Elmer Rice's play about the stresses in the life of a successful lawyer was a huge Broadway hit of the 1932 season. Paul Muni had been the star but for the film John Barrymore was chosen. This film restored his prestige for at this point his career and health had been in decline. Even though the story is confined to the Empire State Building, the plot is very intense and involving. William Wyler directs at a frantic pace the magnificent cast, including John Qualen, who was recruited from the original Broadway play.
The film is an ensemble piece with the main focus being on George Simon (Barrymore) a top attorney, who has pulled himself up from his poor Jewish background to the prominent position he now holds. After fighting off the grateful attentions of a client, Mrs. Chapman (Mayo Methot) he has acquitted of murdering her husband, his next client is an elderly woman, whose son has been arrested for making communist speeches. He has a lot of time for her as she was a neighbour in the tenement where he grew up. George's mother drops in to see if he will help his "black sheep" brother out of a gambling debt - he does so, grudgingly.
George is married to a divorcée, Cora (Doris Kenyon), who, by looks and actions, shows, that in her eyes, George's background places him far below her in society. His secretary, Regina Gordon (Bebe Daniels) observes all, the cold and superior attitude his wife adopts towards his mother (in a scene that is quite chilling), the fact that Cora is not only having an affair with a mutual friend Roy (Melvyn Douglas) but is also planning to run away with him. On top of that are George's two spoiled step children (Barbara Perry and Richard Quine) who enjoy a different type of social life than George (they still have their father's name). Regina, through all this, has to remain the perfect secretary - loyal and silent. When a case that George defended 10 years ago, threatens to ruin his career, that, along with the fact that he realises his wife has been unfaithful, pushes him to the brink of suicide. It is only the cries of Regina and a frantic phone call for help on a domestic murder case that gives him back his fighting spirit.
This is a superb film with a cast list that reads like a who's who of pre-code movies. Apart from Bebe Daniels, who give a mighty performance and Doris Kenyon, a respected stage and screen actress, there was Mayo Methot as the "husband killer", Isabel Jewell, giving another quirky performance, as a sassy switchboard operator, Thelma Todd as Lillian LaRue and Melvyn Douglas in an unsympathetic role.
Highly, Highly Recommended.
The film is an ensemble piece with the main focus being on George Simon (Barrymore) a top attorney, who has pulled himself up from his poor Jewish background to the prominent position he now holds. After fighting off the grateful attentions of a client, Mrs. Chapman (Mayo Methot) he has acquitted of murdering her husband, his next client is an elderly woman, whose son has been arrested for making communist speeches. He has a lot of time for her as she was a neighbour in the tenement where he grew up. George's mother drops in to see if he will help his "black sheep" brother out of a gambling debt - he does so, grudgingly.
George is married to a divorcée, Cora (Doris Kenyon), who, by looks and actions, shows, that in her eyes, George's background places him far below her in society. His secretary, Regina Gordon (Bebe Daniels) observes all, the cold and superior attitude his wife adopts towards his mother (in a scene that is quite chilling), the fact that Cora is not only having an affair with a mutual friend Roy (Melvyn Douglas) but is also planning to run away with him. On top of that are George's two spoiled step children (Barbara Perry and Richard Quine) who enjoy a different type of social life than George (they still have their father's name). Regina, through all this, has to remain the perfect secretary - loyal and silent. When a case that George defended 10 years ago, threatens to ruin his career, that, along with the fact that he realises his wife has been unfaithful, pushes him to the brink of suicide. It is only the cries of Regina and a frantic phone call for help on a domestic murder case that gives him back his fighting spirit.
This is a superb film with a cast list that reads like a who's who of pre-code movies. Apart from Bebe Daniels, who give a mighty performance and Doris Kenyon, a respected stage and screen actress, there was Mayo Methot as the "husband killer", Isabel Jewell, giving another quirky performance, as a sassy switchboard operator, Thelma Todd as Lillian LaRue and Melvyn Douglas in an unsympathetic role.
Highly, Highly Recommended.