretty much steals the film. As for the women, though Loretta Young is fine in her part here and looks really gorgeous - it is the scenes with adorable Alice White that are the most fun to watch as she plays Polly, a blonde who takes extra pay from Anderson to do his bidding seducing male employees for various purposes. A very enjoyable film and a treat to see.

Ya gotta love these pre-code flicks. Women looked and acted like real women, and men acted like the cads they often are. Warren William plays the tyrannical owner of a department store down on its luck. He hires and fires with absolute glee, and is an unrepentant womanizer. He hires a new salesgirl, played by the incredibly beautiful Loretta Young, and soon has his way with her. She falls for a fellow employee (Wallace Ford) and marries him secretly. William then turns his attention back to Young and... The film is an absolute hoot, and even includes a highly suggestive rape about-to-happen. Young is almost ethereal in her beauty, but this one's William's film all the way. His character is a cad, but in a strange way, a likable cad.