Employees' Entrance

Released Jan 20, 1933

1h 15m

Comedy

Drama

List

100%

Tomatometer

7 Reviews

79%

Audience Score

50+ Ratings

Manipulative Kurt Anderson (Warren William), the manager at a department store, treats his employees ruthlessly. He hires Madeline Walters (Loretta Young) as a model only after sleeping with her, and drives assistant Martin West (Wallace Ford) crazy with his constant demands. When Madeline and Martin fall in love, they secretly marry, hoping to keep it from the boss. However, Anderson's temperament keeps causing stress for the newlyweds, causing early marital strife.

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Mordaunt Hall

New York Times

Warren William gives quite an efficient portrait of a dictator of an important department store.

Aug 8, 2006

Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

As an attack on ruthless capitalism, it goes a lot further than more recent efforts such as Wall Street, and it's amazing how much plot and character are gracefully shoehorned into 75 minutes.

Jan 10, 2004

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a slow-moving and mostly uneventful drama that nevertheless boasts an assortment of compelling attributes...

Rated: 2.5/4

Dec 7, 2020

Full Review

James T. Hamada

The Nippu Jiji (Honolulu)

The Important thing about this picture Is that Warren William, who plays the lending role as a ruthless but extraordinarily efficient department store general manager. Is back In his old form.

Jun 24, 2020

Full Review

Sarah Boslaugh

Playback:stl

You quickly get used to the on-the-nose dialogue... and the story moves quickly while still managing to develop our interest in the main characters.

Rated: 6/10

Nov 10, 2015

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Clever comedy/melodrama about a nasty power-hungry boss who gets his comeuppance.

Rated: B

Oct 6, 2014

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Audience Member

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 moths. Not to be missed!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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 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... Hugely entertaining. Enjoyable throughout-True today as ever!!

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

More truthful, and maybe even more charming, romantic, and amusing, than The Shop Around the Corner.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

hardcore precode with warren william, terrific as a ruthless executive and womanizer, firing people left and right and even driving one employee to suicide. the film still packs a punch 80 years later

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

pre-code hollywood films are fascinating to me and this is a great example, with a story like one found in some racy old romance magazine. a great cast. unapologetic villain. end of story melodrama. sex and sin. snappy dialogue. so interesting to see films from that era made without the constraints of the code.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Warren William and Loretta Young star in a story about a department store in NYC, back then a very big deal. We see the appeal of Williams as a star in the very first scene with his speech in front of the department store executives, he is the focus and a focal point. Williams is a ruthless store manager, Curt Anderson, a role that he portrays par excellence. Loretta Young is Madeline, an unemployed looker seeking employment at the department store. The two meet after hours at the store and through mutual flirtation they agree to dinner and ...uhm...her employment. To increase sales Anderson holds a meeting with the executives to brainstorm ideas, one of which is to sell men's boxers next to men's ties next to women's articles because women buy men's boxers. As we progress Madeline and Mr. West, Wallace Ford, become an article just as Mr. West is promoted to Mr. Anderson's assistant, to the chagrin of Madeline, who despite what Martin says she does know Mr. Anderson better than Martin. The ruthless nature of the store is apparent when Higgins, an employee of 30 years is dismissed and then commits suicide outside the store after Anderson fires him and tells him he is useless. There is a scene at a party when Anderson and Madeline are under the influence and Madeline then pops a number of balloons with a cigarette, perhaps I read to much into this but I believe that this is symbolic of Anderson taking Madeline's virginity and a reason why she is seduced/raped by him at the party. Once Anderson is aware that West and Madeline are married he becomes enraged and tries to break up the marriage. The ending is complicated and great, Madeline drinks poison, West shoots Anderson, Anderson forgives him, Anderson hooks up with the hussy, Anderson gets the store back on track and the hussy gets left in the dust. In one of the great modern day scenes Williams drops the hussy's toy dog in the trash can when he informs her that he still has a job. If only we could do that with all the reality TV women who have a small dog, and drop the women in the can instead of the dog.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

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Roy Del Ruth

Director

Warren William

Kurt Anderson

Loretta Young

Madeleine Walters West

Wallace Ford

Martin West

Alice White

Polly Dale

Albert Gran

Denton Ross

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Synopsis

Manipulative Kurt Anderson (Warren William), the manager at a department store, treats his employees ruthlessly. He hires Madeline Walters (Loretta Young) as a model only after sleeping with her, and drives assistant Martin West (Wallace Ford) crazy with his constant demands. When Madeline and Martin fall in love, they secretly marry, hoping to keep it from the boss. However, Anderson's temperament keeps causing stress for the newlyweds, causing early marital strife.

Director: Roy Del Ruth
Screenwriter: David Boehm, Robert Presnell Sr.
Distributor: Warner Bros., The Vitaphone Corporation
Production Co: First National Pictures
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 20, 1933, Original
Release Date (DVD): May 21, 2013
Runtime: 1h 15m