Beauty and the Boss
Beauty and the Boss
| 09 April 1932 (USA)
Beauty and the Boss Trailers

An ultra-efficient Plain Jane secretary blossoms when she accompanies her boss on a business trip to Paris.

Reviews
Palaest recommended
Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?
Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict
Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
winstonchurchill-93755 Rapid fire dialog rips through this charming pre code gem so fast you'll have to put down your iPhone to enjoy. Marian Marsh shines and Warren William is offensive and hilarious.
MartinHafer The idea for this film isn't bad, but the writing was just awful. With just a few changes here and there and decent directing, it could have been a nice little film.The film begins with a big-time executive (Warren William) firing his very competent secretary. Why? Well, she's too good looking and William doesn't want to be distracted. He's a guy who is either a workaholic or a lecher--and nothing in between. Later, he hires a seemingly sexless lady (Mae Marsh) who is more machine-like than feminine. The working relationship works out great--and William is more productive than ever. Marsh seems happy but when she observes how other women have an intoxicating effect on William, she, too, wants to be this sort of a woman and win his heart.This film could never be made today--simply because it is so incredibly sexist. Such a boss would have a bazillion lawsuits for sexual harassment and gender discrimination!! But, if you can look past this the film still abounds with problems. The biggest is that William and Marsh are badly written characters--caricatures instead of believable people. It comes off, at times, as a very silly film when it shouldn't be. A few other problems are that the actors talk WAY too fast--so fast that I think Jimmy Cagney couldn't have kept up!! The director needed to tell them to slow significantly in their delivery. The only interesting thing about this bad film is the sexual undercurrent--which never would have been allowed in the Code films (starting in mid-1934). LOTS of innuendo and double-entendres abound. But the overall effort is limp and silly.SLOW DOWN! very sexist and dated strong sexual undercurrent Marsh's performance WAY too one-dimensional and silly BAD painting of Paris off balcony William is either a machine or a sex-machine
jadd1600 One of the very first boss falls for secretary films, but fresh, original, and wonderfully acted and scripted. Warren William is young but just as dapper and sophisticated as in later roles. I have never seen the female lead -- secretary -- before, but she is very pretty and a good comedic actress. One of the best parts is the way she keeps turning the tables on WW as the boss, first with super efficiency and later by doing what he commands, literally. It is set in Europe at the height of the worldwide depression, and it shows how well some of the rich -- those who were lucky enough not to be heavily invested in the preceding stock market mania -- were living, while others struggled. Seeing how people lived then, some 70 years ago, is always interesting.
creeper No big stars in this one but still a very entertaining little film. Marsh and Doran are two women who go after Warren William in very different ways. Butterworth is good in his usual comic relief role. A charming and fast-moving movie.