Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Sick Product of a Sick System

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Beautiful, moving film.

While "Beauty and the Boss" isn't a total loss - no movie with Warren William and Charles Butterworth could be - it's darn close, and the fault, dear Brutus, lies with its leading lady, Marion Marsh.I'm a connoisseur of bad performances, and always held Wheeler Oakman's wooden acting in "Lights of New York" as the gold standard, but Marsh has taken the title in a first-round knockout.Either director Roy Del Ruth was too busy to direct Marsh or was deliberately trying to end her contract, but the decision to let her speak all her lines as rapidly and with as little inflection as possible was fatal. Every time she's on screen, she kills the picture with her lack of ability to act.Mary Doran, who plays the "other woman" is so far superior to her in terms of personality and intelligence that it's baffling how William's character throws her over for such a dimwit.I blame Del Ruth, ultimately. Any director who let Marsh get away with that performance -and- cuts away from Butterworth doing the tango is clearly having a bad time of it.

"Beauty and the Boss" is a 1932 film starring Warren William, Marian Marsh, and David Manners. Since it's precode, it's filled with innuendo. William plays a Viennese bank president who is easily distracted by his secretary, so distracted, in fact, that he fires her. Times were different, but maybe not - in 2013, a similar incident made national news, as one did in 2010.As soon as his secretary has been dismissed, a young woman crashes into his office demanding a job. She's hungry and supporting her mother and her dog. Impressed with her steno skills, he hires her. She falls for him and quietly sabotages a few of his relationships.This film was a big hit so Marsh and William were paired up again but with less success. Marian Marsh is of course adorable, and William is his usually cad-like self. Handsome David Manners, who plays his brother, is charming.Cute comedy, not as brazen as "Baby Face" or other precodes, but fun just the same.

Originally entitled The Church Mouse in New York, London, and Paris where it began as a play by Ladislas Fodor, Beauty And The Boss is an average comedy with a few good laughs about a wealthy man who can't decide whether he wants efficiency or eye candy as female employees. The play ran a respectable 164 performances on Broadway in the 1931-32 season for the Depression and the most prominent name in the cast was that of Ruth Gordon.Warren William is the French industrial tycoon with this terrible dilemma and when he finds he can't concentrate on his business because he finds stenographer Mary Doran too attractive he fires Doran. There won't be that problem with Marian Marsh however who dresses down and dowdy so much that she's called a church mouse. But she's set her cap for William and she'll do whatever it takes to nail him.Rounding out this European comedy of manners is David Manners as William's fun loving brother, they're much like the Larrabee brothers in Sabrina. There's also Frederic Kerr as a count with a roving eye and the ever droll Charles Butterworth who for me is always a pleasure to watch in anything. The material cast has to work with is pretty thin, but they rise to the occasion and while Beauty And The Boss will never be rated as one of the great comedies of the Thirties it will give a few good laughs to anyone who views it.

Beauty and the Boss was a delightful movie with some very subtle humor and frank interfacing between the competing beauties. The rapid dialog between the Count and his prospective secretary was a pleasure in wittiness and abstract humor. This movie promised a bright career.Marian Marsh was a beautiful young lady, but what struck me was a resemblance to a later actress, Jane Powell when she was of that age. It was a shame the studios did not hold on to her for better roles but I guess it was the depression and they were interested in churning out low budget movies and constantly showing new faces. Ms. Marsh did show considerable talent, artistically before the cameras, at quite a young age. Considering her young age it seems the studios could have been more understanding when they did not pick up her contract while they were having disagreements over a bad performing movie.