The Girls in the Office (1979)

Sadly Over-hyped

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Blistering performances.

With a brand new shopping center opening up in downtown Houston within a year, a key member of Human Resources named "Lee Rawlins" (Barbara Eden) is tasked by the owner "Ben Nayfack" (David Wayne) to find some new employees as soon as possible. That said, three young women by the names of "Rita Massaro" (Susan Saint James), "Karen Heineman" (Robyn Douglass) and "Tracy Beaumont" (Penny Peyser) apply for various administrative positions and each person get accepted in one capacity or the other. But what none of them count on is the extent of the cutthroat politics that each of them soon find themselves immersed in. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting film which had some potential due to the casting of both Susan Saint James and Barbara Eden. Unfortunately, there were some scenes which I thought were just plain hokey and the acting of Joe Penny (as "Beau Galloway") was about as wooden as anything I have ever seen. Likewise, I thought the ending was a bit too abrupt and could have used a bit more substance. Additionally, although it was billed as a comedy there really wasn't much humor to be found and for that reason I considered it to be more of a romance-drama than anything else. In any case, this was a decent made-for-television movie and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

In this tale three women come to work in a large department store run by a kindly old gentlemen. The store which already has a male "Shark" is enriched by a new female "Shark" , Rita Massaro (played by Susan St James).Her vicious unscrupulous manipulations of events and people in the office lead,eventually, to her own downfall,romantically. One of her victims is Lee Rawlins, as the office manager, who does her job, reconciling strife between workers and supervisors. Meanwhile she has her own romance proceeding with Beau Galloway (Joe Penney). The acting by Barbara Eden, Susan St. James, and Joe Penney as principal actors is superb.There is a great deal of action, love and intrigue which make this a truly great story.I loved every minute of it. I feel that this tale, unfortunately, is to a certain degree, true to life.