Counsellor-at-Law

Starring:John Barrymore, Bebe Daniels, Doris Kenyon, Isabel Jewell, Melvyn Douglas, Onslow Stevens, Thelma Todd, Clara Langsner, John Hammond Dailey, Mayo Methot, Robert Gordon, Malka Kornstein, Vincent Sherman, Marvin Kline, T.H. Manning, John Qualen, Angela Jacobs, Richard Quine, Barbara Perry, Elmer Brown
Director: William Wyler
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Having apprenticed on 15 B-Westerns and melodramas for his uncle Carl Laemmle at Universal, William Wyler signaled his readiness to take a big step up in class with this expertly directed movie about, well, class. John Barrymore gives a crackling performance as a dynamic Manhattan lawyer who's worked his way to the top, yet still has the hunger of an immigrant Jew who came over in steerage. Seemingly master of all he surveys--his offices are in the Empire State Building!--he suddenly finds himself facing disbarment, and ditching by the elegant WASP wife (Doris Kenyon) who's always wished he would practice law "like a gentleman" (read "Gentile man"). The entire movie takes place in the legal suite. Such a stagy stratagem (Elmer Rice adapting his own play) usually spells static filmmaking, but Wyler brings off a cinematic tour de force with tensile camerawork, sharp performances, and brilliant set design (Charles D. Hall) that gets great visual excitement out of all the doors, glass walls, and skyscraper windows. The apprenticeship was definitely over. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

Counsellor at Law.......2007-06-20

Adapted from a play by Elmer Rice and set entirely in a suite of offices, Wyler's witty, head-spinning drama features Barrymore in a knockout role as a hotshot attorney with a formidable track record, a notable penchant for hard-luck cases, and a fawning softness for his very well-to-do wife, whose affection does not seem nearly so unconditional. As a series of mini dramas play out around Simon's heavy heart--most involving agonized clients from "the old neighborhood," the vicissitudes of his lively, chirpy young staff, and the unspoken, unrequited love of faithful secretary Regina (Bebe Daniels)--"Counsellor" inexorably builds to a tense climax. Filled with vivid performances by "ethnic" character actors, and directed with energetic verve by Wyler, "Counsellor at Law" is a rapid-fire drama of class and privilege, love and lucre.

The laughing just doesn't stop.......2007-01-12

I've seen this movie several times on TCM. After having spent my life in the legal world (not an attorney), I thought it was just so funny when John Barrymore grabs the draft his secretary is typing from, takes a pencil, puts the draft on the wall and starts marking it up all over again. And, of course, the end when he's ready to give it all up but the phone rings with "new business" and he's off and running. Now I've watched this movie with "civilians" and they just didn't get it but I think it truly reflects what life is like in a law firm although it might be slightly exaggerated.

a worhtwhile investment.......2006-10-04

I postponed buying this title for some time, given its price. However, gave it to myself as a birthday present and am delighted with the results. Sleek, sophisticated, constantly witty: top-notch in every department. Had always heard about this film's significance as "early Wyler." It's absolutely true.

High Stress Environment.......2006-07-20

Counsellor at Law is more of a peek inside a law office than an actual film with dramatic events. John Barrymore is the lawyer in the office surrounded by a beautiful secretary (Bebe Daniels), a funny switchboard operator (Thelma Todd), and a glamorous wife (Doris Kenyon).

As a pre-code, this film falls flat. There isn't much here that couldn't have been shown in a film made a year or two later which makes it disappointing to someone looking to see scandalous activity.

Without any specific aims, this film runs without ever really getting started. It is short and fast paced with dialogue similar in delivery to His Girl Friday, but the witty lines do not make a great story. The cast is very good and carries out his/her role nicely, however, so the film is not a complete waste of time.

Grandiose film about Anti-Semitism in New York.......2005-12-04

A Jewish star-attorney (John Barrymore) is driven to the brink of suicide when he realizes that his wife and stepchildren consider him as failure.

George Simon accepts those sensiationalist cases that the old-established law-firms won't touch: He saves black widows from the electric chair, sues millionaire's sons for breach of promise and pleads even the cause of a hysterical young communist for whose careworn mother he feels sympathy.

Simon is nobody's fool in his job, but everybody's fool in his private life. He hides his head in the sand when his stuck-up WASP wife (Doris Kenyon) treats his mother with cold politeness. The moment when this warm-hearted old lady talks unsuspecting with her dolled-up daughter in law whose eyes signal: "I put up with you. But I would not invite you for dinner" is one of the most appaling scenes in the film. Simon is also deaf to his stepson's remarks about him ("He's not OUR father. OUR father lives in Washington") and his Italian partner. His stepdaughter turns her cheek away when he tries to kiss her. The kids are about ten and class-conscious. In their eyes (and their mother's) a gentleman looks like "uncle Roy" (Melwyn Douglas) who is smart and touches Simon for money...

And suddenly poor Simon who lived in the clouds is thunderstruck when his wife asks him to "practice law like a gentleman" and turn down a $100.000 paternity suit against one of her girlfriends. His defense is feeble: "I never laid any claims at being a gentleman". The WASP attorney-ship hates Simon unanimously and when it leaks out that he faked an alibi for an unlucky young fellow his fate - disbarment - seems sealed. His child-like faith that his nearest and dearest would repay his generosity with their love - or at least their support - is disappointed. His wife refuses to live "in this atmosphere of scandal and recrimination" and her cold behavior sets him thinking...

It may seem strange to a contemporary audience that some critics of the thirties deemed the "aristocratic" Barrymore as "miscast" in his role as fast-talking Jewish lawyer. Perhaps their view was influenced by the publicity surrounding "Rasputin and the Empress"(1933) and perhaps they did not notice the latent anti-semitism in their own scribble. Or they simply forgot that a great actor can play almost anything. It is true that Barrymore was only the second choice for the role that Paul Muni turned down, but his own experience of life enabled him to project himself completely into Simon's mind. Barrymore, like Simon, worked his way up. His life was eventful (a dozen biographies offer spicy reading) and he always struggled to his feet again. Simon's conjugal relations resemble Barrymore's second marriage to society poetess "Michael Strange". Strange's elder son, for instance, hated his stepfather so much that he threw his presents in the garbage can! (the boy had a motive, though: the actor started his affair with his mom while his father, a diplomat, was on the fron in WW1). Strange got back her place in society when she married her third husband, a "gentleman-attorney" - exactly the type that Simon's wife admires!

The film's only flaw is the haste in which it was made. Barrymore earned $25.000 a week, but the producers allowed him only two weeks. Director William Wyler was forced to rush him through this long and demanding part. But the quality of the script and exquisite performances make everything good. Elmer Rice's austere dialog leaves no room for shenanigans. The tragedy of a decent man who is faced with the fact that his "secure" existence is a tissue of lies develops in a subliminal way that makes the moment of truth all the more chilling.

I have rarely seen such impeccable ensemble-acting! To appreciate Barrymore's interpretation better, compare it to Gregory Peck's in "Gentleman's Agreement"(1947) where Peck played a WASP journalist who poses as Jew for a newspaper story. Today the film's conception seems patronizing and the actor's pained expression raises questions. Barrymore, on the other hand, impersonates the Jewish lawyer with evident pride and the self-assurance of a man who earned his position through his own work. Barrymore knew nothing of "political correctness" but he had an intuitional grasp for the feelings of his fellomen and a genuine respect for a tradition-conscious religion.

A sad footnote: A few weeks after shooting the actor was called back to repeat a brief scene. He had had "just" two glasses of beer - and after 25 shots Wyler called it quits. On this day John Barrymore lost his reputation as reliable actor. His short-term memory was irretrievably impaired. His biographer Margot Peters revealed that, during the last years of his life, he began more and more to feign drunkenness to cover his mental confusion...

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