As I started watching Penthouse this afternoon, I knew I had seen this before. It turns out I reviewed another remake of this film that MGM did in 1939 entitled Society Lawyer that starred Walter Pidgeon and Virginia Bruce playing the parts that Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy played here.
The plot was pretty much the same, the screen writing team of Goodrich and Hackett dusted off the old script for the remake. One thing they did do was tone down the sexual innuendos so prevalent in Penthouse.
Warner Baxter is an attorney for what we would now call a white shoe law firm who recently got gangster Nat Pendleton acquitted. Of course this law firm is not wanting Baxter doing criminal work for notorious and ethnic clients so Baxter is given the boot. Not that he cares really because he's wealthy enough himself. But he doesn't like it when girlfriend Mae Clarke does likewise. She's seeing Phillips Holmes now who's more her style.
Later though when Holmes is accused of murder Baxter's services are needed and how. Baxter takes on Holmes as a client and his underworld connections prove valuable.
If you've seen Society Lawyer, you know how this ends right down to how the murder was really committed and who did it.
When I did the review for Society Lawyer I remarked that the film looked like a prototype for a series that Walter Pidgeon would have done with Herbert Mundin who played his butler. Charles Butterworth plays the butler here and also does a good job. The latter film turned out to be the last film Herbert Mundin did as he was killed in an automobile crash. Ironically enough so was Charles Butterworth. As Hackett and Goodrich also scripted the Thin Man film and it was also directed by Woody Van Dyke, this could easily have turned into a series like that for MGM. Problem was that Warner Baxter was not an MGM contract player. If he was I could have seen Myrna Loy, Warner Baxter, and Charles Butterworth doing a series.
It took a year's wait, but Myrna Loy got into one of the most acclaimed movie series of all.
The plot was pretty much the same, the screen writing team of Goodrich and Hackett dusted off the old script for the remake. One thing they did do was tone down the sexual innuendos so prevalent in Penthouse.
Warner Baxter is an attorney for what we would now call a white shoe law firm who recently got gangster Nat Pendleton acquitted. Of course this law firm is not wanting Baxter doing criminal work for notorious and ethnic clients so Baxter is given the boot. Not that he cares really because he's wealthy enough himself. But he doesn't like it when girlfriend Mae Clarke does likewise. She's seeing Phillips Holmes now who's more her style.
Later though when Holmes is accused of murder Baxter's services are needed and how. Baxter takes on Holmes as a client and his underworld connections prove valuable.
If you've seen Society Lawyer, you know how this ends right down to how the murder was really committed and who did it.
When I did the review for Society Lawyer I remarked that the film looked like a prototype for a series that Walter Pidgeon would have done with Herbert Mundin who played his butler. Charles Butterworth plays the butler here and also does a good job. The latter film turned out to be the last film Herbert Mundin did as he was killed in an automobile crash. Ironically enough so was Charles Butterworth. As Hackett and Goodrich also scripted the Thin Man film and it was also directed by Woody Van Dyke, this could easily have turned into a series like that for MGM. Problem was that Warner Baxter was not an MGM contract player. If he was I could have seen Myrna Loy, Warner Baxter, and Charles Butterworth doing a series.
It took a year's wait, but Myrna Loy got into one of the most acclaimed movie series of all.