Now Playing: "Beauty and the Boss" (1932)

As fair warning, spoilers lay ahead!

I love Pre-Codes and hadn't seen (nor heard much of ) this one before but since it features Warren William, I'm game.  I found Beauty and the Boss an interesting watch, not just due to William's involvement but because of the sheer insanity of the picture itself.

William plays "the Baron," a European banker, who has just returned from a visit to the States.  Miss Frey, his current secretary, is less than capable but she is hot to trot.  The Baron fires her, freeing her (and him) for outside activities, something he has made routine.  He tells the easily seduced Miss Frey that he needs a secretary who is plain and unattractive, focused solely on business and someone that would not prove a distraction to him.  Enter Susie Sachs, a young stenographer who is suffering with the Depression and looking for work. She barges into the Baron's office, after oh-so-obviously pressing her nose to the glass and staring at the Baron's co-worker preparing to eat lunch, and single-handedly takes over the office with the speed (and overall passion) of a machine.  Exactly what the Baron wants!  Susie is not only offered a job but she goes ahead and calls the local grocer to have a bevy of staples delivered to the residence she shares with her mother.

Fast forward a few weeks and Susie, the little church mouse, is running every aspect of both the Baron's business and personal life.  She's keeping him on task at the office and warding off quite a few females with ulterior motives.  Of course, Susie has motives of her own as she has fallen in love with the Baron, who is utterly blind to her as anything other than a first rate assistant.

Will the Baron realize Susie has feelings for him?  Will he have feelings for her?   This is a fairly by-the-book plot so you should know the answers.

Let's talk about the issues with Beauty and the Boss.

This man should never be third billed

First, Warren William is third billed in this picture.  Third billed. What?  Marian Marsh gets top billing followed by David Manners (who?)  Where is the respect for the King of Pre-Codes?  Certainly not here.

Secondly, please someone, give Marian Marsh a sedative because she makes the Energizer Bunny look positively lethargic.  I started out getting a bit exhausted watching her and then my exhaustion turned to annoyance and aggravation.  I'm no stenographer but can anyone really take shorthand that well?  And who asks their boss to dictate faster?  Huh?

But maybe I am overly sensitive because Marsh's initial scene as Susie struck me wrong. Sure, the scene with her at the window did its part in showing us that she was one of the Depression weary who was hungry (and it certainly would have cut down on the scene where she described to the Baron how she divided a sardine to make it last longer) but director Roy Del Ruth really had that scene go on way too long.  I think I may have been able to run to the bathroom and grab a drink and not missed anything.  I want to like her because, truthfully, she deserves the job.  And she's not only quite good at keeping the female leeches away from the Baron but some of the scenes are humorous.  When she takes the flower delivery to Miss Frey, she shows a steely backbone; in other scenes, however, she's very nearly insipid.

She's too eager, too hyperactive, too . . . TOO.  Granted, Marsh was only eighteen or nineteen when she filmed Beauty and the Boss; Del Ruth should have reigned her in.

This is an issue with everyone on this film, honestly, but was everyone hard of hearing?  Were they told there were issues with the sound equipment?  Did they think there weren't speakers in the movie theaters because they were most definitely playing to the balcony.  They were yelling and, I'm sorry, really overacting in some scenes.  I adore Warren William but this isn't one of his stronger outings.  Which is sort of weird because this film was shot the same year he made The Mouthpiece and Skyscraper Souls, both of which are excellent.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the film, if you want to call it that, is how women are viewed and treated.  Women are not to be, well, women, during business hours.  The Baron is perfectly okay with using women for his own needs and devices (i.e., sexually) but only if it's not during business hours and only if the women are not in his employ.  He is amazed that Susie - - or any woman - - is capable of working and using intellect as a man does.  In this way, the ending of the film is a letdown, as Susie is fired by the Baron before catching on that he has fired her so that he can make her his Baroness.  Beauty and the Boss makes her like every other cinematic woman, at least of the period, who really only wants to get married.  Jobs are simply something to do until you find that man willing to put a ring on your finger.  What a disappointment, as Susie has proven herself to be just as capable - - and maybe more so - - than any man working at the bank.  Also disappointing, to a much lesser degree, is that once she's been pink slipped by the Baron, Susie returns to her pre-employment duds (and I do mean duds) of schlubby wear and Apple Annie straw hat with a sad sunflower.  The anvils, they are a-dropping.  Clearly without the Baron and his employ, poor Susie is no longer the strong, attractive woman but instead the little church mouse.  Sigh.

Maybe worse is that women like Miss Frey and the unnamed bathtub lady who is so fond of calling the Baron, her former employer, while immersed in her bubbles were a-okay with being objectified and sexualized and essentially paid for their services; after firing Miss Frey, the Baron gives her six months of wages in exchange for being available.  I know it was the Depression but . . .

Which of course makes you wonder exactly what Susie would see in him, or why we, the viewers, should root for them to be together.  She's an innocent, if overly energetic, waif and he's a man who sees her as a woman for the first time after she appears in an evening gown and promptly gets the hots for her.  As does every other man, including the Baron's younger brother, because they clearly see her as nothing but a typewriter when she's attired in her usual blouses and skirts. Ah, the days before feminism.

All is not bad, however.  I chuckled over the scenes dealing with plane travel, as it clearly was a novelty back in 1932.  No commercial flights but the Baron has a private plane, which I'm sure was considered very plush for the time. One of Susie's more humorous scenes concerns her sending one of the Baron's potential amours to someone else's plane.

The slinky gowns and the amazing pantsuit worn by Miss Frey post-firing are phenomenal, as is the Art Deco gloriousness of the Baron's office.

As a fan of Warren William, I am happy to see him in any cinematic effort and this one is no exception.

Finally, if nothing else, as women, we should celebrate how far we've come, especially when viewed through the lens Beauty and the Boss gives us.

Beauty and the Boss is available on DVD.