The Women in His Life

Otto Kruger is a top defense lawyer. He's also a ladies' man who works his adoring staff of secretary Una Merkel, co-counsel Ben Lyon, and investigator Roscoe Karns hard. He has taken on the defense of Samuel S. Hinds at the behest of Irene Hervey, when he learns something startling about an old flame. He goes on a bender and has a breakdown on top of that. Lyon takes over the case, and Hinds is convicted and sentenced to death. Kruger says he'll get him acquitted on appeal.... and then does nothing that anyone can see.

It's practically a one-man show for Kruger in various modes; during his recovery from his breakdown he gives the impression of a man who has aged thirty years on sheer acting chops. Even the usually rambunctious Karns and Miss Merkel don't do much to distract from him. While there are some issues in the denouement sequences, George Seitz acquits himself well in his first credit as a director at MGM, by sticking to Kruger.

Kent Barringer (Otto Kruger) is a self-assured cynical womanizing successful defense lawyer. He gets another guilty man off. He uses every trick to win his cases. He keeps a picture of an old flame to remind him that love is an illusion. He gets a case defending a supposed innocent murderer. He is shocked to find the victim to be his pictured ex.

This is a pre-Code drama. I really like the premise and the start. I would like a more dashing and younger lead. Otherwise, Otto Kruger is pretty good. I don't buy the doppelganger defense. Everybody has a doppelganger. Kent didn't actually prove anything. As for the big case, I thought he would do more investigating after the loss. The second half is not as compelling.

Kent "Barry" Barringer (Otto Kruger) is a hard cynical lawyer. He gets clients acquitted he knows are guilty using cute "tricks" such as having the defendant's double sit in court being identified by witness after witness only to introduce the real defendant sitting out in the crowd, thus causing reasonable doubt.

Barringer has women betting a night with their bodies over a pinball game. He distrusts even "the women in his life" as cheating chiselers. You see, his wife ran out on him ten years before and something inside him died at the time, so he's spent his time becoming the world's best criminal attorney and "hate bedding" women ever since.

Then one day an innocent appears at his office door - Her father is accused of killing her stepmother. When Barringer sees the dead woman's photo, he realizes that she is the wife who left him ten years ago. He breaks down - as long as there was life there was hope, but now she's dead. She'll never come back. Barringer abandons his practice and his clients and goes on a bender. But what of the girl's father and his trial? Watch and find out.

This is one of my favorite legal precodes. It has everything and its pacing and ability to seamlessly transition from one genre to another is excellent. At first, the film is a courtroom drama, by the end it is a gangster tale. It really has no big stars in it, and Otto Kruger is in rare form in a rare leading role.

Though made by MGM, it really doesn't seem like a film of the era or one that the studio cared very much about, and as a result of MGM's neglect it turned out to be something special. The best way I could describe it is as though MGM and WB had a child. And that child - this film - has the MGM class and WB's sass. I'd highly recommend it.

With Una Merkel as Barringer's unflappable secretary, Ben Lyon as Barringer's straight arrow junior partner, Isabel Jewell as the woman who loves Barringer but might as well be talking to a rock when it comes time to talk of love, and Roscoe Karns as the same kind of wise-cracking assistant he played in 20th Century the following year.

Not a great movie by any means. However, you will see Otto Kruger like you've never seem him before. His performance is outstanding, ond I had never been a fan of his ever, until now. See it just for him.

This movie would have been mediocre at best had it not been for Otto Kruger's performance. His acting in this movie is so natural, so unlike most precode acting where the acting is over dramatic. I honestly kept wTching just for him, he totally drew me in.