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I had never seen this film before, and not only was I impressed with it, I believe it's one of the best Pre-Code movies ever made. COUNSELLOR AT LAW contains one of John Barrymore's greatest screen performances, and it also gave a young William Wyler a chance to show off plenty of directorial flair.
Barrymore stars as George Simon, a man who came from a poor Jewish background and drove himself to become one of the most powerful and well-known attorneys in New York City. Simon has a fabulous art-deco suite of offices in the Empire State Building, he's married to a woman well-placed in high society, and he's got plenty of people at his beck and call. But over the course of a couple days, things start to unravel for him. An old case involving perjury threatens to come back and haunt him, and his marriage is beginning to come apart. Simon is driven to wonder if his supposedly successful life is really worth continuing.
The entirety of COUNSELLOR AT LAW takes place inside the offices of George Simon and his partner, but the viewer never feels hemmed in, due to the quick visual rhythm from director William Wyler and cinematographer Norbert Brodine. The movie is 82 minutes long, but it feels even shorter, due to the fast editing, snappy dialogue, and roving camerawork. With so many people popping in and out of Simon's offices, and so many connections between them, it does become a bit confusing at times on a first viewing, but things sort themselves out very neatly. Despite all the visual & audio back-and-forth, Wyler still finds plenty of chances to let a shot linger on a performer and let their expressions tell you exactly what they are feeling.
John Barrymore really shines here. This isn't the hammy (but entertaining) Barrymore of SVENGALI or TWENTIETH CENTURY. His George Simon is real human being, and Barrymore gets to show the man's entire emotional spectrum. According to the audio commentary on this disc, Barrymore was having trouble remembering his lines, due to his alcoholism, and William Wyler resorted to the use of cue cards. If Barrymore was having problems on this film, it certainly didn't show to me, other than the actor looking somewhat haggard on some close-ups (to be fair there's plenty of reasons for Barrymore's character to look haggard at times).
Like most Hollywood movies of the early 1930s, there's a fine supporting cast, with Bebe Daniels as Simon's loyal secretary, and Doris Kenyon as his snooty wife. There's also Melvyn Douglas, Onslow Stevens, Thelma Todd, Mayo Methot, John Qualen, and Isabel Jewell, who gets attention as the spunky office switchboard operator. Ironically, three different future movie directors appeared in this film as actors: Vincent Sherman, Robert Gordon, and Richard Quince.
Kino's disc case claims that the print used here comes from a brand new 2K master. The black & white image looks a bit soft at times, and there are a few instances where the dialogue is hard to make out...but this is after all a 90 year-old movie. For the most part, the picture and sound quality is good. This is a Region A disc.
The main extra (other than a few trailers of other early 1930s films released by Kino) is a new audio commentary with Daniel Kremer and William Wyler's daughter Catherine. It's more of a general discussion on William Wyler's life and career. I wish there had been more of a focus on COUNSELLOR AT LAW (Kremer in particular veers away from the movie rather easily).
COUNSELLOR AT LAW is an energetically paced standout picture with plenty of Pre-Code drama and sass. It feels more like something made at Warner Bros. instead of Universal. It's also a major highlight in the careers of both William Wyler and John Barrymore.
The cue cards came later. There was only one scene where he blanked out. This is verifiable.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting film. I haven't seen very much of John Barrymore's work, and I'm curious to see more. As for Wyler, it takes a creative genius to turn a one-set story into an engrossing film experience.
ReplyDeleteFuture director Vincent Sherman was the only actor to play in the Broadway production to reprise it on the screen. He plays a piviotal role as a communist agitator. He has a harrowing scene with Barrymore where he agitates the capatalist attorney in a one sided arguement. Sherman like many stage players resented movie performersa as sell outs. He wanted to do his one firey scene in one take because it was so exhausting and that's the way he did it in the play. Barrymore gave him all the room he needed to pull it off. Sherman afterwards dropped his attitude towards Barrymore. They did become good acquaintences and Barrymore was reminded of his stage days.
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