Behind Office Doors (1931)

(On Cable TV, May 2021) So, what did happen Behind Office Doors in the early 1930s? Unsurprisingly, more or less the same as ninety years later, as this Pre-Code drama follows the story of a competent woman letting a man take all the credit for her work, in-between some workplace hanky-panky, quite a bit of unreciprocated lust and succession shenanigans — the office environment of the 1930s being surprisingly understandable to 2020s denizens. Mary Astor stars as the protagonist of the tale and bears the brunt of the systemic sexism of the time — albeit not without a fight and earning considerable sympathy from audiences. There’s a fascinating dichotomy at play in Behind Office Doors (as in many of the 1930s films trying to discuss inequality between the sexes): a clear acknowledgement that this is wrong for the woman, on the one hand, while fully playing into the inevitability of it happening and very little consequence for those men who take advantage of that system (usually romantically or should I say, “romantically”). So, if you’re expecting our female lead to become the company’s girl boss in the end, temper your expectations — she gets the man who gets the company, and that’s the extent of the final triumph. Astor is good, but the other actors (including the male leads) are stuck in dull, unlikable characters. The Pre-Code nature of the film is elusive — the dialogue is slightly spicier, and while the film does get to acknowledge the loutishness of the males, it doesn’t really demonstrate it. Behind Office Doors is interesting if your expectations are in check, but it’s not really a shining beacon of Pre-Code romantic comedy.