Beauty and the Boss (1932)

Clearly a pun on "Beauty and the Beast".... this early talkie is so under-rated. It's just before the Hays code started being enforced, and the clever banter gets quite saucy. Warren William (from the Lone Wolf films) is the all-business, hardworking company president, who has no time for the flirtations of his secretaries, first Mary Doran, then Marian Marsh. It turns into a kind of competition between the two girls, after a confrontation. Doran is "Ollie", who uses her wit, wiles, and low-cut dresses to try to lure in the Baron. Susie (Marsh) tries to take the high road at first, but sees how easy it is to make men swoon with Ollie's naughty girlie ways. Charles Butterworth is here as the office manager, and has all the best lines. That dry, sarcastic wit, which he brought from his vaudeville days, usually muttered under his breath. He was only 36 in this film, but wow, he always looked old as dirt. Frederick Kerr is the Baron's sidekick, but doesn't really add much to the story. It's fun being an observer, to see who will "win" the prize. Story by Hungarian Ladislas Fodor, and the foreign currency and other words creep into the conversation. Directed by Roy Del Ruth, who had been around since the early days of silents, and successfully moved into talkies. This one is a lot of fun. Doesn't seem to have been shown often on TCM, with only 300 votes. Warner packed a lot into 66 minutes, and it moves right along. Recommended ! Catch it if you can. Warner Brother archives HAS released this on DVD...

While "Beauty and the Boss" isn't a total loss - no movie with Warren William and Charles Butterworth could be - it's darn close, and the fault, dear Brutus, lies with its leading lady, Marion Marsh.I'm a connoisseur of bad performances, and always held Wheeler Oakman's wooden acting in "Lights of New York" as the gold standard, but Marsh has taken the title in a first-round knockout.Either director Roy Del Ruth was too busy to direct Marsh or was deliberately trying to end her contract, but the decision to let her speak all her lines as rapidly and with as little inflection as possible was fatal. Every time she's on screen, she kills the picture with her lack of ability to act.Mary Doran, who plays the "other woman" is so far superior to her in terms of personality and intelligence that it's baffling how William's character throws her over for such a dimwit.I blame Del Ruth, ultimately. Any director who let Marsh get away with that performance -and- cuts away from Butterworth doing the tango is clearly having a bad time of it.

A couple reviewers noted that this movie couldn't be made today – it's too sexist. Many others talk about it being "pre-code." When the Hays Office began enforcing the movie industries' self-imposed censorship (the "code") in 1934, films after that time wouldn't be able to show or talk about some things directly. Sex was the main taboo. I hope others can see the irony in this. Today Hollywood can make X-rated films with no limits. But we have another unwritten censorship – nothing sexist. I just mean to point out the irony in this – not to approve of either type of film. Society's mores change. What was bad before is good today, or OK. What was OK then is bad today. But does it ever really change? What is good for us, or bad for us, as individuals and as a society? "Beauty and the Boss" clearly is a sexist film. And, it clearly mirrors some – not all, but some of society of that time. The sexism is the core of the plot in this film. Without it, the whole story changes. The film is adapted from a play that ran a year or so on Broadway. Clearly, the sexist aspects are an intended part of the film's entertainment. Some may not enjoy it for that reason. Others may be able to enjoy it with the understanding that that was a part of the culture of the time.So, how good is the film? It seems very stagy. Most of the roles are OK, but the script is weak. The film is choppy and not very well edited. I think it suffered in direction as well. Remember, this is an early sound film – only three years into it, and I think the setting, direction and filming show that. They are a bit crude yet. For a comedy, it has very little witty, clever or funny dialog. It's mostly in character interactions. Warren William had some very good films, but his character in this one is off. I think he over does it as Baron Joseph Ullrich in his demanding manner, so that when he calms down it's too stark a contrast and not believable. This is really a film for Marian Marsh. She sparkles in the role of Susie. Josef does a good job in his rapid-fire dictation and orders, but Susie tops him in her speedy ordering of everything. The transition of her character from the meek, poor, humble job seeker to the rapid-fire, in command, self-confident yet modest woman in charge is excellent. She clearly makes this film. Marsh was barely on the silver screen a decade when she married and retired from acting. Her roles had gone downhill after some early successes, and she had a spat with Warner Brothers. But that was after her sterling performance as Trilby opposite John Barrymore's Svengali. The movie was titled "Svengali," but George Du Marier's novel on which it was based was called "Trilby." I should mention that a reviewer, whose comments and reviews I most often enjoy, got one thing wrong in his comments. He referred to Williams' character, Baron Josef von Ullrich, as a French industrialist tycoon. In the movie, he is Viennese. For the last part of the film, he flies from Vienna to Paris for an extended business trip and takes with him his steno-secretary (Susie) and his gopher,Ludwig Pfeffer played by Charles Butterworth. Most of the names are Austro-Hungarian, and Josef hires Susie for 40 kronen. Before that she said she had 20 pfennig in her purse. The kronen was in place until 1924, after which it was replaced by the Schilling. From the aircraft they fly in, its hard to tell exactly the date on which the movie is based. The first trans-Atlantic nonstop commercial airline flight was in 1938 – six years after this movie. But there were passenger planes that flew in the early 1920s. What adds to the confusion is that all during the 1920s, the Austro-Hungarian area of Eastern Europe was particularly hard-hit by the great depression So, the big banking deals that Josef is pulling off seem as not very likely for that time.A very funny scene happens in the hotel when Ludwig has returned from a night out and is tipsy. He gets off the elevator and begins walking as though he were balancing. Another hotel guest asks him, "What are you doing?" Ludwig replies, "Walking a tightrope." The guest observes, "But there isn't any tightrope." Ludwig answers, "That's OK. I can do it better without one."

About a bank president who talks about putting a new rule into the company: "all females must wear long sleeves and high necks". Seems he is easily distracted by women, particularly his attractive and flirtatious secretary who he thinks is a "playgirl" rather than working girl, good for after hours only. He actually fires her - and she doesn't mind, 'cause she apparently agrees with this after hours concept, and becomes one of his new girlfriends (there seem to be many others too, judging by the office visits and phone calls from bathtubs he keeps getting). Soon a young waif arrives - hungry and oddly dressed in an outfit that includes black umbrella and flat black hat with a big white feather in it (why do these poor waif girls in old movies always seem to wear an odd feathered hat?). Well, seems she's an out-of-work stenographer looking to get hired - and turns out she's a whiz who loves work too, spending her free time toning her secretarial skills rather than dating men, she takes shorthand at 150 words a minute! He hires her on the spot since she's "plain" - seems even though she is clearly very pretty, he for some reason (like often seen in movies) can't see her beauty through the odd outfit. Well, she falls for him and soon blooms!This is a thoroughly entertaining, fast paced, fun-to-watch film with lots of amusing pre-code banter and top-notch performances adding to the mix - I loved it. Warren William, one of my favorite actors from this time period, is just perfect as the rather handsome but stiff "girl crazy" boss, and Marian Marsh as the waif (who I thought looked like Reese Witherspoon in the earlier scenes) is just SO cute and charming - I really enjoyed her performance. Cute scene where she gets "taught" by the previous secretary how to seduce a man via accidentally-on-purpose leaning against him, and she tries it out on the boss. Really excellent film.