He Hired the Boss (1943) User Reviews

Cute and enjoyable.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 17 September 2016]

"He Hired the Boss" is a very simple modestly budgeted film. However, it IS a lot of fun.

Hubert (Stuart Erwin) is a very nice man. But he's also incredibly meek and lets other folks walk all over him. He also doesn't have the nerve to ask the lady he's smitten with out on a date. One of his co-workers misuses their friendship but the worst is the boss-- he's a despicable old goat. However, despite all this, Hubert is due for some big changes in his life...and by the time the film is over, life just will never be the same for the guy. How and why is just something you'll need to see for yourself.

I think the reason I liked the film is that the writing was very clever and Erwin's character was so very likable. I wasn't 100% thrilled with the ending but I guess you can't have everything.

Mr. Milquetoast grows a backbone.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 27 April 2018]

I believe I've referenced character actor Thurston Hall as being the influence for Jim Backus's Thurston Howell, the sometimes childish and often overbearing millionaire of "Gilligan's Island". In the 1930's and 40's, Hall was typecast as the often overbearing and sometimes childish millionaire, imperious to his employees and family, yet flirtatious with the women in a playfully lecherous way. Here, he's the boss of Stuart Erwin, a passive sort of fellow whose allergies make him 4-F after being drafted. Erwin, having previously given his notice, asks for his job back, but has to settle for a lower paying position where even the previous employee's salary is cut by the Scrooge like Hall. Erwin has a crush on Hall's glamorous secretary (Evelyn Venable) who seems to like Erwin too, obviously attracted to his sweetness and passive nature, yet becoming tearfully demanding as she tries to get him to step up to go for what he wants even though Erwin doesn't have the capabilities or confidence to do so. When a profit making real estate deal falls into his lap, Erwin goes on a bender, tells Hall off when drunk, and turns into a confident wheeler dealer which could help him not only put Hall in his place but get the girl he loves as well.

All's fine plotwise, but for me, it was the execution of the plot that left me cold as far as this movie is concerned. Both Erwin and Hall do excellent jobs in their characterizations, but the writing for Venable makes her seem like a passive/aggressive shrew who whines too much to try to make Erwin see her point of view and to try to help him. She does everything but get down on her knees to plead with him to get some confidence, and all that seems to do is make Erwin more less self assured. Once again as he was in "The Witness Chair", Benny Bartlett is the wise-cracking office boy and gets many of the best lines. Vivian Blaine ("Guys and Dolls") has a small role as Venable's sister who is in love with Hall's son, but her storyline is underdeveloped. This is only a moderately amusing B comedy with a bit of an espionage plot thrown in for timeliness with the World War II setting, and that throws this even more off balance. Erwin is best in his drunk scene with a group of sailors, especially when he invades the sleeping home of the grouchy Hall. I was hoping for more of a satisfying ending concerning his employment situation, but in retrospect, I suppose many lessons were learned for the three main characters, even though I'm sure much of the audience wanted to see Erwin give Hall the boot just like Hall had done to him.