This is a very good film. I have always loved Walter Huston and he does a great job in this film too. You will love to hate his character. Don't think this is a comedy like the better known TV series by that name. This movie gets heavy and dark.
Huston is a corrupt judge sitting on the bench of the night court. He gives off the air of being just and kind, but he is being paid off by the mob to release gangsters. He is making lots of money which he hides and shares with his sleazy girl played by Mary Carlisle. He is thought to be a saint by the city while he grows rich off his corrupt use and perversion of justice.
Phillips Holmes and Anita Page play a sweet couple that just had a baby. They have the bad luck of becoming acquainted socially with Huston and Carlisle. When Page is suspected that she is starting to "get wise" to Huston's corruption, Mary Carlisle and Huston set up a frame job where Page is set up in a "compromising" position. She is arrested for prostitution and comes up in court against Huston. He sends her to six months of hard labor to get her out of the way. The sad part is that Page is innocent and really does not suspect Huston or Carlisle at all. Anita Page does a great job as she screams her innocence, cries out for them to get her husband, pleads to see her baby, and all the nightmarish emotions that would come from such a set up on an innocent sweet girl.
Phillips Holmes is perfect. He can't believe his wife would sleep with a man for money, even though they are having a hard time making ends meet. He runs to the court with his baby in his arms to save his wife. He is too late. She has been sent away screaming earlier that day. To make it worse, Huston orders the baby to be ripped out of his arms and placed in an orphanage "for the baby's best interest".
The film does a great job of showing the nightmare unfolding for first Anita Page and then it shifts to the nightmare unfolding for Phillips Holmes. He tries so hard to fight his disbelief in the overwhelming evidence that is wife solicited for sex. He wants to keep his faith in her but it is hard when everyone is telling him the opposite. He has a scene where he talks to himself in a mirror and lays out how he feels and fights with his trust in his wife and the horrible guilty facts of her "double life". Good stuff. Good scene. Good acting.
Does justice prevail? Does Anita Page get out of jail? Does Philips Holmes keep his sanity? Does the baby get returned? Does Huston get his comeuppance?
For all the above answers, you should see the film. It is worth it. It is classy and classic and you know I ONLY post movie reviews of movies you really should see. So follow my court orders and see "Night Court" from 1932!
Huston is a corrupt judge sitting on the bench of the night court. He gives off the air of being just and kind, but he is being paid off by the mob to release gangsters. He is making lots of money which he hides and shares with his sleazy girl played by Mary Carlisle. He is thought to be a saint by the city while he grows rich off his corrupt use and perversion of justice.
Phillips Holmes and Anita Page play a sweet couple that just had a baby. They have the bad luck of becoming acquainted socially with Huston and Carlisle. When Page is suspected that she is starting to "get wise" to Huston's corruption, Mary Carlisle and Huston set up a frame job where Page is set up in a "compromising" position. She is arrested for prostitution and comes up in court against Huston. He sends her to six months of hard labor to get her out of the way. The sad part is that Page is innocent and really does not suspect Huston or Carlisle at all. Anita Page does a great job as she screams her innocence, cries out for them to get her husband, pleads to see her baby, and all the nightmarish emotions that would come from such a set up on an innocent sweet girl.
Phillips Holmes is perfect. He can't believe his wife would sleep with a man for money, even though they are having a hard time making ends meet. He runs to the court with his baby in his arms to save his wife. He is too late. She has been sent away screaming earlier that day. To make it worse, Huston orders the baby to be ripped out of his arms and placed in an orphanage "for the baby's best interest".
The film does a great job of showing the nightmare unfolding for first Anita Page and then it shifts to the nightmare unfolding for Phillips Holmes. He tries so hard to fight his disbelief in the overwhelming evidence that is wife solicited for sex. He wants to keep his faith in her but it is hard when everyone is telling him the opposite. He has a scene where he talks to himself in a mirror and lays out how he feels and fights with his trust in his wife and the horrible guilty facts of her "double life". Good stuff. Good scene. Good acting.
Does justice prevail? Does Anita Page get out of jail? Does Philips Holmes keep his sanity? Does the baby get returned? Does Huston get his comeuppance?
For all the above answers, you should see the film. It is worth it. It is classy and classic and you know I ONLY post movie reviews of movies you really should see. So follow my court orders and see "Night Court" from 1932!