''Behind Office Doors'' is a 1931

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Melville W. Brown, from a screenplay by Carey Wilson and

J. Walter Ruben Jacob Walter Ruben (August 14, 1899 – September 4, 1942) was an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He wrote for more than 30 films between 1926 and 1942. He also directed 19 films between 1931 and 1940. His great-grandson i ...

, based on Alan Schultz's 1929 novel, ''Private Secretary''. It starred

Mary Astor Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese ...

, Robert Ames and Ricardo Cortez, and revolved around the premise of "the woman behind the man". While not well received by critics, it did well at the box office.

Plot

Mary Linden (Mary Astor) is a receptionist at a paper milling company, who is secretly in love with one of the salesmen, James Duneen (Robert Ames). Her extensive knowledge of the paper industry, the mill and its clients allows her to have input in company operations far outweighing her job title. As the president of the company, Ritter (Charles Sellon), approaches retirement, Mary uses her skill in company politics to enable James to make some important sales coups, after which she begins a fifth-column attempt to get him named as the next president. James, for his part, is grateful to her for her help, but is completely oblivious to her romantic interest in him, preferring more the party girl type. When Ritter does retire, James wins the position, and Mary is promoted to be his personal secretary. Still unaware of her feelings, he hires his latest party girl, Daisy (Edna Murphy), to work in the office, and report to Mary. Mary is upset by this turn of events, but remains faithful to James, assisting him with running the company. In fact, it is her knowledge and acumen which makes the company successful. Mary even spurns the advances of several men, including the wealthy Ronnie Wales (Ricardo Cortez), who, although married, is estranged from his wife and wishes to pursue an affair with Mary. However, when James becomes engaged to the daughter of a wealthy banker, Ellen May Robinson (Catherine Dale Owen), that is the straw which breaks Mary's resolve. She resigns from the company, and eventually agrees to go away with Ronnie for an assignation in Atlantic City. The paper mill suffers terribly from a lack of good management, since most of James' success was due to Mary's guidance. James tracks her down before she can give in to the advances of Ronnie, and begs Mary to return. She is reluctant, until she discovers that James has broken off his engagement with Ellen, and upon her return to the company she is not only met with a job offer, but also a marriage proposal from him.

Cast

as Mary Linden * Robert Ames as James Duneen * Ricardo Cortez as Ronnie Wales *

Catherine Dale Owen Catherine Dale Owen (July 28, 1900 September 7, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. Early life Catherine Dale Owen was born in Louisville, Kentucky to a prominent Kentucky family. She attended private school in Philadelphia and Bron ...

as Ellen May Robinson *

Kitty Kelly Kitty Kelly (born Sue O'Neil; April 27, 1902 – June 29, 1968), was an American stage and film character actress. Biography Born in New York City in 1902, Kelly was best known as a member of the Ziegfeld Follies and her radio hosting with C ...

as Delores Kogan *

Edna Murphy Edna Murphy (November 17, 1899 – August 3, 1974) was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 80 films between 1918 and 1933. Murphy was voted "Most Photographed Movie Star of 1925" by '' ScreenLand Magazine''. For part of ...

as Daisy Presby *

Charles Sellon Charles A. Sellon (August 24, 1870 – June 26, 1937) was an American stage and film actor. Sellon appeared in more than 100 films and stage acts between 1901 and 1935. He played the blind Mr. Muckle in W. C. Fields' comedy ''It's a Gift'' ...

as John Ritter *

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

as Banker Charles H. Robinson (Cast list as per

AFI AFI may refer to: * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * Ashton Fletcher Irwin, an Australian drummer * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2004 album), a retrospective album by AFI rele ...

database)

Soundtrack

* "Three Little Words", music by

Harry Ruby Harry Rubenstein (January 27, 1895 – February 23, 1974), known professionally as Harry Ruby, was an American actor, pianist, composer, songwriter and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.Bert Kalmar Bert Kalmar (February 10, 1884 – September 18, 1947) was an American songwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. He was also a screenwriter. Biography Kalmar, a native of New York City, left school at an early ag ...

- played as dance music in the nightclub

Reception

While the public seemed to like the film, critics like

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

were less kind, stating that the film "is a witless and interminably dull exhibition on which three capable players, Mary Astor, Robert Ames and Ricardo Cortez, have been sacrifi d to very little purpose.

Notes

In 1959, the film entered the

public domain in the United States Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights (such as copyright) at all, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired. All works first published or released in the United States b ...

because the claimants did not renew its

copyright registration The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a cop ...

in the 28th year after publication. See Note #60, pg. 143. The working title for this film was the title of the novel on which it was based, ''Private Secretary''.

References

External links

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allmovie/synopsis
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Behind Office Doors 1931 films 1930s English-language films American black-and-white films 1931 romantic drama films RKO Pictures films Films based on American novels American romantic drama films Articles containing video clips Films directed by Melville W. Brown 1930s American films