Big Business Girl

Loretta Young stars with Ricardo Cortez and Frank Albertson in "Big Business Girl," a pre-code from 1931.

Beautiful Claire McIntryre (Young) goes to New York to find a job, leaving behind her new husband Johnny (Albertson) who has a band that is going to be working in Paris. Thanks to a mismanagement fluke in an office, she is hired to work for Robert Clayton (Cortez) as a secretary in an advertising firm. Ambitious, she writes some ad copy, which Clayton finds passable and gives her an office. Actually it's excellent work, but he low-balls her salary and over the intercom, she hears he thinks she's got a good chassis.

'Mac' as she is known, doesn't mention she's married and plays the game, flirting with Clayton and dazzling the clients. Then Johnny shows up unexpectedly.

This movie is a real blah except for a couple of things. One is one of the secretaries saying she had ambitions at one time to make a "man's salary" - and just think, 86 years later, in some fields, you can still say that. However, she continues, a big career won't keep you warm at night.

The other item of interest is Joan Blondell, hired when people need to prove adultery before getting a divorce. She's hilarious as the no nonsense, down to earth Pearl, and she's the biggest spark in the film, other than Loretta's clothes.

Cortez is smooth and Albertson is dull. Loretta here was about 18. She's stunning and natural.

All in all, not much.

Such a predictable and creaky old film really shouldn't be as entertaining as this!

It's the lightest of light comedies and being made in 1931 with a low budget, it's far from visually stunning however it's actually quite fun.

Big Business Girl seems to be primarily an excuse to show how crazily pretty Loretta Young is and in that respect it's unquestionably successful. If a computer was programmed to create the sweetest, most beautiful girl possible, Loretta Young would probably be the result. She's only eighteen in this but the fact that she is lusted after by an older man, her boss, kind of legitimises us chaps being allowed to stare. She is definitely however not just a pretty face, certainly in this, she is an exceptional actress and manages not just to carry this unremarkable story single handedly but also makes it very watchable.

The first ten minutes are so awfully lame you will be tempted to switch it off but don't, stick with it - it does get better. Director William Sieter eventually picks up the pace and turns what starts out looking like it's going to be a bland melodrama into quite an engaging and lively comedy-drama.

The last ten minutes when Joan Blondell finally arrives is worth the wait. All of a sudden this film transforms itself again from that lightweight comedy-drama into something brilliantly funny; the scene with Joan on piano, fag in mouth, is hilarious - you will have a smile on your face as the credits roll.

... and especially for a Warner Brothers precode. The theme of the story is pretty familiar - boy (Frank Albertson) and girl (Loretta Young) are tight in college but get separated by more than physical distance after graduation, despite their best intentions. Meanwhile, in each case, more worldly people of the opposite sex (Ricardo Cortez and Dorothy Christy) move in and wreak havoc on the relationship, helped along by a generous helping of pride on the part of both boy and girl.

As expected Loretta is lovely, Ricardo is a rat, and that saucy tart Joan Blondell makes the last 10 minutes worth the wait. I know she didn't write those lines, but only she could deliver them so memorably. Best precode scene (non-Blondell that is) - Loretta Young being surprised by boyfriend Johnny's return from Paris while running around her apartment in her underwear. They carry on a casual conversation - she's still in her underwear - as she puts on her makeup and he buffs her bare back with a powder puff. Only in the precode era! The final scene with Blondell is somewhat annoying for reasons that the director could not have been aware of without a crystal ball. As a nervous Frank Albertson talks to card-carrying correspondent (as in divorce) Joan Blondell, the camera spends much of its time focused on Frank Albertson even when Joan is talking. Hard to believe, but for the brief sliver of time in which this film was made, Frank Albertson was a leading man and Joan Blondell was still only a supporting player, so at the time this cinematography actually made sense. Today, the whole thing is like having a billboard blocking a beautiful view.

I'd recommend this one for fans of precode and especially fans of Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, or Joan Blondell.

Loretta Young graduates college and marries band leader Frank Albertson. While he tours Europe, she gets a job at Ricardo Cortez's advertising agency. There, her brains, creativity, and legs make her popular with clients and Cortez. He's making his move when Albertson returns; Miss Young has not mentioned a husband.

Miss Young's legs carry the movie as well as the career, what with Albertson being whiny, and Cortez oily. This seems to be a movie for liberated women to enjoy. The best performances are by Dorothy Christy, who tries to seduce Albertson in front of Miss Young, and a very funny turn by Joan Blondell as a professional correspondent.

BIG BUSINESS GIRL (1931) is an unspectacular pre-Code talkie with a bit of a racy edge. Eighteen-year-old Loretta Young plays a college grad trying to make it in the business world. At her advertising company, she is quickly promoted from a secretary, but finds out she's being paid merely to "decorate the office". What she doesn't realize is that her boss (Ricardo Cortez) is underpaying her by more than half what her talents are worth, but this is not the main issue in the film. She wants to climb the ladder and is willing to play the game if that's what it takes. The sudden appearance of her long-distance boyfriend (Frank Albertson) throws a monkey wrench in her plans and the movie becomes a will-they-won't-they waiting game to see if the young couple can work out their misunderstandings.

Fourth-billed Joan Blondell doesn't appear until the very end of the film, but she's fantastic as a professional correspondent in divorce set-ups. She plays cards in her negligée with nervous husbands as they await the private detectives. It's a living. Streetwise Blondell can handle herself and, as she says, with the type of husbands she works with it's safer than working in a beauty parlor. Blondell is a great comedienne and her scenes are easily the highlight of the film.