Career Woman

Claire Trevor is a young "Career Woman" in this 1936 film also starring Michael Whalen, Isabel Jewell, Eric Linden, Gene Lockhart, and Virginia Field.

Trevor plays Carroll Aiken, soon to graduate from law school. She attends court to see the famous attorney Barry Conant in action. He is a showman but while doing his shenanigans, he spots Carroll and later makes a big play for her. She's not interested. She also tells him that as soon as she graduates in a week, she's returning for a time to her home town in the midwest.

Carroll's memories of the town, she soon realizes, need some adjustment. She resumes a friendship with Gracie Clay (Jewell) and even gives her a dress.

Later, at a 4th of July celebration, Gracie is found by her strict and awful father (Charles Middleton) as she consoles the boy she loves (Linden). When they arrive home, Gracie's father whips her.

Trying to get away from him, she hits him with a hairbrush, and he falls down a flight of stairs and dies. Though just a beginner in the law, Carroll agrees to represent her.

Carroll is overwhelmed in court, with the judge giving bad rulings - and it's obvious the jury is dying to convict Gracie. Not only that, the town disapproves of Carroll because she is a female lawyer. In walks guess who, Conant, to help in his unique way.

Enjoyable film, and though the monologue Trevor does is melodramatic and calls for emotional acting, Trevor does a beautiful job of keeping it more natural. Whelan is a riot with his courtroom antics, and Isabel Jewell is very sympathetic as the poor defendant.

It's not the greatest, but the actors all did a good job. Eric Linden, Jewell's love interest, came from the theater and returned to it permanently in 1941.

I challenge you to come up with a film with a worse courtroom scene than "Career Woman" at its opening. It begins in a courtroom and a defense attorney's theatrics and tricks manage to get the case against his client dismissed. But it's handled in the most ham-handed and ridiculous manner...so much so that I doubt if even Ed Wood Jr. Could have done this scene worse! It was so bad, my wife begged me to watch a different film...but with a few very positive reviews for "Career Woman" I decided to keep watching. I am apparently a glutton for punishment!

Fortunately, despite this hellishly bad beginning, the story then centers on a young lady watching this stupid trial. Carroll (Claire Trevor) is a new law school graduate and after the verdict, she leaves the courtroom and is going to go back to her childhood home in upstate New York. The sleazy lawyer in the opening scene tries to get her to stay and be with him, but she manages to leave the lecher behind and heads home.

Once home, you can see that this small town is not a particularly nice one. This becomes evident when Gracie accidentally kills her father when he is beating her. It clearly is a case of self-defense...but the wagging tongues in the community seem inclined to believe the worst of Gracie. And, in this climate, can Carroll possibly win the case when she defends this poor woman?

While the basic plot in this film is pretty interesting, the director and writers were apparently lemurs. Too many scenes are way overacted and the dialog stinks and watching the film was a chore. While I love old movies, this one is poor even for a B-movie.

Courtroom dynamics pre-Perry Mason, are the main concern of this most ingratiatingly acted and expansively produced melodrama. True, the satire on small-town prejudice is a bit dated now, but scenarist Lamar Trotti provides some still-hilarious asides. One of the best has Spencer Charters, who has unfazedly announced himself as "proprietor of the best store in town", dilating upon the purchase price of the murder weapon.

The tautly suspenseful proceedings are also enhanced by Lewis Seiler's cool and efficient direction. Other technical credits, especially the art direction and photography (I couldn't split the work of the two cameramen), are equally professional.

Claire Trevor has just passed the Bar in New York City and has treated herself by watching criminal defense attorney Michael Whalen in action. He's a flimflamming, grand-standing shyster who makes a three-ring circus out of the court to get his clients off. He makes a play for Miss Trevor, but she's not interested. She's going home to her tiny home town for a visit, then back to the law to practice something finer.

Once home, however, she gets involved with beaten down Isabel Jewell. Miss Jewell and the prosecuting attorney's son are in love, but even though they do nothing wrong, they're terrified of their fathers. Miss Jewell is right to be so. When jilted Big Boy Williams catches her, he peaches on her to her father, Charles Middleton. He takes her into the attic and tries to whip the Devil out of her. She strikes back to defend herself, and Middleton falls to his death. Miss Jewell begs Miss Trevor to defend her, and she agrees.

This movie tries to be too much for a B movie. It's a romantic comedy. It's an indictment of small-town prejudices. It's a screwball comedy. It's a serious legal drama. A capable cast struggles to deal with the script, but the constant change in tone -- one moment Miss Trevor is reproaching Mr. Whalen, the next he's being dragged out by a lynch mob, and the next it's all a hoax -- leaves the audience too confused and exhausted to do anything but shake its collection of heads.

There are some wonderful bits in this movie. Although I found the plethora of one-note characters tiresome, Gene Lockhart's continually grumbling uncle is a delight, and Miss Trevor gives a fine closing argument in one shot. However, this movie looks like no one knew what it was to be when it was finished.