Big Business Girl (1931) User Reviews

Better than logic tells you it actually is!

[1930s_Time_Machine · 5/10 · 10 December 2022]

Such a predictable and creaky old film really shouldn't be as entertaining as this!

It's the lightest of light comedies and being made in 1931 with a low budget, it's far from visually stunning however it's actually quite fun.

Big Business Girl seems to be primarily an excuse to show how crazily pretty Loretta Young is and in that respect it's unquestionably successful. If a computer was programmed to create the sweetest, most beautiful girl possible, Loretta Young would probably be the result. She's only eighteen in this but the fact that she is lusted after by an older man, her boss, kind of legitimises us chaps being allowed to stare. She is definitely however not just a pretty face, certainly in this, she is an exceptional actress and manages not just to carry this unremarkable story single handedly but also makes it very watchable.

The first ten minutes are so awfully lame you will be tempted to switch it off but don't, stick with it - it does get better. Director William Sieter eventually picks up the pace and turns what starts out looking like it's going to be a bland melodrama into quite an engaging and lively comedy-drama.

The last ten minutes when Joan Blondell finally arrives is worth the wait. All of a sudden this film transforms itself again from that lightweight comedy-drama into something brilliantly funny; the scene with Joan on piano, fag in mouth, is hilarious - you will have a smile on your face as the credits roll.

This one moves rather slow for a precode...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 28 July 2012]

... and especially for a Warner Brothers precode. The theme of the story is pretty familiar - boy (Frank Albertson) and girl (Loretta Young) are tight in college but get separated by more than physical distance after graduation, despite their best intentions. Meanwhile, in each case, more worldly people of the opposite sex (Ricardo Cortez and Dorothy Christy) move in and wreak havoc on the relationship, helped along by a generous helping of pride on the part of both boy and girl.

As expected Loretta is lovely, Ricardo is a rat, and that saucy tart Joan Blondell makes the last 10 minutes worth the wait. I know she didn't write those lines, but only she could deliver them so memorably. Best precode scene (non-Blondell that is) - Loretta Young being surprised by boyfriend Johnny's return from Paris while running around her apartment in her underwear. They carry on a casual conversation - she's still in her underwear - as she puts on her makeup and he buffs her bare back with a powder puff. Only in the precode era! The final scene with Blondell is somewhat annoying for reasons that the director could not have been aware of without a crystal ball. As a nervous Frank Albertson talks to card-carrying correspondent (as in divorce) Joan Blondell, the camera spends much of its time focused on Frank Albertson even when Joan is talking. Hard to believe, but for the brief sliver of time in which this film was made, Frank Albertson was a leading man and Joan Blondell was still only a supporting player, so at the time this cinematography actually made sense. Today, the whole thing is like having a billboard blocking a beautiful view.

I'd recommend this one for fans of precode and especially fans of Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, or Joan Blondell.

Yeah, OK

[plaidpotato · 6/10 · 2 July 2002]

It's no great classic. Assembly line Hollywood stuff, about the same quality as Erin Brockovich, circa 1931. But it's worth watching, especially if you're already into pre-code-era stuff, or if you're interested in feminist themes in cinema, or if you're awake at 3 AM and it's on cable. An honest and accurate film, it gets the male-female dynamic just about right, for 1931, 2002, or whenever. Loretta Young was casual and charming and perfect for the role. 6.5/10, rounded down to 6/10.

A career woman in a man's world

[jimjo1216 · 5 December 2012]

BIG BUSINESS GIRL (1931) is an unspectacular pre-Code talkie with a bit of a racy edge. Eighteen-year-old Loretta Young plays a college grad trying to make it in the business world. At her advertising company, she is quickly promoted from a secretary, but finds out she's being paid merely to "decorate the office". What she doesn't realize is that her boss (Ricardo Cortez) is underpaying her by more than half what her talents are worth, but this is not the main issue in the film. She wants to climb the ladder and is willing to play the game if that's what it takes. The sudden appearance of her long-distance boyfriend (Frank Albertson) throws a monkey wrench in her plans and the movie becomes a will-they-won't-they waiting game to see if the young couple can work out their misunderstandings.

Fourth-billed Joan Blondell doesn't appear until the very end of the film, but she's fantastic as a professional correspondent in divorce set-ups. She plays cards in her negligée with nervous husbands as they await the private detectives. It's a living. Streetwise Blondell can handle herself and, as she says, with the type of husbands she works with it's safer than working in a beauty parlor. Blondell is a great comedienne and her scenes are easily the highlight of the film.

dated story, but L. Young and J. Blondell...minor spoiler

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 8 December 2021]

Minor spoiler.... Loretta Young started in the silents, and easily moved into the talkies with her looks and pleasant voice. Finally got her oscar in 1948 for farmer's daughter. The lovely and talented joan blondell had only been around about a year. Big business takes a while to get going. Claire (loretta young age 18! ) and johnny (frank albertson) are headed in different directions. She's off to nyc and he's off on a road tour with his band. When her career takes off, her love life does also. Will she have to choose between an office romance and her man johnny? It's pretty dated now, but it IS a great chance to see young and blondell so early in their careers. Story is okay. It wouldn't fly now. And there's confusion over their marital status... at the beginning, claire talks about how they've been "playing house", and since its pre code, i assumed that meant they weren't married, but later, we find out she really was. 25 minutes in, she tells the boss she has a boyfriend in paris. Did the wedding end up on the cutting room floor? Directed and produced by bill seiter. No oscar, but worked with some of the greats! Ginger rogers, george raft, lucy. Wheeler and woolsey in their best one, peach o reno.

The Small Roles Are The Most Amusing

[boblipton · 6/10 · 9 December 2021]

Loretta Young graduates college and marries band leader Frank Albertson. While he tours Europe, she gets a job at Ricardo Cortez's advertising agency. There, her brains, creativity, and legs make her popular with clients and Cortez. He's making his move when Albertson returns; Miss Young has not mentioned a husband.

Miss Young's legs carry the movie as well as the career, what with Albertson being whiny, and Cortez oily. This seems to be a movie for liberated women to enjoy. The best performances are by Dorothy Christy, who tries to seduce Albertson in front of Miss Young, and a very funny turn by Joan Blondell as a professional correspondent.

He's Gonna Show Her Who's Boss!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 9 November 2012]

And that's the husband trying to keep his wife from sleeping with the boss! Immature band leader Frank Albertson looses his wife Loretta Young after a year's separation while he's off in Paris on a job and she goes to work as an advertising assistant to lecherous Ricardo Cortez. She overhears Cortez referring to her as "office furniture", so she sets out to teach him a lesson by flirting with him at every chance (by showing off an exposed leg) without intending to go through with what he desires. It works, and she rises to the top of the agency, which causes problems in her marriage when Albertson returns. Cortez, a good-hearted rogue at heart, sets up a show-down involving a professional "other woman" (Joan Blondel) who makes a living playing cards with men waiting to be caught by their wives.

There are a lot of delicious pre-code innuendos in this entertaining but predictable marital drama, with Blondell standing out in her small role (which comes towards the end) and the future "Attila the Nun" Young showing a naughty side that would be totally absent in her later post-code era films. Cortez is fine, but Albertson seems like a college kid trying to mingle with adults and just not fitting.

nothing special, except luminous Loretta and spunky Joan

[blanche-2 · 5/10 · 11 August 2017]

Loretta Young stars with Ricardo Cortez and Frank Albertson in "Big Business Girl," a pre-code from 1931.

Beautiful Claire McIntryre (Young) goes to New York to find a job, leaving behind her new husband Johnny (Albertson) who has a band that is going to be working in Paris. Thanks to a mismanagement fluke in an office, she is hired to work for Robert Clayton (Cortez) as a secretary in an advertising firm. Ambitious, she writes some ad copy, which Clayton finds passable and gives her an office. Actually it's excellent work, but he low-balls her salary and over the intercom, she hears he thinks she's got a good chassis.

'Mac' as she is known, doesn't mention she's married and plays the game, flirting with Clayton and dazzling the clients. Then Johnny shows up unexpectedly.

This movie is a real blah except for a couple of things. One is one of the secretaries saying she had ambitions at one time to make a "man's salary" - and just think, 86 years later, in some fields, you can still say that. However, she continues, a big career won't keep you warm at night.

The other item of interest is Joan Blondell, hired when people need to prove adultery before getting a divorce. She's hilarious as the no nonsense, down to earth Pearl, and she's the biggest spark in the film, other than Loretta's clothes.

Cortez is smooth and Albertson is dull. Loretta here was about 18. She's stunning and natural.

All in all, not much.

Loretta Young Makes It Big

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 20 January 2013]

Pretty college graduate Loretta Young (as Claire "Mac" McIntyre) tells musician boyfriend Frank Albertson (as John "Johnny" Saunders) she's going to chisel out a "Big Business Girl" career in New York while his dance band plays a Paris date. Although Mr. Albertson begs her to go, Ms. Young needs to pay off college loans. She is hired as a secretary to advertising executive Ricardo Cortez (as Robert "RJ" Clayton). Young is ambitious, intelligent, powdered and leggy. She also has a secret...

After being referred to as "office decoration," Young hikes up her skirt and swings her legs around the boss' face. This understandably arouses Mr. Cortez. Young is promoted. Albertson returns from Paris. Romantic misunderstandings ensue. For her "lingerie scene" Young wears a clingy, low-cut slip which shows off her thin figure to great effect. At the subsequent party, flies crawl around her back and down her dress. Also watch for brassy Joan Blondell (as Pearl) to liven up the last act.

***** Big Business Girl (6/12/31) William A Seiter ~ Loretta Young, Frank Albertson, Ricardo Cortez, Joan Blondell

From College Girl to Mad Ave Copywriter with Gams

[ccarrolladams · 8/10 · 26 July 2012]

Rank "Big Business Girl" right in there with "The Hucksters" and "A Face in the Crowd" as inspirational material for "Mad Men".

What attracted me to search until I could see this movie on TCM were the best remembered stars Loretta Young and Joan Blondell, in addition to Ricardo Cortez, Oscar Apfel and Dorothy Christy. These were major Warner Bros contract players of the early 1930s. It is hard to believe in those Pre Code days without restrictions on minors playing adults on screen, at 17 Loretta Young is cast as a university graduate, deep in student loans, willing to do what it takes to get ahead in the New York City business world. There is even a skyscraper model that looks like the one in "Baby Face" from 1933.

Honestly, I was never a fan of Loretta Young after her movie career ended circa 1951. Good for her that she was a hit on TV, but not with me. However, as I started collecting Pre Code film, I was entranced by Loretta in "Employees' Entrance" filmed when she was 19.

Ricardo Cortez played "Sam Spade" in the 1931 version of "The Maltese Falcon" which ended production just weeks before "Big Business Girl" started production. Seeing him as the ad agency owner "Robert Clayton" he is a role model for "Roger Sterling" and "Don Draper" on "Mad Men".

That would make Loretta as "Claire 'Mac' McIntyre" a cross between "Peggy Olson" and "Megan Calvet" on "Mad Men".

The plot is that "Mac" is hired suddenly as secretary to "Clayton" who does not know she is secretly married to her university boyfriend "Johnny" who was in Paris with his band. Somehow "Mac" starts writing outstanding ad copy selling the autos made by "Walter Morley". "Clayton" promotes her to copywriter with her own office, as much for her legs and face as talent. "Clayton" is so infatuated with "Mac" he wants to marry her. Then "Johnny" returns to NYC. "Mac" sets him up was a radio star for the auto company. He is attracted to beautiful "Mrs. Emerson". After a night flight in heavy rain in a Ford Tri-Motor, "Mac" re-unites with "Johnny". Un resolved is the question of "Mac" remaining as copywriter for "Clayton" and "Johnny" as the auto company radio band leader. Of yes, Joan Blondell plays "Pearl" a professional "divorce co-respondent".

I enjoyed this film and all performances except Frank Albertson as "Johnny Saunders". If he could not appear romantically interested in Loretta Young then, he must have been half dead. Perhaps all the other male juveniles under WB contract were making other films then. A year later WB might have used Dick Powell or George Brent as "Johnny".

Still, "Big Business Girl" is only 75 minutes long and seems to run faster. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I enjoy it.

All tease, no please.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 19 January 2013]

It's funny, but for a movie made back in 'the good old days', it's amazingly sleazy--filled with sexual innuendo from start to finish. When the film begins, you learn that Claire (Loretta Young) and Johnny (Frank Albertson) have been 'playing house' (an old euphemism for living together). Now that they are finishing up in college, he has a job offer to take the band to Paris and she wants to stay home and be a career girl. At first, it's tough going for Claire--after all, it's the Depression and jobs are scarce. Eventually, however, she gets a job as a secretary and does quite well. In fact, she's soon made an executive at the advertising agency--partly because of talent and partly because her boss, Mr. Clayton (Ricardo Cortez) thinks she has nice legs! Once in this high-paying position, Claire seems to spend most of her time avoiding going to bed with Clayton--as Clayton is the ultimate horn-dog and CONSTANTLY sexually harasses her.

Johnny arrives home early from Paris and is shocked to see his girl is a business woman. However, they both get off on the wrong foot and soon they are arguing about pretty much everything. Clayton uses this as an excuse to butt in--and he really starts putting a lot of pressure on Claire to either sleep with him or marry him (quite the romantic, isn't he?!). What's next? See it and find out for yourself.

It's interesting that although the film is jam-packed with sexuality, nice girl Claire manages to remain rather pure (other than living with Johnny when the film began). In other words, it's a case of the old expression 'all tease, no please'--as the film seems pretty dirty but nothing especially ever happens. There are lots of folks who think adultery is a new national sport and the film seems to think the subject is quite funny. And, the adultery scenes with Joan Blondell (playing a VERY unusual small part in the film) at the end are pretty funny at that! All in all, a rather salacious film--the sort of thing that was pretty popular in the early 1930s before the toughened Production Code was enacted in 1934. Thereafter, a film such as "Big Business Girl" would either have to be heavily re-written and cleaned up or simply not made at all. An odd little curio that is mildly interesting but not sleazy enough to make it a must-see (such as Loretta's "Platinum Blonde").

Typical Story

[Michael_Elliott · 28 February 2008]

Big Business Girl (1931)

** (out of 4)

A smart and sexy college girl (Loretta Young) goes to the big city to make good money but once getting there she realizes it takes a nice pair of legs, more than brains, to get anywhere. The girl uses her legs to start moving up but when her boss starts coming onto her this doesn't make the husband very happy. Here's another pre-code dealing with (at the time) "women trying to be men". The story is pretty flat but Young and the cast manage to keep things going throughout. There are some nice pre-code elements at the start of the film including a college party where all the couples are in the backseats of their cars.

Gag me with a spoon silliness to the max...

[dwpollar · 3/10 · 8 December 2001]

1st watched 12/8/2001 - 3 out of 10 (Dir-William A. Seiter): Supposed early " woman makes it in the business world" movie before it was cool to do this, but this movie is more of a silly mediocre romantic comedy than what it's advertised to be by "Turner Movies" on the video box. The plotline is not much deeper than 1/2 hour television sitcom's as there is a battle over one women(played by Loretta Young) between her young lover & later husband and the man that she works for. Young manipulates every situation to try and give herself what she thinks she needs ( a job climbing up the corporate ladder ) but in the end we find out that what she really needs is the love of a good(or is that clinging) man. Gag me with a spoon silliness to the max...

LORETTA IS YOUNG AND A GO GETTER!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 9 December 2021]

BIG BUSINESS GIRL may have been an inspiration to Barbara Stanwyck's PRE CODE blockbuster BABY FACE, which even by today's standards, is hot stuff! Beautiful, stylish college girl Loretta Young graduates college and heads to the city for a career... but its more than a degree that men are looking for. MY GAWD! This is a very significant film, however, as it truly deals with ambition, from a woman's point of view, which was quite rare back in the 1930s. Young was the perfect candidate for the role as she is quite convincing. As a matter of fact, in the early 1930s, both she and her equally beautiful sister, Sally Blane, were cranking out films continuously. So it became a toss up as to who was who, as they both looked very much alike. Sally later confessed that Loretta latched onto the better roles, and this definitely is one of them. Sally added that she would have taken the roles Loretta DID NOT want! Also in the cast is the dynamic Ricardo Cortez, who could play both good guys and heels with the greatest of ease, he was that smooth an actor. Wisecracking Joan Blondell is the perfect (isn't she always) second lead, especially for this material. In 1931 alone she appeared in at least 10 films! One oldie not to be missed, and with a lesson learned, in between the lines. Knock 'em down to size, Loretta!

Same old story in a so-so Warners drama.

[bensonj · 10 March 2003]

Once again, as so often in movies of the pre-Code era, here's a woman with brains, beauty and the drive to get ahead who loves a guy who has none of the above (including acting talent). Naturally, she props him up by getting him a big job without his knowing it (although this unpromising lead is dropped and doesn't become a plot complication). Throw in the lecherous boss she uses to make the boyfriend (actually her secret hubby) jealous, and the cliche is complete. That said, it's still what you do with the story that counts, and here nothing whatsoever is done with it! No clever dialogue, no revealing moments, no amusing supporting character players, no special qualities in the narrative timing, sets, camera or lighting. Nothing unexpected whatsoever. That is, nothing until Joan Blondell steps in at the very end as a brassy professional co-respondent. Her performance and the dialogue, as she and the husband play cards while they wait for the photographer to arrive, suddenly bring the film to life and give it a decent finish. Still, one of the weaker Warners of the period. WEEKEND MARRIAGE, a similar film made the following year, also with Loretta Young, is much more interesting.