It is hard to believe that Vivien Leigh made only a dozen more films after this and then it was the end. "21 Days" was filmed in 1937 but not released in the U.S until 1940 when the two stars (Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh) were both taking the acting world by storm. If they hadn't, Olivier said "the movie would never have been released as we were both terrible in it"!! I don't think they were bad, there were just no sparks to show the world that they were really in love. Leslie Banks, on the other hand, was always excellent in everything he did and this part as Keith Durrant, Larry's successful brother, was no exception. He is the character you remember - all Larry and Vivien had to do was to gaze lovingly into each other's eyes, go on a shopping spree and try to spend the 21 days (the duration of the trial) as blissfully as possible ie there is a wonderful sequence of a happy day spent at Southend.
When scapegrace Larry accidentally kills a man, he turns to his brother for help. Keith is all for getting Larry out of the country for he is a successful barrister who is soon to be made a judge and doesn't want any skeletons coming out of the closet. The man Larry kills is the suddenly turned up husband of Wanda (Leigh), the girl he loves. Miss Leigh hardly looks old enough to have left school let alone have a husband in her dim dark past. A chance meeting with a philosophical beggar and Larry loses his gloves, the beggar picks them up and you can guess the rest in this quite predictable murder yarn.
The beggar is picked up and Keith leaves no stone unturned in his effort to keep Larry in the clear. Even though Vivien Leigh was top billed (I suppose it was released after her magnificent performance in "Gone With the Wind") she didn't have much to do. Robert Newton had a small role as the enthusiastic lawyer who is convinced his client, the beggar, who constantly repeats that on that particular night he lost his self respect, is not guilty. I think Alexander Korda planned to release it after "Fire Over England" (1937), to capitalize on the couple's sizzling romance which was almost becoming a scandal but realized it was nothing more than a quota quickie and so withdrew it until a better time.
When scapegrace Larry accidentally kills a man, he turns to his brother for help. Keith is all for getting Larry out of the country for he is a successful barrister who is soon to be made a judge and doesn't want any skeletons coming out of the closet. The man Larry kills is the suddenly turned up husband of Wanda (Leigh), the girl he loves. Miss Leigh hardly looks old enough to have left school let alone have a husband in her dim dark past. A chance meeting with a philosophical beggar and Larry loses his gloves, the beggar picks them up and you can guess the rest in this quite predictable murder yarn.
The beggar is picked up and Keith leaves no stone unturned in his effort to keep Larry in the clear. Even though Vivien Leigh was top billed (I suppose it was released after her magnificent performance in "Gone With the Wind") she didn't have much to do. Robert Newton had a small role as the enthusiastic lawyer who is convinced his client, the beggar, who constantly repeats that on that particular night he lost his self respect, is not guilty. I think Alexander Korda planned to release it after "Fire Over England" (1937), to capitalize on the couple's sizzling romance which was almost becoming a scandal but realized it was nothing more than a quota quickie and so withdrew it until a better time.