She Had to Say Yes (1933), directed by George Amy and Busby Berkeley

Earlier this month, in reference to Berkeley's The Gang's All Here I said one would have to see it to believe it; now I have to say the same about She Had to Say Yes, a movie about a clothing manufacturer basically pimping out his stenographers to his clients in order to get more orders.  Some see this pre-code film as an example of Berkeley's misogyny but to me it comes across as a riveting critique of patriarchy. 

Owner Sol Glasser (Ferdinand Gottschalk) thinks his customers are tired of dealing with the firm's models ("hard gold-diggers") so he decides to offer his stenographers to his customers and tells the women that "candy and flowers are okay but you cannot accept expensive presents or money; after all we are giving you a bonus for this completely volunteer work."  Stenographer Florence Denny (Loretta Young) is not a volunteer until salesman Tommy Nelson (Regis Toomey), whom she intends to marry, says she could help build up the nest egg they are saving for their marriage.  In reality Tommy just wants more time alone so he can carry on with stenographer Birdie (Suzanne Kilborn).  When Flo finds out that Tommy is unfaithful she wants nothing more to do with him and takes up with buyer Daniel Drew (Lyle Talbot) to whom Tommy had introduced her.  Then Daniel wants Flo to act seductively with buyer Luther Haines (Hugh Herbert) in order to help Daniel sign a business agreement, which Flo does, along with revealing Haines's perfidy to his wife.

The men in this film are often inebriated and aggressive to the women.  When a buyer says to stenographer Maizee (Winnie Lightner) that he's from Missouri she says "I'm from the Virgin Islands" and kicks the buyer down the stairs.  At the end Tommy socks Daniel; Florence denounces them both, saying "you men treat women as if we were the dirt under your feet; I wouldn't trust you as far as you could throw a piano,"  then sadly and inexplicably accepts Daniel's offer of marriage as "the lesser of two evils," making it clear how few choices she has. 

This was Berkely's first directorial effort and he was assigned editor George Amy to help him.  Berkeley is mostly remembered for his often bizarre choreography in the early thirties but also directed non-musicals in the thirties and forties before returning exclusively to choreography in the fifties and sixties.