Employees' entrance 1933 - Excellent look at the backstage of a department store

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IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: Roy Del Ruth
Main Cast: Warren William, Loretta Young, Wallace Ford, Alice White

"Warren William plays a high-powered ambitious executive who unflinchingly steamrolled his way to the top without regard for the havoc he left in his wake. As the manager of a Macy-like department store, he constantly browbeats his flunkies into submission, and ends-up driving at least one to suicide. Loretta Young plays the wife of one of William's minor employees (Wallace Ford), with whom the Big Boss has a brief affair during an office party. Eventually William gets his comeuppance, and Loretta is vindicated in the eyes of her hubby. A terrific example of pre-Motion Picture Production Code raciness, Employees' Entrance still causes audiences to gasp at its audaciousness when seen today
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 that William is all but forgotten today.
The rest of the cast is excellent: Wallace Ford and 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 and 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." - www.allmovie.com

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