How sad is this?

Absolutely amazing

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Clearly a pun on "Beauty and the Beast".... this early talkie is so under-rated. It's just before the Hays code started being enforced, and the clever banter gets quite saucy. Warren William (from the Lone Wolf films) is the all-business, hardworking company president, who has no time for the flirtations of his secretaries, first Mary Doran, then Marian Marsh. It turns into a kind of competition between the two girls, after a confrontation. Doran is "Ollie", who uses her wit, wiles, and low-cut dresses to try to lure in the Baron. Susie (Marsh) tries to take the high road at first, but sees how easy it is to make men swoon with Ollie's naughty girlie ways. Charles Butterworth is here as the office manager, and has all the best lines. That dry, sarcastic wit, which he brought from his vaudeville days, usually muttered under his breath. He was only 36 in this film, but wow, he always looked old as dirt. Frederick Kerr is the Baron's sidekick, but doesn't really add much to the story. It's fun being an observer, to see who will "win" the prize. Story by Hungarian Ladislas Fodor, and the foreign currency and other words creep into the conversation. Directed by Roy Del Ruth, who had been around since the early days of silents, and successfully moved into talkies. This one is a lot of fun. Doesn't seem to have been shown often on TCM, with only 300 votes. Warner packed a lot into 66 minutes, and it moves right along. Recommended ! Catch it if you can. Warner Brother archives HAS released this on DVD...

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

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.

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.