Employees' Entrance (1933)

Really Surprised!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Seven Days a Week, 24 Hours a Day, ruthless department store owner Warren William works himself and everybody he encounters nearly to death. Men fired by him jump out of windows. Others get a lower job, but vow to his face to destroy him. What does he do in that case? He gives them a raise! If it is anything he hates, it is sentimentality. Even after 30 years of service from the suicidal employee, fired for having outlived his usefulness, William only sends a wreath to his wake simply as a gesture that he does have some blood in that cold stone of a heart.Not until J.R. Ewing came along 45 years later on TV's "Dallas" was there such a ruthless and calculating businessman as "Employee Entrance's" Warren William. He openly enjoys being amoral, having the store tramp (Alice White) seduce an old codger on the board, sets his sites on the wife (Loretta Young) of the man (Wallace Ford) he's mentoring to take on his own traits, and admonishes his dedicated secretary (Ruth Donnelly) for buying a dress from a small shop going out of business. The more people stand up to him, the better he likes it, knowing those are the people because of the ruthlessness he can squeeze out of him will help increase his business.The dashing Mr. William is the whole show here, ripping apart everyone around him with gnashed teeth foaming and nostrils baring. He realizes that when his own usefulness is done, he too may head for that 9th story window. Young and Ford get a few chances to have an important scene or two, but are simply puddy in Williams' cold hands to mold as he sees fit. There are shots of wacky customers in quick scenes (One annoying customer calls a clerk "You fresh thing!" after asking her where the basement is, and being told the 11th Floor; Hoity Toity Marjorie Gateson picks an expensive piano after store detective Allen Jenkins accuses her falsely of shoplifting) and a memorable employee banquet where William makes his predatory feelings towards a drunken Young known.Charles Sellon, as the unfortunate veteran employee, is heartbreaking, while White is a pre-code gem as the floozie who finds herself out on her keester when William's plans for leaving town with her all of a sudden change. This is what the Hays code was out to finish off in Hollywood, but fortunately, the ones made before the code came in (with the unfortunate exception of "Convention City") remain. The use of "Million Dollar Baby" ("In a Five and Ten cent Store") in the background is a brilliant touch.

This is a remarkable little movie.It has a bad guy that you actually have to like. Most of the story is spent setting him up as a conventional villain, a ruthless guy who capriciously ruins lives. A hateful, selfish man, arrogant and exploitative.Along the way, he sleeps with a pretty employee and then when he finds she is married to his protégé he tries to ruin the pair. A man he fired kills himself, and the pretty girl (Loretta Young) tries to. In his manner, he is as brusque and offensive as he can be. He hires a floozy to compromise a fellow executive. He harangues everyone.And yet by the end you actually like the guy and are surprised at being tricked into doing so. He fights to avoid laying off thousands of employees (because of the depression) in a fight to the death with the bankers. He proves to be honest, if misogynistic.The two girls are incredibly sexy, as this was made just before the code slammed the shutters on women in film.Alice White plays the floozy just before a sex scandal ruined her career a second time. She had previous been "helped" by a few directors including Chaplin. We are seeing a real fading flapper here.Loretta Young, at 20 is as beautifully photographed as she would ever be. How odd to see the pretty girl as one who could be seduced so... twice.But that's all by the way. The writing of this thing is so competent it rocked me back. I watch a lot of movies and usually have to let my imagination fill in for various deficiencies. Not so here. The writer of this also did the "Kennel Murder Case" of the same year, also excellent.Excellent again. A good old straight ahead movie that fools you into thinking it is straight ahead and then it turns things a bit upside down.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Very adult pre-Code drama of a huge department store and its tyrannical owner Kurt Anderson (Warren William). There are many subplots but the main one involves a young, loving couple (Loretta Young, Wallace Ford) and how Anderson tries to tear them apart.The movie is truly fascinating--the cruelty of Anderson is beyond belief. Half the things he says and does would never be in a film made today. William isn't a particularly good actor, but he manages to pull off the role. Ford and Young make a very attractive couple--you're rooting for both of them.The drama here certainly works but the humor doesn't (there's a running gag about the 4th floor mens lavatory always breaking down that isn't remotely funny). There's also some annoying comic relief actors.Still, this is never dull, very frank and worth catching.

(Warning: slight spoilers)A good film with realistic acting and only a little melodrama, EMPLOYEE'S ENTRANCE is worth a look. Warren William as Kurt Anderson, manager of a huge store, uses fear tactics to try to keep his employees in line. He demands loyalty while giving none. This sort of subject matter was rare after the Code went into effect, and remains rare today. Wallace Ford as Martin West delivers a fine performance as a man who accepts an important position under Anderson in good faith, and finds that if he keeps the position he has to sacrifice all his scruples. He stops before he becomes like the bad boss, but, as so often happens in real life, his career declines as a result of defying the one in power. I found myself sympathizing a bit with Anderson, however, and I didn't dream that I would; I mean, he's awful. He treats the women in his employ as his personal toys. He's not totally amoral because of his concern for the greater good of the employees of Monroe's Department Store. Although he doesn't mind "killing off" a few employees who disagree with him, he perceives that it's the Depression, after all. If the store goes out of business because of "weakness", thousands more will go hungry. He himself is willing to take a pay decrease to keep the store solvent. Also, he freely admits to his rotten acts. He hides almost nothing, and so is unusual.The bad bosses I have met in the real world are completely self- serving and interested in power and prestige within the organization. They give lip service to teamwork, profits, productivity and employee success while their behavior they display a contempt for these values. Such bad bosses never admit to any wrongdoing, plot and scheme against members of their staff in closed door meetings, and use their influence as bosses to enlist their company personnel departments in their schemes to wound or destroy an employee's career if they seem to stand in their way toward getting more power and prestige.You will, however, like the movie. If made today it would get a PG-13 rating, I would bet.