Employees' Entrance (1933)

A working girl is menaced by her tyrannical employer.

Director:

Roy Del Ruth

Writers:

Robert Presnell Sr. (screen play) (as Robert Presnell), David Boehm (based on a play by)

Stars:

Warren William, Loretta Young, Wallace Ford

Cast

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

Storyline

Kurt Anderson is the tyrannical manager of a New York department store in financial straits. He thinks nothing of firing an employee of more than 20 years or of toying with the affections of every woman he meets. One such victim is Madeline, a beautiful young woman in need of a job. Anderson hires her as a salesgirl, but not before the two spend the night together. Madeline is ashamed, especially after she falls for Martin West, a rising young star at the store. Her biggest fear is that Martin finds out the truth about her "career move."

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Plot Keywords:

husband wife relationship | unfaithful wife | great depression | manipulative wife | possessive wife | 

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Taglines:

Are souls for sale - behind the counters you shop over? Visit dressing rooms where desperate girls whisper their secrets of the boss...who can make or break them! ...See the bargains in love that hard times have brought! (Print ad from Los Angeles Times February 1, 1933)

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 February 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

Guerra bianca

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$188,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

First National Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Last film for silent picture star Albert Gran, who died in an auto accident after the film was finished, but before it was released. Ironically, in the final sequence of the film, we see him and Warren William racing through the streets of Manhattan in a taxicab to a Board of Directors meeting, but, in this case, they arrive safely, and without incident.

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Goofs

Hale Hamilton's character Monroe is said to be a descendant of James Monroe and Benjamin Franklin. James Monroe had no sons, just two daughters. Descendants if any would not be named Monroe.

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Quotes

Denton Ross: She's blackmailing me! I'm caught like a rat in a trap! I'll be ruined! Franklin Monroe might hear of it! Anderson, you know all about women. What am I to do?
Kurt Anderson: Why don't you kill her?

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Connections

Featured in A Simple Game of Catch (2012)

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Soundtracks

The Wedding March
(1842) (uncredited)
From "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Played after a wedding

User Reviews

Excellent Depression Era Film

I have never been a fan of William Warren's, but this is the perfect role for him. I usually find him thoroughly unlikable and obnoxious; imagine my surprise when he is cast in just such a role and pulls it off so perfectly I find I must now respect his prowess as an actor. Well done, WW! In Employees' Entrance, we find Warren playing Kurt Anderson, an unapologetic cad who rules the Franklin & Munroe Store like a dictator. He is so flawless at playing someone so reprehensible, I loved hating him, I hoped he'd win. I especially loved him telling off the rich fops who run the store in the opening board room scene, "Do you think YOU did it?!" he demands in reference to the store's unprecedented success. I worked for a man like that once, I was crazy about him. No one ever got more work out of me. And the viewer actually doesn't feel too terribly sympathetic to the people Anderson fires throughout the movie, so much as they wonder why they were ever stupid enough to make such silly suggestions or resist Anderson when they had no ideas of their own.

As the great department store enters the great depression, things get even tougher, and Anderson must drive his staff even more ruthlessly than before; but he does this to protect their jobs. And what an eye-opening time-capsule! The Franklin & Munroe store is said to employ 12,000 people...you'd be lucky to find 12 in a department store today! Imagine a store that actually provides SERVICE.

Note the pre-code relationships between the characters: Anderson sleeps with Madeline twice and neither character seems to feel it is the end of the world as would have been required of them in films just a couple of years later. Further, Anderson literally pimps Polly out to divert the attention of a troublesome board member. She doesn't mind; not because she's easy but because she's figured out how to work the system.

Lots of faces familiar to the Depression-era movie fan. Alice White is perfect as Polly Dale, perhaps the most amusing character in the film. Loretta Young plays Madeline with more depth than was probably written into it. Ruth Donnelly is her usual self as Miss Hall, and Allen Jenkins has an unbilled but significant role as the security chief, Sweeney. Wallace Ford is surprisingly good as Martin West; the scene where he flirts across the store with Madeline by holding up sheet music with titles like "I want to call you Sweetheart" and "You're Beautiful" is adorable.

I highly recommend this entertaining film.