Working Girls
Office Romances
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1h 17m
Directed by Dorothy Arzner • 1931 • United States
Starring Judith Wood, Dorothy Hall, Charles “Buddy” Rogers
Dorothy Arzner offers a snappily entertaining, socially perceptive look at female solidarity in this Depression-era tale of young women striving to succeed in their careers and in love. Newly arrived in Manhattan from Indiana, small-town sisters Mae and June Thorpe (Dorothy Hall and Judith Wood) take up residence in an all-women’s boardinghouse, then set about searching for jobs—which they find, along with a host of romantic complications. As directed by feminist trailblazer Arzner, WORKING GIRLS crackles with pre-Code innuendo and displays a nuanced understanding of the interplay between gender and economic mobility in 1930s America.
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