Category: 1930s

This offers the best of Pre-Code films: philandering, drug use, and ‘bad’ people not getting their comeuppance. William Powell is a gentleman robber who catches the already wandering eye of rich and married Kay Francis. She is beautiful, he is oozing charisma, and together they have wonderful chemistry. There’s not much to the story, but it doesn’t overstay its rather short runtime.

Portraying the meteoric rise and fall of a New York attorney, Lawyer Man has a threadbare story and is really a waste of the talents of William Powell and Joan Blondell. Powell is the titular lawyer. His charisma is present as always but he’s just going through the motions that has him beginning and ending at the same exact place. Blondell is his long-suffering, but loyal secretary who follows him on his journey to nowhere.

Kay Francis is a hard-working magazine editor who falls in love with her new secretary, played by David Manners. Unfortunately she is married to a philandering playboy and Manners is engaged to Una Merkel. While not a terrible film, the plot is as thin as that and goes in all the expected directions as the two navigate their attraction to each other.

Traveling salesman David Manners sweeps church organist Loretta Young off her feet when he visits her small town. After her adoptive parents chase her away with accusations of being the wrong type of woman, she follows Manners to New York where she discovers he is already engaged. George Brent completes the love triangle while Una Merkel fills in as the sassy best friend who shows her the ropes in the big city. The shoestring plot, which includes a hokey last-minute exonerating medical procedure, is all held up with Young’s acting. She manages to convey the whole range of emotions as a small town girl dealing with the highs and lows of young love and navigating the alien, big city filled with villains willing to take advantage of every angle.

I really enjoyed how screwbally this Powell-Loy pairing was. Myrna Loy is a no-nonsense businesswoman whose plans are disrupted when her sister, whose fiancé has been all picked out, is encouraged to pursue a career in acting by bohemian William Powell. As expected, hijinks and romance follow suit. Seeing Powell’s trailer house and its set decoration is a delight, especially when the entire cast makes their way into the vehicle for the big day, reminiscent of the stateroom scene from A Night at the Opera.