User reviews

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.

... Warren William appears to be the whole show. Sure, you have a great supporting cast, but Warren William's character, tyrannical department store manager Kurt Anderson, is the center of the universe. You dislike his character when you first meet him, but as the film goes along, you begin to understand him and almost pity him by the end of the film. What a brilliant piece of acting.

It's one of several films made in the 20s and 30s centered around those giant department stores of New York City with that special brand of humor and pathos that was so unique to Warner Brothers at the time. Kurt Anderson's curse, besides being completely aware that he would be old and "through" someday just like all of the people that he fired, is to not actually control his empire. He is technically just an employee. He works for the board, for the banks, and the actual owner who seems only good for writing pronouncements for special occasions from his yacht in the Mediterranean.

Loretta Young plays a girl, Madelene, that sleeps with Anderson in order to get a job there - she is starving at the time. Later she develops a romance with Martin West (Wallace Ford), who becomes like a son to Anderson, somebody he is grooming to take over for him someday. The complication is that Martin and Madelene secretly marry because Anderson doesn't like the idea of married executives - they spend too much time at home. This means that Anderson thinks Madelene is still available, and although Anderson is not the marrying kind, he still finds Madelene desirable. Complications ensue.

Albert Gran didn't have too many talking film roles, and in fact this film was released six months after he died. But he is hilarious here as a rather useless executive who Anderson has to keep around because he is related to the actual invisible store owner. Alice White probably has better comic timing here than in any role I've seen her as Anderson's gold digging on-again-off-again mercenary mistress. She is much better as the cherry on top rather than the whole pie.

The running gag for me? The actual owner of the store - you never see him - always starts his letters by saying he is descended from both James Monroe and Benjamin Franklin. As far as I know there is no such person.

A very watchable pre-code film - not so only it's risque elements but for acting (particularly Warren William), plot, comedy and fast pace. One of my favorites of the era.

It's very interesting how Warren William - who treats women like objects, tries to break up a budding romance (by seducing and sleeping with Loretta Young, not once but twice!!), indirectly leads to a employees' suicide, etc - manages to "win" in the end. For the most part, the is the "bad guy" in the story...although he has a few redeeming characteristics.

It's worth owning the video.

Behind the pedestrian title lurks a rather savage look at survival-era capitalism as played out during that desperate depression year of 1933. Who else is better outfitted to protect the average working stiff from cut-throat competition and unemployment than a tiger shark bigger than those circling around. Department store shark Warren William is in charge of 12,000 average Joe's, and by golly he's going to keep them swimming even if he has to eat half of them in the process. Bravura performance from William-- watch his eyes slink around the hallway before he enters the hotel room to ravish a drunkenly compliant Loretta Young. His authoritative presence commands the movie as completely as he does his underlings. Film may come as a revelation to viewers unfamiliar with pre-Code Hollywood, before the censors took over in 1934. Nonetheless, it was an era of social frankness that would not emerge again until the counter-cultural 1960's, while the movie itself would play as well today as it did then, as one reviewer sagely observes.

Much of film's value lies in getting us to think about the appeal a strongman-tyrant presents during turbulent times. We loathe William's ruthless and often cruel tactics. But at the same time he's inventive, decisive, and brutally logical-- with a single-minded dedication that goes beyond personal happiness. In short, he becomes The Department Store in the same way an effective tyrant can personify The State. He's a figure to be loathed, yet grudgingly admired at the same time, while it's a credit to the film-makers that they pull off the ambivalence as well as they do. Two scenes stay with me that help define William's compelling side--watch him nearly throw up at the smarmy speech given in behalf of the store's worthless owners, plus his face-to-face denunciation of bankers as parasitically unproductive, a passage that probably brought depression-era audiences to their feet.There are also unexpected deposits of humor, such as the bald man/balloon gag that is hilariously inventive and likely a brainstorm from ace director Roy del Ruth. On the other hand, Wallace Ford simply lacks the kind of edge to make his role as William's assistant plausible. Instead, a face-off between William and, say, Cagney would have exploded the screen.

Anyhow, don't let the forgettable title or the now obscure Warren William fool you. There are so many memorable glimpses of human honesty, that the movie must be seen to be appreciated, especially by those unfamiliar with the pre-Code era. So catch up with this cynical little gem if you can.

Warren William (Kurt Anderson) gets to dominate the picture as a ruthless department store manager who throws away employees, suppliers and women without pity. Alice White (Polly Dale) is also exceptional as the women he uses to seduce and control men he can't dominate otherwise.

An interesting look at a workplace in the depth of the depression. The department store sets are also interesting for showing retail design of the time.

12,000 workers pass through the EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE of Franklin Monroe & Co., the world's largest department store. Hounded & harried by their merciless management, they have produced a superior retail establishment. However, the cost in broken hearts & lives has been tremendous, as greed & ambition struggle for control of the entire corporation...

This is an excellent film that rewards diligent attention from the viewer. Like its predecessor, SKYSCRAPER SOULS (1932), the story takes a diverse cast of characters, puts them in a large structure, stirs in a witches' brew of human emotions, and applies intense pressure on them all from the top down. Fine production values help the believability in this pre-Production Code drama.

Warren William dominates the picture - just as he did in SKYSCRAPER SOULS (1932) in an identical role- as the store's completely amoral, conniving, tyrannical manager. He is perfect in the part and it is fascinating to watch a skilled actor portray a thoroughly bad character. As one of the finer actors of the decade, it is indeed a shame the William is all but forgotten today.

The rest of the cast is excellent: Wallace Ford & Loretta Young as a secretly married couple whom William tries to corrupt; Alice White as the store floozy, willing to drop her morals at William's command; Ruth Donnelly as William's no-nonsense secretary; Frank Reicher & Charles Sellon as two old men who respond in very different ways to having William destroy their livelihood; and Hale Hamilton as the store's ineffectual, absentee owner.

Movie mavens will recognize Allen Jenkins as an undercover store security officer and Charles Lane as a shoe salesman, both unbilled.

Although meant to be great entertainment and nothing more, this film should raise just enough questions in the viewer's mind so as to get them pondering what really goes on behind all those closed doors at their own favorite department store.

A standout performance by Warren William as Anderson, the hard, uncompromising, ruthless and feared-by-most General Manager of a giant department store helps make this a really excellent and interesting film. With climbing profits over the years, the depression has hit the store with a downfall and Anderson is put in complete charge to boost up sales - and he will go so far as to ruin any man who doesn't live up to his high expectations. He likes women, but not for marriage - his motto towards females is "love 'em and leave 'em". He soon meets beautiful Loretta Young who is desperate to get a job at the store, apparently a hard nut to crack (and she, apparently, will do whatever it takes to get it as she spends the night with him at his apartment despite her indication she would like to go home). Anyway - she's hired on as a model even after she said she would like to be hired for her "brain" - okey dokey - and soon has met and married a gung-ho salesman (Wallace Ford) who has been promoted as Anderson's new assistant. Anderson believes that a man should be married to his "job" only - so the marriage is kept a secret, and the workaholic boss expects his assistant to be there by his side pretty much night and day.

Okay, this is a really terrific pre-code film, entertaining through every scene, and featuring one of my thirties favorites, Warren William, who pretty much steals the film. As for the women, though Loretta Young is fine in her part here and looks really gorgeous - it is the scenes with adorable Alice White that are the most fun to watch as she plays Polly, a blonde who takes extra pay from Anderson to do his bidding seducing male employees for various purposes. A very enjoyable film and a treat to see.

This is one of those wonderful 1930's films where the plot, dialogue and emotions could be transplanted into the year 2000. Everything changes, yet nothing changes. We've all met arrogant and cruel bosses like Kurt Anderson, played perfectly by Warren William. Loretta Young, Wallace Ford and Alice White are just right. And what a blessing that such a hard-hitting movie was written without a single swear word.

This has to be one of the best B movies. Don't miss it. While it is no Citizen Kane, I found it to be a flawless 1 hour, 14 minute joy -- great satire, comedy, social and economic commentary and a fast-paced, well written, interwoven and witty screenplay . There is not a dull or wasted moment in the movie. It moves along and builds as it goes. All the loose ends are tied together and resolved in the exciting conclusion as Warren William juggles a frantic attempt to get a last minute voting proxy, a number of romances, some personnel changes and alliances and even some gunplay. Wow! And there is a huge number of situations and strategy about department store management and sales promotions. It is also an unusual movie in that it is gloriously politically INcorrect: the "bad guy" triumphs for a change. It is quite risque; a good example of a pre-code movie. Warren William gives an "over the top" bravura performance. Albert Gran and Alice White shine. Wallace Ford and Loretta Young do fine.

I see that most users gave it an 8 out of 10. I gave it a 9.

Well, what a racy little feature this is. Made just before the introduction of the Hays Code, it purports to lift the lid on the goings on behind the doors of a modern-day major department store in New York. So we get to see at close quarters the complacency of its board of directors, especially its chairman who's more concerned with attending high society engagements and holidaying on his boat to be concerned with the well-being or morale of the staff and has allowed the ruthless and heartless store-manager Kurt Anderson, played by Warren Williams, to run the shop along strict factory lines. Anderson's behaviour is outrageous whether ruining the business and therefore livelihood of a supplier who misses a delivery deadline, sacking a thirty-year kindly store veteran for not being dynamic enough and who then proceeds to commit suicide directly as a result, setting a go-ahead, pretty young secretary to honey-trap an elderly board member who is resistant to his working practices and worst of all use his vaunted position to twice bed a pretty young girl Madeline Walters, played by Loretta Young, who is desperate for a job in the shop, the second time when, now an employee of his, he's so plied her with drink that she's clearly helplessly drunk and in fact brings up the suggestion of rape.

There are sub-plots too, particularly the romance between Young and her ambitious boy-friend Martin West played by Wallace Ford, the latter of whom Anderson attempts to take under his wing as a protege when the young man starts to demonstrate a similar profit-besotted outlook to his own. Confirmed bachelor Anderson sees red however when he learns that Martin and Madeline have arranged a lightning marriage which motivates him to force himself on the poor girl a second time at the office party.

While the story here is painted in broad strokes and Anderson with his pencil moustache and steely gaze can seem a mere devilish laugh away from being an over-the-top pantomime villain, there's just enough ambivalence to stop the film flying away into lurid caricature. Anderson gets results you see and in Depression-era America that's what seems to count with the shop's board who vote near unanimously to keep him on, even when they know full well his working practices. Even the small-fry supplier who Anderson callously ruins now has a new, hardened "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" outlook now he's been forced to take the king's shilling and work for the shop. Martin, with only some reservations, hero-worships his can-do boss only to find his confidence misplaced when Anderson purposely ruins his young bride.

Especially with the #MeToo movement of today, the treatment of women in the film is deplorable, not only in the way that Young's character is targeted by Anderson but also the casual way he employs his willing, starry-eyed young P.A. to pander to the whims of the one, aged board member who questions his methodology.

Nevertheless this few-holds-barred expose of naked capitalism, as well as the divide between the haves, the have-nots and those that want to have, makes for both an interesting social document and entertaining movie.

The ethic of working employees like pack mules, without regard for their personal lives (as if they were allowed to have them!) portrayed in the film was shocking to me. I saw the film in Silicon Valley, and it could have been portraying any of the overtime-obsessed companies around today. Its prescience was indeed, amazing. My eyes bugged open more with each turn of how outlandish can the Boss get. "A primer on sexual harassment" one comment on the film said, and it certainly was enjoyable to watch the slap & smack fest in the office. The other employees and board members round out the cast of anyone you work with today: from butt-coverers to disconnected semi-retirees who find the idea of showing up at the office an inconvenience to their day. My popcorn was untouched, because my mouth was either gasping or laughing, too quickly switching from one to the next to get a munch in edgewise.

Employees' Entrance is a drama about keeping a business afloat during the Great Depression. The business is a large department store called Monroe's and the owner Hale Hamilton is said to be a descendant of both James Monroe and Benjamin Franklin. But while this worthless heir enjoys his yacht, Warren William is doing whatever it takes and doing it ruthlessly to keep the store afloat.

There won't be too many people in mourning when William shuffles off the mortal coil. But that's all right by him. Every fiber of his being is devoted to his job. He's quite the user of people and one of them he spots a possible protege, Wallace Ford. He likes single men with no families working for him. But William doesn't know that Ford is secretly married to a young model William has hired, Loretta Young. That's going to present problems.

A lot of similar theme are present here as in Billy Wilder's classic The Apartment. No romantic angle like in The Apartment for William however, he's 100% business. However Young and Ford reach the same conclusions that Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine do in The Apartment.

A few familiar faces from Warner Brothers stock company are present like Ruth Donnelly and Allen Jenkins. Stealing every scene she's in is man trap Alice White. William has her on special assignment.

Employees' Entrance holds up well though this is a film firmly set in the time of The Great Depression.

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.

Were it not for the comparison with the similar Warren William movie, Skyscraper Souls, this would be rated higher. Skyscraper Souls stars Warren William as a ruthless boss trampling over and destroying peoples' lives. This film however stars Warren William as a ruthless boss trampling over and destroying peoples' lives. This film has its fans but I found it a markedly inferior shadow of 'Skyscraper' It is curious that the emotion flowing through the undercurrent in both films is social justice - WB's speciality. However Employees' Entrance is the WB film here whereas the much superior and effective film is from the usually grit-free zone of MGM. I'm not saying this is bad, it's just not as good as something very similar with the same actor doing a similar role.

It's beautifully paced, it looks good and has some clever touches by director Roy del Ruth. The acting is believable and it keeps your attention right to the end. Where it looses points is in its writing - specifically, the characterisation of Mr Alexander - he might as well wear a pirate's eye patch. He is just too one dimensional. There must be more to him but unlike in Skyscraper, we don't see anything other than his cruel ruthlessnesses.

There's only one small scene where we learn that Mr Alexander might actually be human but that's only because he says that himself. He tells you but you don't feel it, the script simply doesn't bring his character to life. Without that empathy, he is just a one-dimensional, a poorly written pantomime villain.

His brutality is excused because he's not as bad as the alternative - unemployment for his staff or the company being run by the 'enemy of the people' back then, the bankers! Although his style is a bit third rate Basil Rathbone, Warren William does his best and manages to keep our interest right up to the end but he could have been better - and indeed was he did this role with so much more depth over at MGM a few months earlier.

Like a lot of bosses back then, whether he's the head of a department store or a motion picture studio, it could be argued that if he wasn't such a heartless monster, the thousands of people who work for him would be on the bread line. Would the girls who got jobs by sleeping with him rather be starving in the cold streets? Working at Warner Brothers in 1933, everyone involved with this film would be aware of someone like this but the writers assume that we all know them well enough that his character doesn't need explaining.

The central character of 'Employee's Entrance' is Kurt Anderson (Warren William). William is great; he plays the cruel head executive with relish. The scene where he drops the pomeranian into the waste paper basket is a fantastic idea - you probably got his character before then, but still. It is perfectly credible that someone like him is unable to have relationships that are not exploitative: It is labour exploitation with the employees of Munro's, and sexual exploitation with the women in whom he takes an interest. Nothing else works for him, as his failure to establish a relation of trust with Martin West (played by Wallace Ford) shows. For all that, I guess audiences in 1933 had an ambivalent view of Anderson. Unemployment in the US stood at 25% when this picture came out, so a boss who did not react to a fall in profits by reducing his workforce, and who rather opted for a 10% cut of the salary, must have seemed not so bad.

Loretta Young, who plays Madeline Walters - the women whom Anderson exploits and with whom West falls in love - looks lovely but is a far less remarkable character. That is not to say Young does not do well. She portraits Madeline convincingly - up to and including her decision to committ suicide. Neverthless, next to Warren William she looks somewhat pale. The same applies to Wallace Ford: He is nice enough, but pale.

The plot is fairly simple and most of it takes place within Munro's department shop, which makes for a rather claustrophobic atmosphere. Typically for a pre-code picture, this one comes straight to the point where issues such as one night stands and non-consensual sex are concerned (which does not mean that it shows much skin). All in all, 'Employee's Entrance' is a highly interesting and entertaining film - not excellent, but well worth watching.

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.

Kurt Anderson (Warren William) is the ruthless general manager of the Monroe department store. His harsh uncaring drive has made the store a roaring success. He even bullies the flighty owner and the board who fears losing him. Madeline Walters (Loretta Young) is desperate for a job and accepts his advances. She gets a job in the store. Martin West (Wallace Ford) is a young up-and-coming manager who falls for her.

I don't actually know that much about Loretta Young. It's not what I expected. Maybe I saw her in some later movie. This is pre-Code. I'm not sure how I feel about this couple. It's telling that she doesn't meet him first or most memorably. It's a passable meet-cute but not really. The movie probably spends too much time with Anderson. He has a great opening but that's enough. It could work like Scrooged but he's not played like that. There is no humor here. He is the worst and there is no way to redeem him. It's all very icky. He's the big character of the movie and he's very icky.

This movie has lots of humor, pathos, and suspense. The wonderful cast does a great job. William Warren is, at times, ruthless yet he also displays occasional compassion and a considerable amount of vulnerability. As the no nonsense top boss in a major Manhattan department store he stops at nothing in his quest to keep his store at the top. He thinks nothing of summarily terminating loyal long time store employees if they offend him in any manner. Although all of the cast is superb in their well written roles, make no mistake, this is Warren's film. It moves fast and does none of the slow dragging that many films of the early 1930s suffer from.

Warren William is the hated but brilliant chief executive of a successful department store. Along the way, he seduces Loretta Young twice, makes her husband, Wallace Ford, his assistant, and deals with the crises that pop up.

It's one of the movies that made William King of the Pre-Code. He fires people unfeelingly, and still comes out on top because, well, he's right; that, after all, is his only justification, and so the movie has him so. He looks at the merchandise in a manner that indicates he doesn't understand it at all, sets a sleazy Alice White on Arthur Gran to keep him out of Williams' hair, and wrecks lives without compassion. In the process, director Roy Del Ruth compresses what would have been a 90-minute movie into 75 by having everyone talk at top speed. You got a lot of movie at Warner Brothers in those days!

I ran across this movie by chance and then ran to IMBD to learn more about it. I was amazed by how the film enlightened me on the era and actually how similar corporations and people in them still behave today.. William Warren is excellent in the role of the tyrannical boss with the hots for the married sales girl (Loretta Young). I was surprised by the the openness of the film (for the time), but apparently after reading some of the other comments, this is typical of the pre-code era of films. Too bad things had to change. You can pick up a lot of social history from this kind of film despite it being a bit one dimensional.

Employees' Entrance (1933) : Brief Review -

That's how a hardcore, brutal & choking corporate flick looked in the Depression era. Oh Warren William, what have you done. A cold-blooded, soulless, business-minded box like this was never in my imagination, but you brought it to life on the big screen. How? And you are telling me that Employees' Entrance was made in the pre-code era? The world was facing the heat of recession, and Hollywood just couldn't help but use the idea of the corporate world to be explored on the silver screen. And what an apt and hard-core presentation it was. Employees' Entrance is not about drama or any specific script that goes around and comes to the typical conflicts; rather, it's all about the brutal world of corporate and how care-for-nothing boss at the office building can be. No woman, that's his motto, because he believes that a married man cannot commit 24 hours of the day to his work. No friends, because they drag you away from the office. No sentiments or emotional attachments towards the workers, because all that matters in the corporate world is money. You can make money? Then you are through. You have been loyal to the company for years or decades but have no scope for new ideas? You are though. Just get out. How brutal and straightforward this film is about the business world and the internal affairs of a big corporate office. I wish they would have removed that love story crossover with an extramarital affair, as it was the only thing that was distracting me from the main context of the story. The blackmail stuff was funny, especially the way it ended. It was even funnier. Warren William was absolutely great here. Loretta Young looked gorgeous, and her chemistry with Wallace Ford was beautiful but too rushed. Roy Del Ruth's Eye for a Quickie in 75 minutes provides wholesome entertainment on a new topic, and it's purely subjected to its theme. A top-notch stuff for its time!

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.