There have been many movies about shady lawyers doing anything to win a case, from the three films based upon the same story ("The Mouthpiece", "The Man Who Talked Too Much", "Illegal"), "Lawyer Man" (starring William Powell), "Counsellor at Law", and "Evelyn Prentice" (also starring William Powell) and that film's remake, "Stronger Than Desire". Powell plays an equally shady lawyer here in this pre-code Paramount film, going on to Warner Brothers for "Lawyer Man" and to MGM for "Evelyn Prentice".
Powell is in love with the glamorous Kay Francis but she's also being pursued by the younger Scott Kolk who gets drunk one night and has Kay drive him home. While arguing over his drunken condition and his unrequited love for her, she accidentally runs into a man stranded on the highway, killing him. Sobering up quickly, Kolk orders Francis to escape and prepares to take the rap. Meanwhile D.A. William B. Davidson plots to prove that Powell bribed a witness while Francis deals with her conscience and Powell's discovery of the truth.
Interesting for its pre-code elements which includes lots of sexual innuendo and drinking, this was the third pairing of Powell and Francis, and the first in which they were the leads. While she went onto bigger success at Warner Brothers (particularly in two outstanding 1932 films opposite Powell, "One Way Passage" and "Jewel Robbery"), her Paramount films usually presented her with a rather masculine haircut and limited screen time. Here, she's in high form, even with the short cropped coif, dressed to the nines, although one evening gown shows her to be rather flat chested. Nevertheless, she remains one of my favorite actresses from the 1930's, although I much prefer her films at Warners where she ranked as their top female star for much of the last half of the decade.
An interesting background shot has a movie theater showing the 1930 Columbia film, "Broadway Scandals", which is ironic considering that this was a Paramount film. The remainder of the cast is pretty obscure although Laurel and Hardy's frequent rival, James Finlayson, has a small role. Powell's character is particularly interesting, as even with all of his success in court, he's obviously deeply unhappy, being shown several times in a speak easy drinking up a storm and at one point, clearly passed out. He's also clearly untrustful of women, making it clear to Francis that he'd dump her in a hot minute if he ever suspected her of betraying him. The film is obviously very far-fetched and features an extremely hokey ending that is just too silly to believe.
Powell is in love with the glamorous Kay Francis but she's also being pursued by the younger Scott Kolk who gets drunk one night and has Kay drive him home. While arguing over his drunken condition and his unrequited love for her, she accidentally runs into a man stranded on the highway, killing him. Sobering up quickly, Kolk orders Francis to escape and prepares to take the rap. Meanwhile D.A. William B. Davidson plots to prove that Powell bribed a witness while Francis deals with her conscience and Powell's discovery of the truth.
Interesting for its pre-code elements which includes lots of sexual innuendo and drinking, this was the third pairing of Powell and Francis, and the first in which they were the leads. While she went onto bigger success at Warner Brothers (particularly in two outstanding 1932 films opposite Powell, "One Way Passage" and "Jewel Robbery"), her Paramount films usually presented her with a rather masculine haircut and limited screen time. Here, she's in high form, even with the short cropped coif, dressed to the nines, although one evening gown shows her to be rather flat chested. Nevertheless, she remains one of my favorite actresses from the 1930's, although I much prefer her films at Warners where she ranked as their top female star for much of the last half of the decade.
An interesting background shot has a movie theater showing the 1930 Columbia film, "Broadway Scandals", which is ironic considering that this was a Paramount film. The remainder of the cast is pretty obscure although Laurel and Hardy's frequent rival, James Finlayson, has a small role. Powell's character is particularly interesting, as even with all of his success in court, he's obviously deeply unhappy, being shown several times in a speak easy drinking up a storm and at one point, clearly passed out. He's also clearly untrustful of women, making it clear to Francis that he'd dump her in a hot minute if he ever suspected her of betraying him. The film is obviously very far-fetched and features an extremely hokey ending that is just too silly to believe.