
''The Working Man'' is a 1933
pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...
American comedy film starring
George Arliss
George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he ...
and
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympatheti ...
, and directed by
John G. Adolfi. The screenplay by Charles Kenyon and Maude T. Howell is based on the story ''The Adopted Father'' by Edgar Franklin. The film is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.
Plot
Successful shoe manufacturer John Reeves is annoyed with his staff, particularly his conceited nephew and company general manager Benjamin Burnett (who considers himself the driving force behind the firm), because they are losing ground to their longtime chief rival, headed by former best friend Tom Hartland. The two men had had a falling out after falling in love with the same woman; she married Hartland, and Reeves remained a bachelor. Nevertheless, Reeves is saddened to learn of Hartland's death.
When Benjamin begins to muse that his uncle has started down the road to senility, Reeves decides to teach him a lesson. He heads off on a fishing vacation in Maine, leaving his nephew to deal with the business situation by himself.
By chance, a large yacht moors near his fishing boat. When Jenny and Tommy Hartland, the party-loving offspring and heirs of Tom Hartland, swim over to see if anyone can supply them with liquor, Reeves is a little disgusted with their idle ways. Hiding his identity and calling himself John Walton, he befriends them in order to do a little spying on their company. However, as he gets to know them better, he begins to like them. They take him along with them back to New York, as they are responsible for a minor injury he suffers.
"Walton" gets them to take him on a tour of their plant, which he discovers is being deliberately mismanaged by Fred Pettison. He figures out that Pettison is driving it into bankruptcy so he can buy it cheaply later. Using a gambit, Reeves persuades Tommy to have him appointed a trustee of the Hartland estate. Tommy and Jenny expect him to do away with the restraints imposed upon them. When two other trustees express their concern about the fisherman's qualifications, Reeves reveals his identity and the fact that he has grown fond of the young people who, if things had turned out differently, could have been his own children.
Once Reeves becomes a trustee, he starts making wholesale changes on both the domestic and business sides of life. He quickly discharges most of the household servants, as the estate is nearly depleted, forcing Jenny and Tommy to mature quickly. Pettison is fired. Tommy begins working at his own company, while his sister, anxious to find out why their shoes are less popular than those manufactured by Reeves, takes a filing job with the rival company under the alias Jane Grey. She finds herself attracted to Benjamin. When Benjamin summons her to his office to fire her for her total lack of business skills, he finds her very appealing. Upon learning the news, she starts crying, and Benjamin reconsiders his decision. In the end, he reassigns her to work in his private office.
Meanwhile, Reeves has revitalized the Hartland Shoe Company, and it start making serious inroads into Reeves Company territory. Benjamin is puzzled, as the methods used by Hartland seem strikingly similar to those employed by Reeves. When Pettison shows up in Benjamin's office looking for a job, he sees Jane. She begs him to keep her secret, but he tells Benjamin who she really is and lies, accusing her of
spying on the Reeves company. This ends their budding romance.
In the end, Benjamin insists on meeting "John Walton", and Reeves has to reveal his true identity to the Hartlands. Once they get over the shock, and Reeves informs his nephew that Jenny was not a spy, the young couple reconcile. All agree to Reeves' proposal that the two companies merge.
Cast
*
George Arliss
George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he ...
as John Reeves
*
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympatheti ...
as Jenny Hartland, aka Jane Grey
*
Theodore Newton as Tommy Hartland
*
Hardie Albright as Benjamin Burnett
*
Gordon Westcott
Gordon Westcott (born Myrthus Hansen Hickman; November 6, 1903Parish, James Robert (1979). Hollywood Character Actors'. Carlstadt, N.J.: Rainbow Books. p. 519. . – October 30, 1935) was an American film actor.
Biography
Westcott studi ...
as Fred Pettison
*
J. Farrell MacDonald as Henry Davis
Production notes
The
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
release marked the second pairing of
George Arliss
George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he ...
and
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympatheti ...
, who co-starred in ''
The Man Who Played God'' the year before.
The film had its world premiere at
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...
in New York City.
It was a remake of an Arliss silent film, ''
Twenty Dollars a Week'', filmed in 1924. The 1936
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
film ''Everybody's Old Man'' was based on the same source.
Principal production credits
* Producers:
Jack L. Warner
Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-born American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's ca ...
,
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck (; September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. Best known as a co-founder of 20th Century Fox, he played a ...
* Music supervision:
Leo F. Forbstein
* Cinematography: Sol Polito
* Art Direction: Jack Okey
* Costume design:
Orry-Kelly
Orry-Kelly was the professional name of Orry George Kelly (31 December 1897 – 27 February 1964), an Australian-American Cinema of the United States, Hollywood costume designer. Until being overtaken by Catherine Martin (designer), Catherin ...
Reception
In his review in ''The New York Times'', Mordaunt Hall described the film as "breezy but somewhat shallow" and added "George Arliss offers an ingratiating charactier study in a role that suits him...Quite a number of
islines are humorous and there is no denying that the actor uses them most effectively. Bette Davis, whose diction is music to the ears, does good work in the role of Jenny."
''TV Guide'' called it "a thoroughly enjoyable piece of entertainment which serves no other purpose than to put a smile on your face."
''TV Guide'' review
/ref>
Box office
According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $401,000 domestically and $421,000 foreign.
References
External links
*
*
*
''The Working Man''
at The AFI Catalog of Feature Films
The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema i ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Working Man, The
1933 films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by John G. Adolfi
Films produced by Darryl F. Zanuck
American romantic comedy films
1933 romantic comedy films
Warner Bros. films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
English-language romantic comedy films