Employees' Entrance (1933)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Roy Del Ruth

Writers:

David Boehm (play)
Robert Presnell Sr. (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 February 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Kurt Anderson is the tyrannical manager of a New York department store in financial straits. He thinks...

Plot Keywords:

Department Store | Cynic | Secret Marriage | Employment Dismissal | Poison

Cast

Warren William	...	Kurt Anderson
Loretta Young	...	Madeleine Walters West
Wallace Ford	...	Martin West
Alice White	...	Polly Dale
Hale Hamilton	...	Commodore Franklin Monroe
Albert Gran	...	Denton Ross
Marjorie Gateson	...	Mrs. Lee Hickox
Ruth Donnelly	...	Miss Hall
Frank Reicher	...	Garfinkle
Charles Sellon	...	Arnold Higgins
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Frank McGlynn Sr.	...	The Editor (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2700) (22 September 1936, for re-release)

Company:

First National Pictures

Quotes:

Kurt Anderson: When did YOU develop principles?
Polly Dale: Oh, I saved a couple out of the crash.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

You're the Flower of My Heart, Sweet Adeline (1903)

Powerful Pre-Code Retail Drama

12,000 workers pass through the EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE of Franklin Monroe & Co., the world's largest department store. Hounded & harried by their merciless management, they have produced a superior retail establishment. However, the cost in broken hearts & lives has been tremendous, as greed & ambition struggle for control of the entire corporation...

This is an excellent film that rewards diligent attention from the viewer. Like its predecessor, SKYSCRAPER SOULS (1932), the story takes a diverse cast of characters, puts them in a large structure, stirs in a witches' brew of human emotions, and applies intense pressure on them all from the top down. Fine production values help the believability in this pre-Production Code drama.

Warren William dominates the picture - just as he did in SKYSCRAPER SOULS (1932) in an identical role- as the store's completely amoral, conniving, tyrannical manager. He is perfect in the part and it is fascinating to watch a skilled actor portray a thoroughly bad character. As one of the finer actors of the decade, it is indeed a shame the William is all but forgotten today.

The rest of the cast is excellent: Wallace Ford & Loretta Young as a secretly married couple whom William tries to corrupt; Alice White as the store floozy, willing to drop her morals at William's command; Ruth Donnelly as William's no-nonsense secretary; Frank Reicher & Charles Sellon as two old men who respond in very different ways to having William destroy their livelihood; and Hale Hamilton as the store's ineffectual, absentee owner.

Movie mavens will recognize Allen Jenkins as an undercover store security officer and Charles Lane as a shoe salesman, both unbilled.

Although meant to be great entertainment and nothing more, this film should raise just enough questions in the viewer's mind so as to get them pondering what really goes on behind all those closed doors at their own favorite department store.