User Reviews

A modest employee working at a department store gets mistaken for a rich benefactor willing to support an orphan. He's desperate to maintain the illusion, since he's taken a liking to the little boy in question. The boy's kind-hearted nurse too exerts a powerful attraction...

The overall plot of "Night Work" is as daft as a brush, but many of the individual scenes work, especially during the first half. Later on, things start to drag a bit. The passage of time has enriched the settings with a period charm. The department store background allows for a good running joke about an employee whose role it is to get "fired" in order to appease angry customers. I would not be surprised to hear of real-life department stores, hotels, restaurants and so on running on the same principles.

The various tykes playing the orphans give charming and lifelike performances, with the result that the orphanage scenes tend to be merry rather than twee.

Still, I do hope that in real life rich people weren't allowed to pick out and inspect orphan children as if they were kittens for sale. ("Ooh, I don't like this one, it's got a birthmark ! I think I'll take the other one, it's got nice curly hair. Or perhaps the one with the blue eyes and the snub nose ?")

Saw this film years ago and forgot about it. Now as I am re-watching lots of films of 1930s and looking at other obscure actors and actress work. I am very fascinated in the department store atmosphere of this film and the way people shopped in those days. The copy I saw was blurred but I was able to make up some of the brands that were at the time. Eddie Qulin did an ok job at this film but I was really rooting for Sally Starr who plays Mary in the film. The film as a whole is only good on Act 1 but falls short after the orphanage scene. Eddie Quinns mannerisms and way of talking reminded me of the modern gay man.

Sally Starr was going to be MGM's answer to Clara Bow and she was very cute and snappy in "So This Is College"(1929) (a film that also introduced Robert Montgomery) but her part was not sympathetic (always a bad sign) and by 1930 she was already at Pathe (really down there). In "Night Work" she doesn't have much to do (and talks very fast) but Eddie Quillan does though and he runs the gamut of emotions in this feel good movie which has a bit of everything. Although a bit over long Eddie plays Willie, a peppy window dresser who hopes someday to make his mark in the department store where he works. He also doubles as a "fired man" - whenever a customer comes in with a complaint, Eddie is sent for as head of department to be told off and fired, leaving the customers with a happy glow!! He meets Mary Robins (Sally Starr) an assistant at the local orphanage who is in town to promote a sponsorship appeal. Eddie accidentally signs up, doesn't realise it is not a one off but finds himself really falling for cute little Oscar (Douglas Scott is adorable). Oscar's parentage is a mystery - he was brought to the home 4 years before on April 1st and according to the taxi driver, the shadowy woman offered him $50 to forget her and the ornate ring she wore. Hearing of this unusual story a wealthy businessman is convinced that Oscar is his grand child but that's all Willie needs to spur him into action towards getting the adoption fee.

He gets a second job as a night waiter at a ritzy club and this is where the musical interlude comes in. Marjorie "Babe" Kane was a cute singer in those early musicals, usually used as a specialty singer and often the bright spot in sometimes dreary films ("The Great Gabbo"). She did sound similar to Helen Kane but if you have ever heard Ginger Rogers in her early appearances ("A Night in a Girl's Dormitory", "Young Man of Manhattan") she had a similar style but one she had developed during her teenage years - she called it a "babytalk" style. Anyway Kane sounds more like Ginger!! She does a cute song called "I'm Tired of My Tired Man". There is also a dance contest where Willie is called on to do some fancy eccentric dancing with partner (Addie McPhail). Of course he hasn't told Mary any of this as she thinks he is an oil magnate - he big noted himself but his oil wells never came in!! When she finds out her heart is broken but all is not lost as it seems there was another baby bought in the same night - and he proves the long lost heir!!

Quillan juggled many styles - the goofy romantic, eccentric dancer, the crooner and the heart felt dramatic, proving that the stirring parts in "Black Legion" and "The Grapes of Wrath" were in him from the start. Also "Our Gang" member Shirley Jean Ricketts was one of the cute orphans.