Fay's a Lawyer

Sometimes watching a film so firmly set in its own time can be almost painful for a modern audience.  Such is the case with Ann Carver's Profession (1933).  Fay Wray plays Ann Carver, who has married her college sweetheart, "Lightning" Bill Graham (Gene Raymond) after both have worked their way through advance degrees - he as an architect, she as a lawyer.  Though Bill was a football hero in college, the real world places him into an architectural firm, where he gets to do the scutwork for very little money.  Ann has been unable to even find a job.  She's frustrated and Bill is eager to help her find a position.  So, when an evening arises in which he can sing his wife's praises to the head of a law firm, he does so, and Ann takes it from there, providing some advice that results in the firm's winning an important case.  Ann is on her way.

It's at this point that film becomes annoying.  There is no middle of the road for Ann.  As a successful lawyer she is selfish, rude, smug, and an all-around heel.  She becomes the stereotypical career woman - a man-eating viper who cares for nothing but her success.  SHE purchases a large house.  SHE hires many servants (why does a young married couple need a maid, cook, and butler anyway?) - Bill is not consulted.  After all, SHE controls the purse strings.  When she is forced away on business, Bill can't pay the staff - he has no access to HER funds.  All in all, he is humiliated in every way, and Ann, of course, is oblivious to his needs.  HER job comes first, especially since she is the big wage earner.

The biggest problem with the character of Ann is that she is so exaggerated. Her shift from frustrated housewife to power lawyer is dramatic and unrealistic.  This basically nice woman becomes a harridan for no real reason,other than absolute power corrupting absolutely.  It doesn't help that her rise to fame is so unrealistic - within a few weeks of being hired, she is a headline-making, major player in her law firm.   

Of course, this is a precode film, so we have a scene with Ann and Bill snuggling in their big double bed.  There is also Bill's "relationship" with Carole Rogers (Claire Dodd).  The consensus among our group was that there was a brief fling between the two;  however, Bill is ultimately disgusted with Carole's drunkenness and lewdness.  In spite of the affair, it's still hard to work up much sympathy for Ann.  She treats Bill as an appendage - someone to bring her to important work-related dinners - not as a husband.  Appearance is all that matters to her, and when Bill decides a career change will bring him more money, Ann is horrified - what will people think of HER with a "crooner" as a husband? 

We suspect not a lot of attention was paid to Ann Carver's Profession, as it was released the same year as another film starring Ms. Wray - King Kong.  She had already ventured into the land of horror that year (with The Vampire Bat and Mystery of the Wax Museum), but with the popularity of Kong, Ms. Wray became a staple in the genre, and was often called The Queen of Scream. 

Regardless, she had a long career - she appeared in films and on television as late as 1980.  Interestingly, she would marry the screenwriter for Ann Carver's Profession, Robert Riskin, in 1942.  They had two children and were together until his death in 1955.  Fay Wray died in 2004, at the age of 96.  

We'll close with a clip from the 1998 Oscars with Billy Crystal. A tribute to King Kong was part of the entertainment that evening, and Mr. Crystal surprised Fay Wray by introducing her from the audience.  

Oh, and Ruthelma Stevens was barely findable as a party guest.  A shame really...

Adolphe's on Vacation

New York City District Attorney Thatcher Colt (Adolphe Menjou) is tired.  He needs a vacation badly, and the only way to get one is to go away and not tell anyone his destination.  So, he throws a dart at a map of NY State, and settles on a small upstate town.  He arrives to find the circus is in town, and with it the mystery of murder attempts on the life of star aerialist Josie La Tour (Greta Nissen).  Thus, The Circus Queen Murder (1933) brings Thatcher and his secretary Miss Kelly (Ruthelma Stevens) very far from a restful countryside.

The Night Club Lady was made the previous year, and was intended to be the first in a series of three movies about DA Thatcher Colt.  However, Circus Queen Murder was the only other one that was made.  It's not really clear why, though perhaps the enforcement of the Production Code played a part in it.  Eventually, Thatcher Colt returned in 1942's The Panther's Claw (starring Sidney Blackmer).  This TCM Article goes into greater detail about the films.

None of us was familiar with Ruthelma Stevens (pictured above), who played Miss Kelly, Colt's secretary, confidant, and more-or-less love interest (he can't go on vacation without her...)  She's excellent in the film; in fact, she is the most appealing part OF the film.  She is a strong actress, with an interesting voice and appealing, intelligent face.  She appeared mostly in B films and in small parts in major films (like The Fountainhead and The Scarlet Empress), as well as on Broadway.  She died at age 84 in NYC.  Though Ms. Stevens is the person you most remember, it is not her that is pictured on the poster - that honor goes to Greta Nissen.   The poster makes it appear that Thatcher Colt is involved with Ms. Nissen, which he most definitely is not.

Another notable actor in the film is Donald Cook, who is best known as James Cagney's brother Mike in The Public Enemy. Featured here as Josie's love interest Sebastian, the character comes across as a gentleman, who is gutsy enough to risk his own life to protect his lover.  And though Josie is married, it's really hard to condemn her for loving Sebastian.  Her husband Flandrin (Dwight Frye) is an insane stalker.  (Of course, this IS a precode film...)  We've seen Cook before as one of Barbara Stanwyck's lovers in Baby Face; he's not the strongest actor ever, and while he is good, he is not the character you will best remember from the film.  It's a well known fact, that he was originally cast in the role of Tom Powers, in The Public Enemy, however Cagney so completely blew him off the screen that the parts were reversed.  Though Cook's film career did not go much beyond the 1940s (he made a few film in the 50s),  he had a substantial career on Broadway, appearing in 20 plays, most notably in The Moon is Blue.  He died in 1961, at age 60.

There were several bits in the film that we found quite intriguing.  First was the use of a bulletproof vest!  Though we were unaware of it, bulletproof vests were being developed as early as 1561.  Also, the film establishes quite early that Miss Kelly is quite proficient at reading lips, a talent that will be important to the film action.  Unfortunately, the one bad aspect of the movie was the tendency to telegraph quite early later action: for example, the knife thrower has the vest to protect his target, so we are waiting for it to be used.  So too the film's title also gives away too much information.

The one aspect of in the film that was a bit off-putting were the circus cannibals.  It turns out, they were a much larger feature in the book on which this film is based - in fact, their chief helps Colt investigate the threats against Josie.  We felt they should either have been eliminated or put to better use.   

All in all, though, we enjoyed the film.  And we enjoyed Ms. Stevens enough that we'll be viewing another of her films next time.