Counsellor at Law

This film is so rare that probably few people have heard of it. What a terrible shame! The only copy I have was taped from cable TV several years ago. I

never dreamed that I would be reading such appreciation of this little treasure by so many others! There should be a movement afoot to try to bring this

wonderful work out of obscurity, at least to get it on video!

I have read that John Barrymore considered himself miscast here. But I think he was the best possible choice for this film role (played on Broadway by Paul

Muni). At a time when Hitler was just coming to power, I wouldn't want to

imagine the response by the average U.S. moviegoer toward an actual Jewish

actor trying to elicit sympathy for the personal struggles of a Jewish man trying to get himself accepted into Gentile society in this way.

As for the office setting, well, I work for a New York law firm, and this film hits the target dead on! It evokes perfectly the scurry of New York office life, as well as the latest technologies, the fashions and the speech patterns of the period, like that adorable switchboard operator! Bravo to William Wyler!

I have seen many, many John Barrymore movies, and I agree with everyone

else writing here that this must certainly be his best surviving performance, his monument, for those of us who never saw his Richard III or Hamlet. It's even

better than "Twentieth Century" and "Grand Hotel". In an era when silent-movie histrionics was still evident in the acting style, his performance is subtle, nuanced, very modern and deeply affecting, especially in that final scene!

While not technically lost, I call it this because very very few people have heard of it and it is not usually mentioned in discussions of John Barrymore's work. I only sought out the video after I saw it listed in the front of my Leonard Maltin guide in his list of 50 seldom-seen but great films. While his list is too heavily influenced by modern movies (more than half the list are movies just made within the last few years), this one one of the few older films listed. And, since I have adore older Hollywood films, I ran out to find a copy ASAP.

What did I like about the film? Well, first I have always loved John Barrymore films (apart from a few turkeys he made just before he died) and he is as good as you'll ever see him. Second, I really liked the film's moral compass. While Barrymore is the hero of the story, he is far from perfect and offers a more 3-dimensional sort of leading man. While he does so much of his work to help the poor and down-trodden, he is not averse to lying, insider stock trading or making a fast buck. Third, the supporting cast was very strong and full of unusual characters (aside from what I felt was an annoyingly written character, the receptionist). My favorite old films always feature a good ensemble cast for support. Fourth, it dares to be different. This lawyer is NOT Perry Mason (Warren Williams' series was very popular at the time this film was made) or like any one I have seen on film. Fifth, while the film COULD have been stagy given that all the action takes place in the building where the law firm is, its brisk pace keeps it from falling flat.

While I loved the pacing, this also brings me to about the only negative in the film. While the action is brisk, sometimes the dialog is a little TOO BRISK. Occasionally I found myself struggling to keep up with the rapid-fire dialog at the beginning of the film! Be sure to turn on your television's Closed Captioning!

Elmer Rice's long running Broadway play about a Jewish lawyer who never forgets his class roots became a hit for star Paul Muni. If the screen rights had been bought by Warner Brothers instead of Universal, I'm sure Muni might have repeated his part. It's a pity we have no record of his performance because I'm sure he was a natural for the role.

Although the casting might seem bizarre John Barrymore does a superb job in the role Muni created om Counsellor at Law. This is a man who did live out the American dream, rising to the very top of his profession by hard work and a natural aptitude for the profession of law. He lives a good life style with a trophy WASP wife and a couple of step children who really don't like him. He never forgets where he came from and is available to many from the Lower East Side Neighborhood from where he sprung, pro bono.

Counsellor At Law with its lead character of George Simon is no doubt based on real life attorney Samuel Leibowitz who at that time was engaged in the biggest case of his career, defending the Scottsboro Boys in Alabama. There are also echoes of another famous Jewish attorney, Louis D. Brandeis who sat on the United States Supreme Court. Like Barrymore's character Simon, Brandeis and Leibowitz both aroused the jealousy and resentment of some of the old time lawyers of the WASP white shoe persuasion. It was some of those who led the opposition to Brandeis when Woodrow Wilson appointed him to the Supreme Court.

Here the opposition is in the person of Elmer Brown, your basic bigoted White AngloSaxon Protestant whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower or shortly after and think of America as their private preserve. He's gotten some information that on a previous case that involved Barrymore getting John Qualen off, an alibi witness is saying the alibi he provided was false. Problem is the alibi was false and the witness is saying Barrymore suborned perjury.

Universal was fortunate enough to get Elmer Rice to adapt his own play for the screen and William Wyler does a fine job in directing so much so that you're not conscious of the fact that it all takes place within Barrymore's rather large office. Though it's not shot in those long takes like Alfred Hitchcock's classic Rope, Counsellor at Law has that same feel about it.

It also has several plot lines running at once, very similar to William Wyler's later work, The Detective Story. Barrymore's marriage is on the rocks, wife Doris Kenyon is seeing Melvyn Douglas on the side. Barrymore has also been asked to defend the son of his mother's friend played by future director Vincent Sherman who is a Communist radical making inflammatory speeches in Union Square back in the day when that was the thing to do.

One very ironic scene involves young Sherman with his head bandaged waiting with his mother in the anteroom, where Barrymore's snobbish bratty stepkids are waiting. The young boy stepson is played by Richard Quine who also became a pretty noted film director himself.

There are also some very good performances by Bebe Daniels as Barrymore's loyal secretary and an ironically funny one by Isabelle Jewell as the switchboard operator.

John Barrymore had a very good grasp at screen characters who were reaching the end of their rope. Counsellor at Law very much follows in the same vein as his characters in Grand Hotel and Dinner at Eight.

With Louis D. Brandeis and Samuel Leibowitz very much in the public eye, Counsellor at Law had a built in audience when it was released. Nevertheless 75 years later it holds up very well for today's audience.

I don't think even Paul Muni could have played it better.

John Barrymore, while by no means a bad actor, was a shameless ham, overplaying every role whether it be straight or comic. It is therefore refreshing to see him in Counsellor at Law for once delivering a performance that is restrained and realistic, and probably the best of his career.

It's no surprise then that the director of Counsellor at Law was William Wyler, perhaps the most skilled and respected director of actors in Hollywood history. No less a personage than Laurence Olivier credited Wyler with teaching him how to act for the screen. I can imagine Wyler reining in the over-expressive Barrymore, exhausting him with repeated takes and cutting his performance down to size. But Barrymore is not the only one to be affected by the Wyler touch. Bebe Daniels, who normally played women who were if not villainous than at least a bit dodgy, is the best I have ever seen her as Barrymore's warm-hearted secretary. Even supporting players Doris Kenyon and Clara Langsner, who play Barrymore's wife and mother respectively, turn in incredibly deep performances. Then there's Vincent Sherman, who later became a director himself. His character is a stereotype, and his impassioned speech is the stuff of melodrama, but he almost manages to make the part convincing.

As well as coaxing such great performances, Wyler always put a lot of thought into how he should film the actors to benefit the story. Sometimes this meant violating cinematic conventions, and Wyler was lucky to have made his earliest features with Universal and Sam Goldwyn, two of the more leftfield studios at the time. Counsellor at Law has a lot of bit parts which we have to acknowledge, but not focus on, such as the clients who come and go in the first ten minutes. As often as possible Wyler shoots them with their backs to the camera so we don't dwell upon them. Conversely, he encourages us to take note of significant characters, for example placing Malka Kornstein conspicuously in the background in an early scene before she has properly entered the story. It's worth noting that this was the first time Wyler worked with his long time editor Daniel Mandell, who must have fully respected Wyler's unconventional shooting patterns.

Elmer Rice's play from which the film is adapted works a lot on changing pace. The opening scenes are snappy and bustling, zipping from room to room and one character to the next. Gradually the pace slows and the scenes start to crystalize which, coming after the business and light comedy of the first half, give the important moments more impact. Wyler acknowledges and compliments this pacing, keeping the camera constantly moving in the earlier scenes, and keeping it close to the action. As things slow down his camera keeps still and often hangs back. Unfortunately some of the camera moves are a little shaky, and some of them are not entirely necessary - Wyler's later pictures would be far more subtle in this respect.

Counsellor at Law is mainly worth seeing for Barrymore's understated performance, but there is plenty more going on. The story is not outstanding, but it is well told. And Wyler's direction, while it still had a long way to go to the standard he would eventually reach in Best Years of Our Lives or The Heiress is nevertheless bold and daring, and here teases the drama out of the comedy.

Tragically, "Counsellor at Law" has never been released on video, so only pirate copies are available. I strongly advise you to get hold of one because the film is unquestionably a 10 on IMDB's scale--probably the best movie about a lawyer ever made. Another possibility is to see the play by Elmer Rice which the movie follows quite closely and which is presented in little theaters around the country from time to time.

Start with John Barrymore's absolutely unforgettable portrayal of attorney George Simon. Continue with the stunning art deco set and the direction which moves the action along at about 200 miles per hour. Most important, the film, which is set entirely in Simon's office, illustrates a tremendous range of business and personal problems confronting the high-powered New York lawyer in the 1930's.

On the personal side, Simon is an up from the gutter Jew who has made it big-time in the waspy world of New York law and business. He's married to an aristocratic non-Jewish woman who seems to despise him (along with her ungrateful kids). So one big theme of the film is the conflict between Simon's poverty-stricken past (his very common mother, his nogoodnick brother) and his newly acquired upper-class status in the non-Jewish community. Simon has feet in both camps and the conflict is revealing and very poignant.

On the business side, Simon has relationships with his partner, with the other lawyers in his firm, and with his staff--each one clearly and unforgettably etched (you'll never forget the telephone operator). He sees a range of clients and confronts a range of ethical problems. He's very tough when he needs to be, and has a huge soft heart as well. He cares deeply about his clients, and that has gotten him into trouble--big trouble.

Not to spoil the story, this film will knock your socks off. Although there have been hundreds of lawyer movies since 1933, none surpass this brilliant film for its insight into the life of the lawyer and into the perils of vertical class mobility.