Employees' Entrance (1933)

This just may be the perfect pre-code Warren William film. Warren plays a hard-nosed, hard-charging department store executive. He seduces gorgeous but broke & unemployed Loretta Young with a meal and a job. Loretta then falls for Wallace Ford, who is being groomed by Warren to be another hard-nosed executive. One thing leads to another and Loretta and Wallace wed (secretly so Warren doesn't find out). However, there's trouble in paradise and after a tiff at an employee's party, a drunken Loretta once again sleeps with Warren. In the meantime, the bankers are plotting to oust Warren, which causes him to seek the proxy votes of the vacationing fatuous store owner. In the course of his machinations, the caddish Warren has Wallace listen in secretly to a conversation twixt himself and Loretta in which she admits to cuckolding Wallace. Time is getting tight, with the board of directors meeting at 10AM. At the last minute, Warren gets the proxy votes he needs to forestall the bankers. Loretta and Wallace kiss and make up. The End.I give this film an "A". Excellent acting and direction. The minor players (almost all familiar to pre-code film fans) are great. Warren William is in his element here, playing a cad and brutal businessman. He was never better. Loretta Young is beautiful and turns in a very good performance too, as does Wally Ford. This aired on TCM the other day and, given TCM's film rotation, is likely to show up again in the next few months. Not to be missed!!!

This movie has to have at least the distinctive of one of the most ruthless characters ever portrayed, positioned in the mainstream. I think he tops the Grinch. But, aside from that -- there's not much else. The characters seem to play around him and however you liked their reactions determined how much else you got out of it. Ms. Young is quite a young chic here. The boyfriend was unbelievable for her level of beauty movie-wise, but actual life plays out that way sometimes. He certainly provided the real deal support when it got down to it. Some of the acting and scenarios reminded me of why I liked the movies better as they came more of age.

Ya gotta love these pre-code flicks. Women looked and acted like real women, and men acted like the cads they often are. Warren William plays the tyrannical owner of a department store down on its luck. He hires and fires with absolute glee, and is an unrepentant womanizer. He hires a new salesgirl, played by the incredibly beautiful Loretta Young, and soon has his way with her. She falls for a fellow employee (Wallace Ford) and marries him secretly. William then turns his attention back to Young and... The film is an absolute hoot, and even includes a highly suggestive rape about-to-happen. Young is almost ethereal in her beauty, but this one's William's film all the way. His character is a cad, but in a strange way, a likable cad.

I saw this film recently on Turner Classics. It was a beautiful part of the wonderful past of Hollywood. Warren's great voice still haunts me. It was, as they say "mello as a cello". Real good stuff!! I have become a Warren William fan. I looked up his bio on your WEB. He made a ton of movies with all the top stars of Tinsel Town. He also made some not so good movies, but that's par for the Hollywood story. I have ordered about ten of his movie efforts and look forward with great anticipation in seeing them. Because I was not familial with him till TCM came along and presented some of his work. Sadley he died quite young at 54. Fortunattly we still have him to enjoy with the Hollwood Classics.