Counsellor at Law

Staged entirely within the law offices of Simon and Tedesco, a gleaming art deco motif office at the top of the Empire State Building, William Wyler's fast-talking, 1933 comic adaptation (with some dramatic relief) of Elmer Rice's play Counsellor at Law stars John Barrymore as George Simon, a pulled-himself-up-by-his-working-class-bootstraps Jewish lawyer who bumps up the retainer fees for his fat cat clients, engages in a bit of insider stock trading, and helps out the financially less fortunate from the old neighborhood. Simon's life is thrown into a tizzy when a good (but illegal) favor for a working-class kid from his past comes back to haunt him, threatening both his job and his marriage to a socialite wife (Doris Kenyon), who suddenly takes an interest in a slick hanger-on (Melvyn Douglas), even as Simon's starry-eyed secretary (Bebe Daniels) tries to save her boss (and capture his heart). A solid mix of professional satire, screwball humor, and social commentary, Counsellor at Law is presented on DVD with a nice transfer and a photo gallery highlighting Wyler's career. Also newly available, two other titles in Kino's Wyler collection: The Good Fairy and Directed by William Wyler/The Love Trap. Recommended. (R. Pitman)