Servants' Entrance
Cast & Crew
Frank Lloyd
Janet Gaynor
Lew Ayres
Ned Sparks
Walter Connolly
Louise Dresser
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In Sweden, Hedda Nilsson, the jaded daughter of a rich automobile manufacturer, and Karl Berghoff, scion from another wealthy family, decide to marry after a romance in which they acknowledge that they have been everywhere of interest and done everything appropriate for couples in society. When Hedda learns that Viktor, her father, is in financial straits because of the market and that Karl's family faces similar problems, she enthusiastically suggests she would like to try "love in a cottage" as a change. She leaves for three months to learn to be a competent housewife, hoping that Karl will use the time to become a good provider. Under the name Helga Brand, Hedda gets work as a servant for comic strip creator Hjalmar Gnu, who is suffering from creative block. After Gnu upbraids Hedda when she interrupts his search for an idea and expresses disappointment that a fall she takes is not funny, Hedda hits him with a pie in the face and leaves. Outside an employment agency, Hedda sees Eric Landstrom, the chauffeur for retired brewer Hans Hanson, trying to fix his car and annoys him with her suggestions. Despite Eric's low opinion of her, Hanson hires Hedda as a live-in servant for his country home. After Hedda's first day of hard work, she sees Eric from her window working on an engine design in his quarters. She then has a nightmare in which the kitchen utensils, led by an egg, put her on trial for earlier throwing them about. The next night, Eric, after helping Hedda put to bed the rambunctious children of one of the Hansons' daughters, apologizes to Hedda and shows her the model of a boat, named "Minnie," which he is designing to be affordable for the average person. After a few weeks, Hedda has learned the skills of a housewife, while Eric has perfected his design. He asks her to the village dance, but she returns home after receiving an urgent telegram from her father. Viktor tells her that he is no longer in financial trouble and, in fact, can give her and Karl a large amount on their wedding day, but she returns to the village for the dance. There she sees the Hansons' other daughter Sigrid, who wants to have a "fling" with Eric, kissing him. Although Eric confesses that he loves Hedda, she says she now no longer cares. Eric and Hedda are fired, and she remains aloof saying she is engaged to another man. On the way to Stockholm, they meet Karl, now a chauffeur, and Hedda is disappointed in his lackluster embrace. Eric takes Hedda for a ride in "Minnie" and proposes, but Hedda refuses him. She then goes to find Karl, but discovers him kissing a widow. At home, when she cannot locate Eric, her father's detective places an ad for a chauffeur who designs boats. Eric applies, and while he talks Viktor into backing production of "Minnie," Hedda interrupts them to propose. Eric agrees on the condition that Viktor promises to keep the price of "Minnie" affordable to the average person.
Director
Frank Lloyd
Cast
Janet Gaynor
Lew Ayres
Ned Sparks
Walter Connolly
Louise Dresser
G. P. Huntley Jr.
Astrid Allwyn
Siegfried Rumann
John Qualen
Catharine Doucet
Greta Meyer
Dorothy Christy
Josephine Whittell
Jerry Stewart
Ruth Marion
Harold Minjir
Ann Gibbons
Buster Phelps
Clarence Wilson
Frank Dawson
Edward Cecil
Ann Doran
Lucille Ward
Henry Schnetz
Austin Grout
Frank Carpenter
Lee Typens
Madeine Green
Jean Schock
Helen Jamison
Pinto Colvig
Billy Bletcher
Sydney Jarvis
Paul Taylor
Allan Watson
Betty Rome
Maidel Turner
Gladys Blake
George Ovey
Beatrice Newport
Robert Love
Harry Dunkinson
John Marston
Crew
Joseph Aiken
James Algar
Art Babbitt
Harry Bailey
Reginald Berkeley
J. R. Bond
Jack Campbell
Frank Churchill
Margaret Clancy
Larry Clemmons
William Darling
Walt Disney
George Drake
John Dunn
Nick George
Ralph Gibson
James Gleason
Jack Hannah
Bill Herwig
Paul Hopkins
Renè Hubert
Earl Hurd
Milton Kahl
Ward Kimball
Jack Kinney
Mike Lah
Arthur Lange
Booth Mccracken
B. F. Mceveety
Ken Mclellan
Hal Mohr
Lee Morehouse
Ray Nolan
Charles Philippi
Samson Raphaelson
Woolie Reitherman
Antonio Rivera
Archie Robbins
George Rowley
Milt Schaffer
Louie Schmitt
Leonard Sebring
Winfield Sheehan
Bill Shull
Edward Smith
Paul J. Smith
Don Towsley
John Warren
Roy Williams
Cy Young
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The novel by Sigrid Boo was translated into English by Naomi Walford and published in 1933 in the United States under the title Servants' Entrance and in Great Britain under the title Lady Help. The Swedish title of the novel means literally "We Who Enter Through the Kitchen." According to Hollywood Reporter, G. P. Huntley, Jr. was loaned from Universal and Walter Connolly was borrowed from Columbia. The nightmare of the character Hedda Nilsson is a sequence which combines animation and live action. According to Motion Picture Herald, these scenes were not in the preview screening and were in color. The scene was in black and white in the print viewed, and no information has been located to indicate that it was filmed in color. According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, Fox contracted with Walt Disney Productions to produce the animated sequence for $12,500. Fox agreed not to mention Walt Disney's name in connection with publicity or advertising for the film. The total footage produced by Disney was 402 1/4 ft. Fox procured a copy of a 1932 Swedish film based on the novel. That film, which was entitled Vi som går köksvägen, was produced by Bild and Tom, directed by Gustaf Molander, and starred Mathias Taube and Tutta Rolf.
