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.
Up Next in Rebels at the Typewriter
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Finishing School
Directed by Wanda Tuchock and George Nicholls Jr. • 1934 • United States
Starring Ginger Rogers, Frances Dee, Billie BurkeWanda Tuchock—one of the very few women to be credited as a director in 1930s Hollywood—cowrote and codirected this briskly entertaining girls-gone-wild drama. When Virginia...
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Make Way for Tomorrow
Directed by Leo McCarey • 1937 • United States
Starring Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay BainterMAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW, by Leo McCarey, is one of the great unsung Hollywood masterpieces, an enormously moving Depression-era depiction of the frustrations of family, aging, and the generation gap. Be...
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Red-Headed Woman
Directed by Jack Conway • 1932 • United States
Starring Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis StoneThe legendary Jean Harlow delivers a star-making performance in this racy pre-Code boundary pusher. She stars as Lil Andrews, a gold-digging secretary who will do whatever it takes to get ahead in so...
