By Richard Harland Smith
Within the Law
Brief Synopsis
A wrongly convicted woman studies law and seeks her revenge.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Gustav Machaty
Director
Ruth Hussey
Mary Turner
Tom Neal
Richard Gilder
Paul Kelly
Joe Garson
William Gargan
Cassidy
Paul Cavanagh
"English Eddie" [Morton]
Film Details
Genre
Crime
Adaptation
Release Date
Mar
17,
1939
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Within the Law by Bayard Veiller (New York, 11 Sep 1912).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 5m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Synopsis
When shopgirl Mary Turner is framed by one of her co-workers for stealing store jewelry, hard-boiled department store owner Mr. Gilder prosecutes her and insists that the judge sentence her to three years in prison rather than allow her to serve a probation at the store. In prison, Mary asks the librarian to recommend reading material, and when Mary tells her the length of her prison sentence, the librarian recommends the novel Gone With the Wind . Because she has decided to exact revenge on the man who ruined her life, Mary declines the novel and instead asks to read law books. During her three years behind bars, Mary befriends fellow inmate Agnes, a gangster's moll, who introduces Mary to gangster boss Joe Garson when they are released from prison. Mary soon becomes the mastermind of the gang by counseling them to always stay within the law, take advantage of the loopholes and confound the police and prosecutors by legal trickery. Mary soon decides to take revenge on Gilder by involving the gang in a scheme to extort a large sum of money from him. When Mary sends Agnes to Gilder's store to pose as a customer and raise Gilder's suspicions that she is paying with a bad check, Agnes is arrested and the gang sees to it that her check is good. The false accusation causes Gilder embarassment and forces him to pay Agnes a settlement of $20,000 to keep the incident out of the courts. The second part of Mary's revenge scheme begins when she starts to date Gilder's son Richard, who does not know about Mary's past. One month passes, and after Mary and Richard secretly marry, Richard introduces her to his father, who immediately reveals Mary's past to his son. Although Mary admits that she married Richard to avenge herself, Richard refuses to believe that she is capable of stealing and ignores his father's demand that the marriage be annulled. Later, just as the male members of the gang are about to steal a valuable Rembrandt painting from Gilder's house, Mary and Agnes learn of the robbery and go to Gilder's to try to stop them. When Mary is caught in Gilder's home, she is accused of the attempted theft until it is discovered that gang member "English" Eddie Morton tipped off the police about the theft in order to frame Mary. Shortly thereafter, it is learned that Eddie has been killed. In order to protect herself, Mary insists that Richard shot Eddie to defend his home, and Richard does not deny the charge. Police Chief McGuire, who does not believe that Richard was the killer, questions Joe, who remains loyal to Mary and confesses his guilt. Meanwhile, Richard is informed by the detectives whom he hired to investigate the store theft that Mary did not steal anything and that the real thief has been caught. Consequently, Gilder repents and begs Mary's forgiveness, and Mary is free to begin her life over with Richard.
Director
Gustav Machaty
Director
Cast
Ruth Hussey
Mary Turner
Tom Neal
Richard Gilder
Paul Kelly
Joe Garson
William Gargan
Cassidy
Paul Cavanagh
"English Eddie" [Morton]
Rita Johnson
Agnes
Samuel S. Hinds
Mr. Gilder
Lynne Carver
June
Sidney Blackmer
George Demarest
Jo Ann Sayers
Helen Morris
Ann Morriss
Saleswoman
James Burke
"Red"
Donald Douglas
Inspector Burke
Cliff Clark
McGuire
Claude King
Art dealer
Frank Orth
Jim Jenks
Christina Wells
Betty
Laura Treadwell
Dowager
Mary Beth Hughes
Mamie
Glorea Robb
Twin
Cleora Robb
Twin
Psyche Neibert
Marjorie
Rae Daggett
Miss Stone
Edward J. Lesaint
Judge
William E. Lawrence
District Attorney
Pat Mckee
Bus driver
Helen Dickson
Matron
Jessie Arnold
Matron
Gertrude Simpson
Matron
Dorothy Vaughan
Matron
Grace Goodall
Matron
Kathryn Sheldon
Superintendent
Naomi Childers
Camerawoman
Claire Dubrey
Librarian
Edward Earle
Floorwalker
Edward Kilroy
Mathews
Tom Collins
Bert
Rudy Miller
Jock
William Tannen
Clerk
Ted Oliver
Detective
James G. Blaine
Detective
Harry Humphrey
Priest
Mitchell Ingraham
Pawnbroker
Alex Pollard
Bulter
Dorothea Wolbert
Crew
Dr. William Axt
Music Score
Peter Ballbusch
Mont Effects
George Boemler
Film Editor
J. J. Cohn
Associate Producer
Edith Fitzgerald
Screenwriter
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
Charles Lawton
Photography
Charles Lederer
Screenwriter
Lou Ostrow
Producer
Sergei Petschnikoff
Unit Manager
Wade B. Rubottom
Art Director Associate
Douglas Shearer
Recording Director
E. Lloyd Sheldon
Associate Producer
Walter Strohm
Assistant Director
Dolly Tree
Wardrobe
Edwin B. Willis
Set Decoration
Film Details
Genre
Crime
Adaptation
Release Date
Mar
17,
1939
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Within the Law by Bayard Veiller (New York, 11 Sep 1912).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 5m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Articles
Within the Law -
Bayard Veiller's 1912-1913 Broadway success Within the Law was adapted for films no fewer than five times before 1940: an Australian silent version was made in 1916, followed by an American adaptation from Vitagraph the following year starring Alice Joyce; Joseph Schenck produced a remake in 1924 as a vehicle for his actress wife Norma Talmadge and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer brought the tale to the big screen as a talking picture in 1930, retitled Paid, and starring Joan Crawford as Mary Turner, a wrongly imprisoned shop girl who plots revenge from her prison cell. When Metro remounted the material as Within the Law (1939), the studio assigned direction to Gustav Machatý, a Czech émigré whose silent Ecstasy (1931) had introduced an 18 year-old (and fleetingly nude) Hedy Lamarr. Machatý was by this time subspecializing in adaptations of Veiller's Broadway successes, having helmed MGM's reworking of the drawing room whodunit The Thirteenth Chair (1937) and moving on to Veiller's courtroom melodrama The Trial of Mary Dugan (1941). A former Powers model, Within the Law's leading lady Ruth Hussey knew nothing of prison life but her male costars, Paul Kelly and Tom Neal, had both either done time or were destined to do time for manslaughter; Kelly spent twenty-five months in San Quentin State Prison for the 1927 killing of a romantic rival while Neal would shoot dead his third wife in 1965 and spend six years behind bars, dying of a heart attack in 1971 six months after making parole.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Within the Law -
Bayard Veiller's 1912-1913 Broadway success Within the Law was adapted for films no fewer than five times before 1940: an Australian silent version was made in 1916, followed by an American adaptation from Vitagraph the following year starring Alice Joyce; Joseph Schenck produced a remake in 1924 as a vehicle for his actress wife Norma Talmadge and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer brought the tale to the big screen as a talking picture in 1930, retitled Paid, and starring Joan Crawford as Mary Turner, a wrongly imprisoned shop girl who plots revenge from her prison cell. When Metro remounted the material as Within the Law (1939), the studio assigned direction to Gustav Machatý, a Czech émigré whose silent Ecstasy (1931) had introduced an 18 year-old (and fleetingly nude) Hedy Lamarr. Machatý was by this time subspecializing in adaptations of Veiller's Broadway successes, having helmed MGM's reworking of the drawing room whodunit The Thirteenth Chair (1937) and moving on to Veiller's courtroom melodrama The Trial of Mary Dugan (1941). A former Powers model, Within the Law's leading lady Ruth Hussey knew nothing of prison life but her male costars, Paul Kelly and Tom Neal, had both either done time or were destined to do time for manslaughter; Kelly spent twenty-five months in San Quentin State Prison for the 1927 killing of a romantic rival while Neal would shoot dead his third wife in 1965 and spend six years behind bars, dying of a heart attack in 1971 six months after making parole.
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to Hollywood Reporter pre-release news items, actor Lee Bowman was originally set for the part of "Richard Gilder," but was replaced by John King, who, in turn, was replaced by Tom Neal. Hollywood Reporter also notes that casting difficulties for the female lead held up the start of production. This was the first of two American feature films directed by Czechoslovakian-born Gustav Machaty. He previously had directed the M-G-M short The Wrong Way Out in 1938. Machaty is perhaps most famous for the direction of the Czechoslovakian films Seduction (1929) and Ecstasy (1933), the latter starring Hedy Lamarr, and notorious at the time for its nudity. Within the Law was performed on the Lux Radio Theatre program on October 14, 1935, and starred Joan Crawford, who reprised her part from the 1930 film version of the story. According to a December 1938 Hollywood Reporter news item, M-G-M signed Bernard Nedell and Rosalind Russell to star in a radio performance of the story for its Good News radio program. Other versions of Bayard Veiller's play, all under the same title, include the 1917 Vitagraph film, directed by William P. S. Earle and starring Alice Joyce and Walter McGrail (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.5038); the 1923 Joseph M. Schenck Productions film, directed by Schenck and starring Norma Talmadge and Jack Mulhall; and the 1930 M-G-M film Paid, directed by Sam Wood and starring Joan Crawford and Robert Armstrong (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.4103 and F2.6436). In addition, a Broadway Television Theatre production of Within the Law, directed by Richard Barr and Richard Lukin and starring Lola Montez and Orson Bean, aired on non-network television on June 6, 1952.
