Lawyer Man
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Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William Dieterle
William Powell
Joan Blondell
David Landau
Helen Vinson
Claire Dodd
Film Details
Technical Specs
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Synopsis
Anton "Tony" Adam, a successful lawyer on New York's Lower East Side, is asked by Granville Bentley to join an uptown firm. Tony's secretary, Olga Michaels, urges him to accept, but warns him to watch out for the ladies. Tony continues to win cases and starts to date Bentley's sister Barbara. When he defeats political boss Gilmurry in court, Gilmurry asks him to join his organization but is turned down. Later, showgirl Virginia St. Johns begs Tony to help her sue her fiancé, Dr. Gresham, for breach of promise. Flattered by her attention, Tony pursues the case despite warnings from Olga and Bentley. He learns his mistake when Virginia helps Gilmurry frame him for unethical behavior. He defends himself, but the jury cannot reach a verdict. Tony is neither acquitted nor vindicated and his partnership with Bentley is broken. He cannot find work. Although Barbara still believes in him, Tony breaks off his relationship with her, not wanting to involve her in his problems. Forced out of legitimate legal work, Tony takes every shady case that comes his way, charging high fees when he wins. Eventually he takes a case against Gilmurry. When Gilmurry tries to settle out of court, Tony agrees to accept the position of assistant district attorney. Now he plans his revenge on Dr. Gresham. Gilmurry warns him that Gresham is part of his organization, but Tony gets a conviction for fraud against the doctor. After his success, Gilmurry offers Tony a judgeship, but Tony turns him down to work as an honest lawyer on the Lower East Side. Olga, who has always been in love with Tony, accompanies him happily.
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Director
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/WilliamDieterle.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
William Dieterle
Cast
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/WilliamPowell.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
William Powell
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/JoanBlondell.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Joan Blondell
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/DavidLandau.107882.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
David Landau
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/HelenVinson.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Helen Vinson
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/ClaireDodd.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Claire Dodd
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/AlanDinehart.50698.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Alan Dinehart
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/AllenJenkins.94778.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Allen Jenkins
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/SheilaTerry.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Sheila Terry
Kenneth Thompson
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/JackLaRue.109054.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Jack La Rue
Rockcliffe Fellows
Roscoe Karns
Dorothy Christy
Ann Brody
Curley Wright
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/EdwardMcWade.128834.1.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Edward Mcwade
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/HaroldHuber.90122.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Harold Huber
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/HenryArmetta.5538.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Henry Armetta
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/EdwardArnold.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Edward Arnold
Bobby Gordon
Sam Godfrey
Crew
John Ellis
Leo F. Forbstein
Oliver Garretson
Al Green
Esdras Hartley
Rian James
Robert Kurrle
Stanley Logan
Wilson Mizner
Orry-kelly
Thomas Pratt
James Seymour
John Shepek
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Videos
Movie Clip
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Trailer
Film Details
Technical Specs
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Articles
Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume Four - Kay Francis, William Powell, Loretta Young, Joan Blondell & Others in FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD Volume 4
First up is the light-as-air romantic crime caper Jewel Robbery from 1932, which features Kay Francis in a role similar to her society girl/thief target role in the same year's Trouble in Paradise. Here she's teamed up with William Powell, her leading man in the previous For the Defense, Ladies' Man, and Street of Chance, with the tragic romance One Way Passage marking their final collaboration later that same year.
Things start off with a bang as a cocky demonstration of a new burglar alarm system turns out to be very fallible within minutes, followed by a saucy introduction to Francis as the wealthy Baroness Teri clambering out of a bubble bath. "Imagine having a husband like yours who would gladly spend a fortune just to make you happy" remarks her best friend Marianne (Helen Vinson), but Teri is bored with her life and longs for a little excitement to shake things up. That comes in the form of a suave burglar (Powell, of course), who has his eye on a valuable diamond Teri's just received and tosses out lines like "Did anyone tell you your eyes are like sapphires?" Of course, it's only a matter of time before his intricate scheme takes a romantic turn.
A fitting opener for this set, Jewel Robbery is both slick and shiny and far more daring than the Hays Code-era caper comedies to come. Powell's method of softening up entire rooms of potential victims with "funny" cigarettes that cause people to giggle and wake up "with an enormous appetite" will be enough to delight fans of Reefer Madness, and the whole film has a deliciously amoral atmosphere of Viennese decadence. The similarities to Ernst Lubitsch are obvious, of course, but this is really a Dieterle film all the way including an expressionistic nocturnal climax across the rooftops of Vienna that wouldn't be out of place in a Universal monster film. The final shot is deliciously surprising as well, with Francis breaking the fourth wall in as charming a manner as possible. The film elements here are in fine shape, with very few blemishes and an satisfying replication of the glossy cinematic sheen familiar from some of the other Powell/Francis films. The theatrical trailer is also included, though it barely conveys any idea at all about the content of the film itself.
Powell and Dieterle pop up again for the same year's Lawyer Man, a far more dramatic portrayal of the legal profession circa '32 complete with rat-a-tat dialogue, sexy innuendo, and scheming criminals. Good guy Anton Adam (Powell) is a struggling lawyer on the Lower East Side with enough street smarts to whack a misbehaving, chair-wielding client in the jaw. His tenacity gets gets him a fancier new uptown office for him and his dedicated secretary, Olga (Joan Blondell), but his prosecuting of prominent racketeer John Gilmurry (David Landau) endangers his trip up the professional ladder when Gilmurry decides to get even in and outside the courtroom.
Apart from a few leering shots of ladies' legs and some belching, there isn't anything too scandalous about this one. Instead, Lawyer Man is primarily of interest for its portrayal of contrasting sides of New York: one a lower class street teeming with icemen on horse-drawn carriages, the other a stifling maze of offices and buzzing telephones. Lawyer movies were popular properties at the time, and this one is rather par for the course as Powell charts the dangerous waters of the legal system along with his possibly deceptive new partner, Granville Bentley (Alan Dinehart), and his predatory sister (Vinson again). The subject matter would have easily turned into a crime film, but the antagonism between the male leads in the film remains oddly civilized and even playful, including a mid-film twist or two that threaten to compromise our hero's character once and for all. Blondell is a joy to watch as usual and essentially wipes all the other women off the screen, though it's a more chaste and restrained part than usual for her as she essentially moons over a man she can't have through most of the running time. Once again the transfer from solid film elements has a few scratches here and there but nothing too distracting, and the black levels look very rich and impressive here. Again the trailer is the sole extra, devoted mainly to a bit of Powell speechifying that makes the film look much more somber than it actually is.
The third disc plays a bit of musical chairs as this time it's Dieterle and Francis joining again for Man Wanted. Leading man duties this time go to David Manners (best known for the Universal horror films Dracula, The Mummy, and The Black Cat) as Tom, a go-getting young man who tries to sell a rowing machine in the office of magazine editor Lois Ames (Francis, once more an unsatisfied society wife in sparkly outfits). Their banter ("How strong is your back?") leads to immediate sparks, and she brings him on as her personal assistant. (Another Dracula star, Edward Van Sloan, also pops by at the beginning in a tiny role.) Romantic complications ensue involving Tom's fiancée (Una Merkel), Lois' husband (Kenneth Thomson), and his potential mistress (Claire Dodd), as Francis gets to show off an increasingly extreme array out of outfits including a huge summer hat that would topple over a lesser woman.
In keeping with a pre-code romantic comedy/drama, there's plenty of fast and loose morality here by later Hollywood standards which just adds to the entertainment value. It's all genial and surprisingly humane to all of the characters, with Andy Devine also providing able comedic support. However, the main pleasures here are all visual thanks to cinematographer Gregg Toland, who would go on to legendary status with such films as Citizen Kane, Mad Love, Wuthering Heights, and The Grapes of Wrath. This marked his only collaboration with Dieterle, but the results are beautiful and sometimes truly jolting, such as a bizarre pullback involving a Ballyhoo magazine cover in bed. The camera is almost constantly roving here, resulting in the most modern-looking and aesthetically rewarding film out of the set. Again the trailer is fairly vague and mainly plays up Francis in her first Warner Bros. role ("Her dashing, dazzling beauty... Her devastating charm... Spicy! Snappy! Sparkling!"). She's excellent here as usual, though it's also worth noting that the often undervalued Manners is also far more relaxed and charming here than usual in a performance that indicates what he could have done had he not given up acting four years later.
Though it boasts the most promising title of the four, the tamest one is actually on the fourth disc. Also from 1932, They Call It Sin brings back Manners in a secondary role as Jimmie Decker, a salesman who becomes infatuated with a fresh-faced Loretta Young as small-town Kansas church organist Marion Cullen. Their afternoon idylls (first at a soda shop, then rowing on a lake) sends her following him back to New York, where it turns out he's engaged to another woman. She decides to continue her musical career via a questionable producer (Louis Calhern), but then Jimmy's surgeon buddy Dr. Tony Travers (George Brent) enters the picture as well. Both Merkel and Vinson return, with the former getting some of the best moments as Young's dancer roommate (including, appropriately, the exuberant final shot).
Despite the obvious lack of salacious content, They Call It Sin will appeal to fans of the period with its solid amount of star power, plentiful plot turns packed into barely over an hour, and efficient direction by Thornton Freeland, who would helm the far more famous Flying Down to Rio one year later. This is the only film without a trailer, but as with the others, the transfer is generally excellent with better contrast levels than most TV broadcasts and just a few scuffs and scars betraying its vintage. All in all, it's an upbeat, elegant, and sometimes naughty quartet worthy of the prior three entries in this excellent series.
For more information about Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 4, visit Warner Home Video. To order Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 4, go to TCM Shopping.
by Nathaniel Thompson
![Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume Four - Kay Francis, William Powell, Loretta Young, Joan Blondell & Others In Forbidden Hollywood Volume 4](https://prod-images.tcm.com/img/film-participant-detail/Featured-Artilce_Placeholder.png)
Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume Four - Kay Francis, William Powell, Loretta Young, Joan Blondell & Others in FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD Volume 4
Lawyer Man (1933) - Lawyer Man
Joan Blondell was rarely anyone's idea of high-style sophistication. A mainstay of Warner Brothers Depression-era movies, Blondell was more of a girl-next-door type -- if you happened to live in Brooklyn or on the Lower East Side. She was an earthy urban dame with a snappy retort always at hand and a real pal to the working-class fellows she paired with, most often personified by tough-guy James Cagney or Broadway bound Dick Powell, her husband from 1936 to 1944 and co-star in eleven pictures, most of them musicals. So it was rather out of character for her and Powell to be co-starred for the first and only time in Lawyer Man (1932). Reviewers at the time, while praising their performances individually, had a hard time accepting them as a screen team, although Variety, while insisting they didn't "stack up right together," had to acknowledge that "perhaps Blondell is more the sec[retary] type than Kay Francis would have been." That opinion has survived to the present, with TV Guide calling each excellent but "mismatched" as a couple.
In fact, the two stars aren't really a couple in Lawyer Man, not in the standard romantic sense, although Blondell's character, Olga, certainly wishes they were. As the loyal secretary to attorney Anton "Tony" Adam, Blondell is all efficiency and common sense, especially when her boss gets entrapped by alluring women, a situation that arouses both her longing for his affections and her jealousy, manifested through a lot of thrown objects and one suggestive snipping by a pair of scissors.
Powell's Adam, a successful Lower East Side lawyer, quickly works his way up to a position at an important uptown firm. After defeating a political boss in court, and turning down the boss's offer to join his team, Adam gets involved with showgirl Virginia St. Johns (perennial "other woman" Claire Dodd) despite Olga's warnings. He realizes his error only after the showgirl helps the corrupt politician frame Tony for unethical behavior. Neither acquitted nor vindicated, Tony is unable to find legitimate work, so he takes on every shady case that comes his way, vowing to be the "shyster" everyone assumes him to be. Eventually, he maneuvers his way to revenge on those who set him up and decides to turn down prestigious positions in favor of being an honest lawyer back on his old turf. Through it all, Olga stands by him, acting as his conscience and faithful assistant. But instead of falling into each other's arms at last, the two walk off together somewhat ambiguously. Perhaps Olga's love for him will one day be requited, but at the fade-out they seem content to foster a mutually beneficial companionship rather than a passionate romance.
Blondell's work is solid as always, but the picture is really Powell's, offering him every opportunity to show all facets of his appeal and acting skills (including the drunk scene that became a standard for William Powell pictures). In fact, he's the only cast member whose name goes above the title.
Viewers may recognize the voice, if not the face, of a player whose role is small enough to keep him from receiving any screen credit here at all. At one point, Olga has dinner in a diner with an odd-looking young man who tells her, "I know what's wrong with you. You're in love with your boss and he won't give you a tumble." The distinctive high-pitched froggy voice belongs to Sterling Holloway, a supporting actor in 131 films between 1926 and 1977 (and a TV performer for about a decade after that). Holloway is probably best remembered for his voiceover work in Disney films, starting with Mr. Stork in Dumbo (1941). Among many other roles for the studio, he was the adult Flower in Bambi (1942), the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Kaa the snake in The Jungle Book (1967), and provided his voice four times as Winnie the Pooh. Holloway was officially named a Disney Legend in 1991, the year before his death at 87.
Lawyer Man was directed by William Dieterle, one of many German directors who came to Hollywood in the sound era. Dieterle started his career in Europe in 1923 and made his first picture in America in 1931. He made a name for himself in prestige productions at Warner Brothers of the "Great Men" bio-pic genre, starring either Paul Muni (The Story of Louis Pasteur, 1936; The Life of Emile Zola, 1937, earning Dieterle a Best Director Oscar® nomination) or Edward G. Robinson (Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, 1940; A Dispatch from Reuters, 1940), as well as others (Kay Francis as Florence Nightingale in The White Angel, 1936; Van Heflin as President Andrew Johnson in Tennessee Johnson, 1942). In his heyday, Dieterle made several pictures imbued with a distinctive visual and narrative style, often bordering on the supernatural: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Portrait of Jennie (1948). Although never officially blacklisted, his output in the 1950s was limited by suspicions of socialist sympathies, and in 1960 he returned to Germany, where he finished out his career with a few films and some television work until 1968. He died in 1972 at the age of 79.
Lawyer Man was based on a novel by Max Trell, better known as a children's book author and contributor to popular comic strips, such as "Prince Valiant."
According to production records on file at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library, filming on Lawyer Man lasted 21 days. A news item in Film Daily included in the movie's file notes that Edward G. Robinson was once considered for the lead.
Director: William Dieterle
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Screenplay: Rian James and James Seymour, Wilson Mizner (uncredited); based on the novel by Max Trell
Cinematography: Robert Kurrle
Editing: Thomas Pratt
Art Direction: Esdras Hartley
Original Music: Cliff Hess (uncredited), Bernhard Kaun (uncredited)
Cast: William Powell (Anton Adam), Joan Blondell (Olga Michaels), David Landau (John Gilmurry), Helen Vinson (Barbara Bentley), Claire Dodd (Virginia St. Johns).
BW-68m.
by Rob Nixon
Lawyer Man (1933) - Lawyer Man
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to production records included in the file on the film at the AMPAS Library, filming lasted twenty-one shooting days. A news item in Film Daily indicates that Edward G. Robinson was considered for the lead.
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