Fay Wray made this the same year as she did King Kong. In this one, she stars as Ann Carver, a working girl who becomes a successful attorney - pretty far ahead of her time! She marries Bill (Gene Raymond) an architect who has big plans, but isn't as successful as he'd like to be. They run into legal trouble, and its up to Ann to try to get them out of it. A lot of clever lines and fun scenes, well done by the cast. Raymond and Wray make a very believable couple, and the script flows with no pot holes or plot-holes. Claire Dodd is in the cast, and one of my favorites, Jessie Ralph, as Terry, the over-dramatic housekeeper. This was made just prior to the film code enforcement, as we can tell by the courtroom scenes, and the backless dresses on F. Wray. "Ann Carver" has a lot in common with "The Bride Walks Out", kind of a remake by RKO in 1936, which also starred G Raymond, but this time with B. Stanwycke. Written by Robert Riskin, who won the Oscar for writing "It Happened One Night". Directed by Edward Buzzell, who directed a couple of the Marx Brothers films. Good, fun entertainment, even if the ending is a little weak.
15 Reviews
Don't get ambitious, girls
marcslope7 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Not-bad '30s melodrama-romance, with newlyweds Gene Raymond and Fay Wray negotiating the strains of early marriage. He's a college football star turned architect, and she just passed the bar exam but apparently would rather be a Dear Little Housewife. When the economic going gets a bit rough and a case falls her way, she takes it (and it's quite a provocative case for 1933, involving a mixed-race relationship), wins it, and is soon a busy lawyer and media darling. She commits the unpardonable sin of ignoring her husband, who becomes a nightclub crooner (and Gene Raymond can't sing much) and takes up with a floozy co-worker... Neither of the leads is much of an actor here, but it holds one's interest, that is, until the end, when Fay sees The Error of Her Ways and decides professional achievement is a hollow ambition for one of her sex, what really matters is being a mother and housewife. That's where the morality was in 1933; today it's odious.
She's too sharp of an attorney to sit at home keeping house for a crooner husband.
mark.waltz23 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Before the women of World War II took on men's tougher jobs, working as riveters, pilots and occasionally even being caught on the front line (usually as nurses), they were occasionally doctors (Kay Francis in "Mary Stevens M.D.", "Dr. Monica"), business women (Kay Francis in "Man Wanted", "Trouble in Paradise", Ruth Chatterton, "Female"), and in Fay Wray's case here, an attorney. In each case, all of these women had men troubles, especially if they were married.
Here, Wray is married to a former college football hero (Gene Raymond) who is working an entry level job as an architect. She stays home at first after graduating from law school, but at a dinner party, gets involved in a conversation regarding a breech of promise case. Insisting that women have no place on a jury when the case involves another woman (in this case, a very light skinned black woman), she takes over the case, and with sly conniving, gets the defendant off. This scene is pretty impressive and shocking for its day as she actually questions the prosecuting attorney who insists that only a blithering idiot wouldn't be able to tell that the woman wasn't "colored". With this case, she becomes highly respected, beginning the slow downfall of her marriage, especially when Raymond is asked to pay the servants and doesn't have enough money to do so.
Raymond's ego takes over as he takes a night gig as a crooner in a nightclub, falling into the clutches of the drunken Claire Dodd, a clinging sort who makes no bones about hating his "uppity wife". This leads to a very gruesome plot twist (shocking, even for pre-code!), and Wray's sudden defending of her husband in court. Wray must deliver a truly maddening speech about a wife's place in a marriage, and the script totally overlooks her defense of her husband's innocence. While writer Robert Riskin had some good intentions here (having written some powerful career women in many Frank Capra classics), he must have been forced to wimp out here, really giving no compromise between husband and wife and just perpetuating the stereotype of this time that a woman's place is in the home, having kids and darning socks. What starts off as strong drama and could have become a classic simply turns into a screen equivalent of the radio soap operas of its time.
Here, Wray is married to a former college football hero (Gene Raymond) who is working an entry level job as an architect. She stays home at first after graduating from law school, but at a dinner party, gets involved in a conversation regarding a breech of promise case. Insisting that women have no place on a jury when the case involves another woman (in this case, a very light skinned black woman), she takes over the case, and with sly conniving, gets the defendant off. This scene is pretty impressive and shocking for its day as she actually questions the prosecuting attorney who insists that only a blithering idiot wouldn't be able to tell that the woman wasn't "colored". With this case, she becomes highly respected, beginning the slow downfall of her marriage, especially when Raymond is asked to pay the servants and doesn't have enough money to do so.
Raymond's ego takes over as he takes a night gig as a crooner in a nightclub, falling into the clutches of the drunken Claire Dodd, a clinging sort who makes no bones about hating his "uppity wife". This leads to a very gruesome plot twist (shocking, even for pre-code!), and Wray's sudden defending of her husband in court. Wray must deliver a truly maddening speech about a wife's place in a marriage, and the script totally overlooks her defense of her husband's innocence. While writer Robert Riskin had some good intentions here (having written some powerful career women in many Frank Capra classics), he must have been forced to wimp out here, really giving no compromise between husband and wife and just perpetuating the stereotype of this time that a woman's place is in the home, having kids and darning socks. What starts off as strong drama and could have become a classic simply turns into a screen equivalent of the radio soap operas of its time.
Entertaining B Movie
Michael_Elliott30 September 2009
Ann Carver's Profession (1933)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Entertaining curio from Columbia has Fay Wray playing a wife turned brilliant lawyer who must defend her estranged husband (Gene Raymond) when he is accused of killing a nightclub singer (Claire Dodd). This is an extremely interesting little gem that manages to be entertaining as a film but also because of the way it showed women and race of the time. The husband ends up leaving the wife because she's making more money than him, which is something he's embarrassed about. Seeing a woman work here way up without using sexuality is something else not all that common from films of this era. The way the film views race is another interesting thing because Wray's first big trial is a black woman charged with dating a white man but not telling him she was black. This entire courtroom scene is rather jaw dropping as even blackface doesn't seen as out of date as this sequence. We see the attorney bring in "questionable" black women who might be white. The entire sequence is surreal, strange and certainly something you probably won't see in too many movies. The biggest problem with the film comes in the final ten minutes when the trial of the husband actually starts. The actual ending is a downright disaster but even worse is how we get to that ending with a certain speech inside the court. It was so bad I actually wanted to hit the mute button. Wray turns in a decent performance, although I think she goes a tad bit over the top during some of the court scenes. Raymond, Dodd and the rest of the supporting cast do fine work and the director keeps everything moving at a nice pace. This is yet another forgotten film that popped up on Turner Classic Movies and it's one more should check out as it gives us a rather interesting insight to some rather strange topics.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Entertaining curio from Columbia has Fay Wray playing a wife turned brilliant lawyer who must defend her estranged husband (Gene Raymond) when he is accused of killing a nightclub singer (Claire Dodd). This is an extremely interesting little gem that manages to be entertaining as a film but also because of the way it showed women and race of the time. The husband ends up leaving the wife because she's making more money than him, which is something he's embarrassed about. Seeing a woman work here way up without using sexuality is something else not all that common from films of this era. The way the film views race is another interesting thing because Wray's first big trial is a black woman charged with dating a white man but not telling him she was black. This entire courtroom scene is rather jaw dropping as even blackface doesn't seen as out of date as this sequence. We see the attorney bring in "questionable" black women who might be white. The entire sequence is surreal, strange and certainly something you probably won't see in too many movies. The biggest problem with the film comes in the final ten minutes when the trial of the husband actually starts. The actual ending is a downright disaster but even worse is how we get to that ending with a certain speech inside the court. It was so bad I actually wanted to hit the mute button. Wray turns in a decent performance, although I think she goes a tad bit over the top during some of the court scenes. Raymond, Dodd and the rest of the supporting cast do fine work and the director keeps everything moving at a nice pace. This is yet another forgotten film that popped up on Turner Classic Movies and it's one more should check out as it gives us a rather interesting insight to some rather strange topics.
At first it looks like the old melodramatic trope of the too successful wife...
AlsExGal14 March 2021
... but wait, there's more! Law school graduate Ann Carver (Fay Wray) marries architecture graduate and college football hero Bill Graham (Gene Raymond). Being the Depression, Bill can only get a job as a draftsman. His wife stays home as was the custom in those days, even if the couple had no kids. At a dinner party, Ann gets involved in a discussion of how to win a case, and winds up with a job offer. She climbs in her profession and loves it, Bill languishes in his, and hates it.
The Grahams get posher digs, they have servants, all on Ann's money. When Bill can't pay the household servants when Ann is away on business, he quits his drafting job and gets a job singing at a club, using his football celebrity as collateral because it means much more money. Unfortunately the other singer who got him this job is played by Claire Dodd. It's always a bad omen to pal around with Claire Dodd in a precode. The Graham marriage breaks apart, and Bill takes to drinking heavily, sometimes with and sometimes without Dodd, whose advances he rebuffs.
Then Dodd's character dies and Bill gets accused of her murder. And in a preposterous development Ann defends him at trial by claiming - truly - that nobody can find a motive for Bill murdering the woman, and -ridiculously - besides it was all her (Ann's) fault because she wanted a career. How dare her! How will this turn out, watch and find out.
What makes this very paint by numbers plot rise a star above mediocre is the twist of how Claire Dodd's character actually dies. Nobody ever figures it out, except the audience, who witnesses the entire thing. The 1930's equivalent of Quincy does not come along and solve the riddle. And I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.
Also, there is a very precode courtroom scene, where Ann makes her name. She is defending a breech of promise suit - that is where a man promises to marry a woman and then backs out. In the 30s this could mean big bucks for the woman if the man was rich, and in this case he is. The reason he backed out was that he found out the woman was black. She claimed that he always knew she was black, and that it should have been obvious when they went swimming that she was. That she never hid her race or lied to him. The opposing counsel says that anybody should be able to tell a black woman from a white one. So Ann brings in six women - three white, three black, but all of the same skin color - and demands that the opposing counsel say who is who. The judge breaks up this circus but the point is made and the woman suing the rich man loses. Now this all sounds very racist because it is, but it was cut out of versions of this film shown in the production code era that started the following year because - wait for it - the film is making it look like race is only skin deep AND that a white man could be married to a black woman and never even know it. Oh the horror!
Sometimes even very formulaic old films are worth seeking out for the twenty minutes or so that they are NOT formulaic.
The Grahams get posher digs, they have servants, all on Ann's money. When Bill can't pay the household servants when Ann is away on business, he quits his drafting job and gets a job singing at a club, using his football celebrity as collateral because it means much more money. Unfortunately the other singer who got him this job is played by Claire Dodd. It's always a bad omen to pal around with Claire Dodd in a precode. The Graham marriage breaks apart, and Bill takes to drinking heavily, sometimes with and sometimes without Dodd, whose advances he rebuffs.
Then Dodd's character dies and Bill gets accused of her murder. And in a preposterous development Ann defends him at trial by claiming - truly - that nobody can find a motive for Bill murdering the woman, and -ridiculously - besides it was all her (Ann's) fault because she wanted a career. How dare her! How will this turn out, watch and find out.
What makes this very paint by numbers plot rise a star above mediocre is the twist of how Claire Dodd's character actually dies. Nobody ever figures it out, except the audience, who witnesses the entire thing. The 1930's equivalent of Quincy does not come along and solve the riddle. And I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.
Also, there is a very precode courtroom scene, where Ann makes her name. She is defending a breech of promise suit - that is where a man promises to marry a woman and then backs out. In the 30s this could mean big bucks for the woman if the man was rich, and in this case he is. The reason he backed out was that he found out the woman was black. She claimed that he always knew she was black, and that it should have been obvious when they went swimming that she was. That she never hid her race or lied to him. The opposing counsel says that anybody should be able to tell a black woman from a white one. So Ann brings in six women - three white, three black, but all of the same skin color - and demands that the opposing counsel say who is who. The judge breaks up this circus but the point is made and the woman suing the rich man loses. Now this all sounds very racist because it is, but it was cut out of versions of this film shown in the production code era that started the following year because - wait for it - the film is making it look like race is only skin deep AND that a white man could be married to a black woman and never even know it. Oh the horror!
Sometimes even very formulaic old films are worth seeking out for the twenty minutes or so that they are NOT formulaic.
Wow...I didn't see THAT coming...
planktonrules7 March 2010
Warning: Spoilers
In some ways, "Ann Carver's Profession" is a formulaic film...but WOW, I didn't see that plot twist coming near the end. I like this, even though it's a bit hard to believe, as it made the film more than a typical working professional woman film.
The movie starts with Gene Raymond graduating with an architecture degree and Fay Wray with a law degree. Despite her advanced degree, she stays home once they marry--after all, that WAS a woman's place according to 1930s conventions. However, Fay hates being a housewife and jumps at the chance to work for a law firm. Unfortunately for Raymond's ego, she turns out to be super-successful--and becomes a famous lawyer. In the 30s, this would essentially mean he was emasculated. At first, I was mad at Raymond for his petulant feelings...after all, my wife makes lots more money than I do!! But, I came to feel a bit sorry for him when he quit his job to become a professional crooner (something Raymond had been in real life). In this new job, Wray treated him horribly and acted ashamed of him. This reaction to his new job was the straw that broke the marriage. However, what happened next really hit me out of left field. I'll say no more, as it would spoil the film, but the movie went in a direction I never would have anticipated.
Overall, a good film. Although it appeared to be just another successful business woman film, it turned out to be a lot better. Too bad, however, a bit of this was undone by forcing the plot to follow the dumb conviction that a woman MUST sacrifice her career for the sake of a marriage. By the end of the film Wray had to become a housewife and be less of herself in order for them to be happy--what a terrible message to girls of the day!
The movie starts with Gene Raymond graduating with an architecture degree and Fay Wray with a law degree. Despite her advanced degree, she stays home once they marry--after all, that WAS a woman's place according to 1930s conventions. However, Fay hates being a housewife and jumps at the chance to work for a law firm. Unfortunately for Raymond's ego, she turns out to be super-successful--and becomes a famous lawyer. In the 30s, this would essentially mean he was emasculated. At first, I was mad at Raymond for his petulant feelings...after all, my wife makes lots more money than I do!! But, I came to feel a bit sorry for him when he quit his job to become a professional crooner (something Raymond had been in real life). In this new job, Wray treated him horribly and acted ashamed of him. This reaction to his new job was the straw that broke the marriage. However, what happened next really hit me out of left field. I'll say no more, as it would spoil the film, but the movie went in a direction I never would have anticipated.
Overall, a good film. Although it appeared to be just another successful business woman film, it turned out to be a lot better. Too bad, however, a bit of this was undone by forcing the plot to follow the dumb conviction that a woman MUST sacrifice her career for the sake of a marriage. By the end of the film Wray had to become a housewife and be less of herself in order for them to be happy--what a terrible message to girls of the day!
The evil abomination that is feminism!
1930s_Time_Machine23 November 2023
This is the story of someone who has the unnatural, ungodly affliction of being ambitious and wanting a career even though she's not a man! Will she see the error of her ways before she causes the destruction of civilisation?
Although we know attitudes were very different in the 30s, it's still astonishing and thoroughly shocking to see this in the flesh. If you watch a lot of 1930s pictures you start to think that these people are just like you and that times weren't so different. You've grown to regard these little black + white celluloid people as your friends and you feel really let down by them. What's shocking is that it suddenly clicks with you that to these people you thought you knew, all this seemed absolutely normal. Even the bizarre opening court case when a girl is caught pretending to be white, breaking the miscegenation laws was a perfectly aspect of normal life to the society your celluloid friends lived in. It disappoints you. What is particularly saddening is that this is written by Robert Riskin - the champion of the underdog, Columbia's and Frank Capra's star writer, defender of the little man. It could logically be argued that it wasn't him, it was the society he lived in but it's still like finding out that Paddington is a Nazi.
Like WEEKEND MARRIAGE made a year earlier, its theme is identical: a woman's place is in the home and like that film, it's also pretty terribly made. That this was not only made by a top director, Eddie Buzzell but also written by one of the best screenwriters of Hollywood makes no sense for it to be so poor. The cinematography and the overall look of the film is actually quite impressive but the acting is flat and you simply can't engage with them - you have no desire whatsoever to get to know these people. Maybe it's the theme which instantly makes you uneasy so unreceptive to this. Maybe it's because it's so badly acted particularly by Gene Raymond and Claire Dodd. Actually, as second-rate an actress Fay Wray was, she's not too bad in this. She doesn't get good reviews for her performance but compared with her colleagues, she's Meryl Streep. How can she do better with such a self-deprecating role castigating herself for wanting a career, wanting excitement instead of just staying at home to look after her husband and give him a child - sorry, a son?
This is worse than WEEKEND MARRIAGE because at least that was so insanely over the top misogynistic it engaged your emotions even if only to make you furious. With this, despite it looking better and having so much going on every minute, it somehow manages to be boring at the same time.
Although we know attitudes were very different in the 30s, it's still astonishing and thoroughly shocking to see this in the flesh. If you watch a lot of 1930s pictures you start to think that these people are just like you and that times weren't so different. You've grown to regard these little black + white celluloid people as your friends and you feel really let down by them. What's shocking is that it suddenly clicks with you that to these people you thought you knew, all this seemed absolutely normal. Even the bizarre opening court case when a girl is caught pretending to be white, breaking the miscegenation laws was a perfectly aspect of normal life to the society your celluloid friends lived in. It disappoints you. What is particularly saddening is that this is written by Robert Riskin - the champion of the underdog, Columbia's and Frank Capra's star writer, defender of the little man. It could logically be argued that it wasn't him, it was the society he lived in but it's still like finding out that Paddington is a Nazi.
Like WEEKEND MARRIAGE made a year earlier, its theme is identical: a woman's place is in the home and like that film, it's also pretty terribly made. That this was not only made by a top director, Eddie Buzzell but also written by one of the best screenwriters of Hollywood makes no sense for it to be so poor. The cinematography and the overall look of the film is actually quite impressive but the acting is flat and you simply can't engage with them - you have no desire whatsoever to get to know these people. Maybe it's the theme which instantly makes you uneasy so unreceptive to this. Maybe it's because it's so badly acted particularly by Gene Raymond and Claire Dodd. Actually, as second-rate an actress Fay Wray was, she's not too bad in this. She doesn't get good reviews for her performance but compared with her colleagues, she's Meryl Streep. How can she do better with such a self-deprecating role castigating herself for wanting a career, wanting excitement instead of just staying at home to look after her husband and give him a child - sorry, a son?
This is worse than WEEKEND MARRIAGE because at least that was so insanely over the top misogynistic it engaged your emotions even if only to make you furious. With this, despite it looking better and having so much going on every minute, it somehow manages to be boring at the same time.
Women in the Workforce
LeonLouisRicci4 November 2014
Lest We Forget, Before Women were Propelled into the Workforce by Necessity During World War II, the Professional Female was a Somewhat Controversial Anomaly. Hollywood did use the Situation Frequently During the 1930's as the Depression Made Things More Gender Equal as the Economic Suffering Dispersed Like a Plague Among the Populace.
In this One Fay Wray is a College Graduate Along with Her Football Star Husband (Gene Raymond) and His Career as an Architect is Stalling and She Decides to Pursue Her Own Status as a Lawyer. She Abandons Her Wifely Duties as Her Amiable Husband Becomes More and More Frustrated.
It is an Interesting Bit of Antiquity and has Some Things of Interest Including a Bizarre Courtroom Scene at the Beginning that Concerns Itself with Society's Segregation. It Shows its Pre-Code Pedigree as Hubby has an Affair and Shacks Up with Claire Dodd and the Sex and Drinking are On Display Quite Freely.
The Ending will Certainly Disappoint Women Libbers as it Resorts to a Standard Conservative Courtroom Speech About a Woman's Place. Fay Wray is Given an Opportunity to Show Some Acting Chops in the Same Year She would be Immortalized in One of the Best Films Ever Made. One She would Forever be Associated. Later in Life She Stated..."I have now realized that King Kong was my friend."
In this One Fay Wray is a College Graduate Along with Her Football Star Husband (Gene Raymond) and His Career as an Architect is Stalling and She Decides to Pursue Her Own Status as a Lawyer. She Abandons Her Wifely Duties as Her Amiable Husband Becomes More and More Frustrated.
It is an Interesting Bit of Antiquity and has Some Things of Interest Including a Bizarre Courtroom Scene at the Beginning that Concerns Itself with Society's Segregation. It Shows its Pre-Code Pedigree as Hubby has an Affair and Shacks Up with Claire Dodd and the Sex and Drinking are On Display Quite Freely.
The Ending will Certainly Disappoint Women Libbers as it Resorts to a Standard Conservative Courtroom Speech About a Woman's Place. Fay Wray is Given an Opportunity to Show Some Acting Chops in the Same Year She would be Immortalized in One of the Best Films Ever Made. One She would Forever be Associated. Later in Life She Stated..."I have now realized that King Kong was my friend."
dated as all get out
blanche-216 September 2014
There are some films that stand the test of time. "Ann Carver's Profession" DEFINITELY isn't one of them.
This 1933 film stars Fay Wray, Gene Raymond, and Claire Dodd. The story will leave you in shock.
Raymond plays a college football star, Bill Graham, who now is working his way up in business, except that he feels stagnant. His wife Ann (Wray) was an attorney, and now she's his wife, and they're very much in love. One night at a party, she criticizes a big attorney for the way he's trying a case, and he wants to hire her. Her husband is thrilled for her and very proud.
Ann becomes a star overnight when she replaces the lead attorney on a case that will have your jaw drop to the floor. A man is on trial for consorting with a black woman he claims he did not know was black. She is on the stand and has to show her shoulder so that everyone can see her skin is darker than it is on her face. Ann wins the case by bringing women in wearing bathing suits and asking the prosecution to pick out the black women.
Okay, we made it through. The boss is so impressed that he gives her $5,000, equal to $84,000 today - this is when people made something like $100 a month, and that was a good salary. Her husband has just gotten a raise, but when she shows him her check, he doesn't say anything about it.
As Ann becomes more famous, Bill feels like he's going nowhere. He takes a job singing in a nightclub, which in the beginning Ann wanted him to take. Now, she's embarrassed and furious. He meets a woman there who is crazy about him; he starts drinking and the two have an affair. One night, she dies by accident. Bill is arrested for her murder. Ann defends him.
Ann is clearly portrayed as the villain here, putting her career before her husband and becoming haughty. Today when she got married, she would have kept working. In those days, the husband was considered a failure if his wife worked. Two-career households are very difficult, no one is denying that, and finding time together takes work and commitment. But that isn't what Ann Carver's Profession is about. It's about the importance of a woman putting her husband and her husband's ego first and taking a back seat.
Someone mentioned Fay Wray's acting in the courtroom scene as being over the top. Watch John Beal's courtroom speech in Madame X. Today it seems over the top. Back then, that was considered good acting. A lot of actors came from the stage and brought that training to film, and I think the acting on stage back then was a little bigger than we see today. As Bette Davis said, "Actors today want to be real. But real acting is larger than life." If you see this listed on TCM, take a look at it. It's a wonderful look at the mores and attitudes back then, so different from what they are today. The cast is good, and the film moves quickly. It's an artifact -- in fact, it's an antique.
This 1933 film stars Fay Wray, Gene Raymond, and Claire Dodd. The story will leave you in shock.
Raymond plays a college football star, Bill Graham, who now is working his way up in business, except that he feels stagnant. His wife Ann (Wray) was an attorney, and now she's his wife, and they're very much in love. One night at a party, she criticizes a big attorney for the way he's trying a case, and he wants to hire her. Her husband is thrilled for her and very proud.
Ann becomes a star overnight when she replaces the lead attorney on a case that will have your jaw drop to the floor. A man is on trial for consorting with a black woman he claims he did not know was black. She is on the stand and has to show her shoulder so that everyone can see her skin is darker than it is on her face. Ann wins the case by bringing women in wearing bathing suits and asking the prosecution to pick out the black women.
Okay, we made it through. The boss is so impressed that he gives her $5,000, equal to $84,000 today - this is when people made something like $100 a month, and that was a good salary. Her husband has just gotten a raise, but when she shows him her check, he doesn't say anything about it.
As Ann becomes more famous, Bill feels like he's going nowhere. He takes a job singing in a nightclub, which in the beginning Ann wanted him to take. Now, she's embarrassed and furious. He meets a woman there who is crazy about him; he starts drinking and the two have an affair. One night, she dies by accident. Bill is arrested for her murder. Ann defends him.
Ann is clearly portrayed as the villain here, putting her career before her husband and becoming haughty. Today when she got married, she would have kept working. In those days, the husband was considered a failure if his wife worked. Two-career households are very difficult, no one is denying that, and finding time together takes work and commitment. But that isn't what Ann Carver's Profession is about. It's about the importance of a woman putting her husband and her husband's ego first and taking a back seat.
Someone mentioned Fay Wray's acting in the courtroom scene as being over the top. Watch John Beal's courtroom speech in Madame X. Today it seems over the top. Back then, that was considered good acting. A lot of actors came from the stage and brought that training to film, and I think the acting on stage back then was a little bigger than we see today. As Bette Davis said, "Actors today want to be real. But real acting is larger than life." If you see this listed on TCM, take a look at it. It's a wonderful look at the mores and attitudes back then, so different from what they are today. The cast is good, and the film moves quickly. It's an artifact -- in fact, it's an antique.
B class movie with C class results
kfo949415 September 2014
If you go into this movie with your expectations being low, then this movie is not that bad. But if you are looking for a diamond in the rough with an entertaining cast and interesting plot then this movie is not for you. Fay Wray surprisingly does a nice job of playing a female attorney that will defend her separated husband against a charge of murder. But that acting alone cannot save this movie from production woes.
What had happened was that Ann Carver Graham (Fay Wray) and her husband Bill Graham had split up when Ann's career became too great for Bill to handle. Bill finally got a job singing at a local night club that made him happy. But one evening Ann catches Bill in the presents of another woman named Carole Rodgers and thinks the worse. Bill then moves out of the house leaving both Ann and Bill feeling bad about the situation.
When Carole is found dead, Bill is arrested for murder. Ann, his separated wife, will defend him. The case looks bad for Bill but Ann will give a stirring speech to the jurors in order to free the man she loves.
As many already said, this is a B type movie. Most of the acting is poor and the film feel cheaply made. It made be nice to look back and see the fashion of the day but little else can be obtained from this picture.
What had happened was that Ann Carver Graham (Fay Wray) and her husband Bill Graham had split up when Ann's career became too great for Bill to handle. Bill finally got a job singing at a local night club that made him happy. But one evening Ann catches Bill in the presents of another woman named Carole Rodgers and thinks the worse. Bill then moves out of the house leaving both Ann and Bill feeling bad about the situation.
When Carole is found dead, Bill is arrested for murder. Ann, his separated wife, will defend him. The case looks bad for Bill but Ann will give a stirring speech to the jurors in order to free the man she loves.
As many already said, this is a B type movie. Most of the acting is poor and the film feel cheaply made. It made be nice to look back and see the fashion of the day but little else can be obtained from this picture.
Fay Wray The Lawyer
benoit-325 September 2009
This film will certainly surprise fans of Fay Wray as much as it has surprised me (thanks to TCM). For once, she is not the uncomprehending, defiled screaming victim with her clothes torn off by man or beast. She is an articulate and resourceful lawyer. Her (Canadian) diction and poise are admirable and she comes off almost as the prototypical Hitchcock icy blonde heroine. She shows that can she hold her own in any setting, be it drama or comedy. The film also benefits from the charms of the attractive Gene Raymond - saddled here with a boozing, accident-prone mistress - and the technical advances that allowed talkies to progress to an art of their own with a moving camera, well-suited music and decent sound without awkward silences. The story will be considered a bit dated, however, or "of its time" as they say, one of Ms. Wray's court victories consisting in demonstrating that a jilting lover cannot be found guilty of breach of promise for the simple fact that it is impossible for a man to state with any conviction whether his intended has any Black ancestry. It makes for convincing courtroom antics but its conclusion still is: How dare a Black woman expect that a white man should marry her? Gentlemen of the jury, draw your own conclusions. Add to this that her final plea is an impassioned indictment of her own frivolity for pursuing a lawyer's career and neglecting her wifely duties and you will see the many problems this films faces in attaining political correctness. Having said this, the main character's persona is still miles removed from "Legally Blonde".
The Lady Chooses The Law
bkoganbing25 September 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Feminists who happen to catch this most unusual film will be completely torn by it. The picture of a very serious career woman who has chosen the law that Fay Wray gives us is a very good role model. And it's unusual casting, the role is standard stuff for people like Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn, but for an actress who was primarily known for screaming her way through her ordeal with a giant ape, it's offbeat casting. We had not gotten to the Legally Blonde era yet and this film is not a comedy by any means.
Gene Raymond and Fay Wray meet in college, he's the All American football hero who also sings occasionally and is the big man on campus. Wray is beautiful, but serious in pursuing the law. They fall big time for each other and eventually marry.
But away from the campus Raymond loses his glamor and settles into a routine. Wray on the other hand becomes a big success, just the idea of a female lawyer, playing and beating the men regularly makes her the celebrity who just happens to be married to a former All American. That leads to booze, Raymond taking up crooning at a nightclub in the hopes of becoming the next Crosby, Columbo or Vallee and eventual infidelity with Claire Dodd, another singer.
When Raymond is accused of Dodd's murder and in his drunken state he can't provide any account of what happened of course Wray steps into the breach as his defense attorney. I know that Fay Wray must have jumped at this role when Harry Cohn at Columbia offered it. What actor doesn't kill for a courtroom trial drama with a dramatic speech. A couple year earlier Lionel Barrymore got an Oscar for such a role in A Free Soul. Spencer Tracy and Orson Welles delivered memorable courtroom soliloquys in Inherit The Wind and Compulsion respectively. But for a woman to do it? I honestly can't think of another instance of this happening.
And Wray is every bit of eloquent as these gentlemen were in their addresses to the juries. Of course when she says this will be her last trial as she plans to be a stay at home wife now in the tradition of June Cleaver, that does get a bit much. NOW who would be hailing Ann Carver's Profession for its showing of a great feminist role model in Wray, would be staffing the picket lines if the film were ever debuting now.
Ann Carver's Profession with Fay Wray in the title role is a real gem. For those who want to see something other than a screaming Fay Wray, this film shows what a great talent she was. And it's sad to think that her whole career was overshadowed by a make believe 50 foot ape.
Gene Raymond and Fay Wray meet in college, he's the All American football hero who also sings occasionally and is the big man on campus. Wray is beautiful, but serious in pursuing the law. They fall big time for each other and eventually marry.
But away from the campus Raymond loses his glamor and settles into a routine. Wray on the other hand becomes a big success, just the idea of a female lawyer, playing and beating the men regularly makes her the celebrity who just happens to be married to a former All American. That leads to booze, Raymond taking up crooning at a nightclub in the hopes of becoming the next Crosby, Columbo or Vallee and eventual infidelity with Claire Dodd, another singer.
When Raymond is accused of Dodd's murder and in his drunken state he can't provide any account of what happened of course Wray steps into the breach as his defense attorney. I know that Fay Wray must have jumped at this role when Harry Cohn at Columbia offered it. What actor doesn't kill for a courtroom trial drama with a dramatic speech. A couple year earlier Lionel Barrymore got an Oscar for such a role in A Free Soul. Spencer Tracy and Orson Welles delivered memorable courtroom soliloquys in Inherit The Wind and Compulsion respectively. But for a woman to do it? I honestly can't think of another instance of this happening.
And Wray is every bit of eloquent as these gentlemen were in their addresses to the juries. Of course when she says this will be her last trial as she plans to be a stay at home wife now in the tradition of June Cleaver, that does get a bit much. NOW who would be hailing Ann Carver's Profession for its showing of a great feminist role model in Wray, would be staffing the picket lines if the film were ever debuting now.
Ann Carver's Profession with Fay Wray in the title role is a real gem. For those who want to see something other than a screaming Fay Wray, this film shows what a great talent she was. And it's sad to think that her whole career was overshadowed by a make believe 50 foot ape.
Beautiful Claire Dodd!!
kidboots5 August 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Seeing beautiful Claire Dodd's name in the cast meant that Fay Wray is going to have a few uncomfortable moments, as Claire tries to come between her and her crooner husband. As sultry singer Carole Rogers she doesn't succeed in breaking them up but she has a lot of fun trying. Fay is handed a terrific role and pulls out all stops. She plays Ann Carver who is working her way through college and a law digress but gives it all up for marriage with the local football hero Bill Graham (Gene Raymond). At first she is happy enough to be a housewife but when she gets into a heated discussion with noted lawyer (Claude Gillingwater) about just what he is doing wrong in his latest case, she is given a job. Ann gets a chance to prove herself when she has to take over a case - a tricky one involving a coloured girl passing for white. It is all a bit distasteful with the prosecutor citing "only an imbecile couldn't tell" and after the poor girl is required to reveal a shoulder, Ann brings in a group of girls to see if the prosecutor is an imbecile or not!! Her grandstanding ways win the case but also brings hers fame and notoriety - which she laps up and Bill, who initially was supportive, now looks around for a better paying job.
He finds it, much to Ann's disgust as a "crooner" in a local night club but he also finds trouble in the form of sultry singer Carole Rogers. When Carole manages to strangle herself in a drunken stupor of course Bill gets the blame and the ending finds Ann, who is defending Bill, making an impassioned speech to the jury members about how much she should have been satisfied with being a housewife but being selfish and unfeeling wanted a career in the spotlight!!!
I hadn't ever thought of Fay Wray as a particularly strong actress but she definitely made the most of her part, in what I thought was an unusual role for a woman at that time, it was usually the men who had these show stopping lawyer parts. Gene Raymond who was signed by Paramount because of his Broadway reputation as the "nearly perfect juvenile" used his blonde good looks to advantage here and was not required to do anything very histrionic - except in a night club scene where he is observed by Ann kissing Carole, Ann walks out after giving him the ultimate insult of throwing pennies at his feet, therein which he chokes up but bravely finishes his song!!
He finds it, much to Ann's disgust as a "crooner" in a local night club but he also finds trouble in the form of sultry singer Carole Rogers. When Carole manages to strangle herself in a drunken stupor of course Bill gets the blame and the ending finds Ann, who is defending Bill, making an impassioned speech to the jury members about how much she should have been satisfied with being a housewife but being selfish and unfeeling wanted a career in the spotlight!!!
I hadn't ever thought of Fay Wray as a particularly strong actress but she definitely made the most of her part, in what I thought was an unusual role for a woman at that time, it was usually the men who had these show stopping lawyer parts. Gene Raymond who was signed by Paramount because of his Broadway reputation as the "nearly perfect juvenile" used his blonde good looks to advantage here and was not required to do anything very histrionic - except in a night club scene where he is observed by Ann kissing Carole, Ann walks out after giving him the ultimate insult of throwing pennies at his feet, therein which he chokes up but bravely finishes his song!!
Loses Its Nerve
dougdoepke31 October 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I was curious to see how this pre-Code melodrama (1933) treats gender roles, given the greater artistic freedom of early 30's Hollywood. Thankfully, there's a treasure trove of these pre-Code films turning up on TCM following years of assigned oblivion. Many are eye- openers demonstrating a level of human honesty that would largely disappear for decades thanks mainly to the dead hand of watchdog outfits like the Legion of Decency. Perhaps in this case I expected too much. Yes, there is a role reversal as wife Wray becomes the chief breadwinner and celebrity, while ex-football star, hubby Raymond takes a backseat in low- paid anonymity. And, of course, given social convention, this does put a strain on their marriage as they drift apart, and I'm wondering where the paths of this promising screenplay will end up.
Now, this part of the movie is both well scripted and economically handled. Note how many scenes are punctuated by moments of further estrangement. Plus, showing Wray as a brilliant legal eagle in a man's world does challenge convention, which the actress handles well. But instead of continuing in that different direction, as I was hoping, the screenplay follows up with a highly contrived death scene and Wray's truly awful "mea culpa" courtroom confession, worthy of the worst excesses of 1950's soap opera. I don't know why this sudden reversal in direction-- maybe putting a woman in the marital driver's seat was too daring even for this pre-Code period. But whatever the reason, it's a disastrous turn that transforms a potentially memorable film into just another piece of Hollywood contrivance. I now understand why TCM rated it a one-and-a-half out of four. Too bad.
Now, this part of the movie is both well scripted and economically handled. Note how many scenes are punctuated by moments of further estrangement. Plus, showing Wray as a brilliant legal eagle in a man's world does challenge convention, which the actress handles well. But instead of continuing in that different direction, as I was hoping, the screenplay follows up with a highly contrived death scene and Wray's truly awful "mea culpa" courtroom confession, worthy of the worst excesses of 1950's soap opera. I don't know why this sudden reversal in direction-- maybe putting a woman in the marital driver's seat was too daring even for this pre-Code period. But whatever the reason, it's a disastrous turn that transforms a potentially memorable film into just another piece of Hollywood contrivance. I now understand why TCM rated it a one-and-a-half out of four. Too bad.
Restoring the balance..?
jarrodmcdonald-16 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This isn't so much about a woman's profession as it is about the woman (Fay Wray) herself. And even then, it's about the man (Gene Raymond) she marries and her relationship to him and his pride. Specifically, it's about which one in their marriage has the right to be the main breadwinner.
Since this is a film produced by a man- Harry Cohn- and written by a man- Robert Riskin- we know that the man in the story will be triumphant in the end.
Until we get to the part where the wife surrenders her career, there are some fine scenes. Mostly, I enjoyed those moments where she is depicted as a shrewd and cunning defense attorney. She is not above playing dirty in court to win against big boy prosecutors. She is seen as an attractive woman with a brain.
Columbia remade the story in 1938 as THE LADY OBJECTS. That time Gloria Stuart played the lead role. Miss Stuart is almost too glamorous, and I would believe her as a model not a high-powered lawyer. Wray's performance has more gravitas.
As for Mr. Raymond's efforts, he has a thankless lead role that is basically a supporting role until the last act. He projects the right amount of boyish charm and sex appeal, but he's made to "suffer." He is stuck playing a husband on the sidelines, whose masculinity and self-worth is overshadowed by his wife's success.
Raymond's character is a football hero turned architect, who happens to sing on the side. But in the remake, the husband is turned into a full-fledged singer, and there's more emphasis on music.
What I like about the story is the idea that the husband and wife are college graduates, and they intend to use their degrees. In this case, both become part of the working world and get a chance to shine, though the woman's achievements are made to take a backseat to her husband's achievements.
Since ANN CARVER'S PROFESSION is set in late 1932 and was shot in early 1933, several precode elements are present. For example, there is a trial involving a shocking interracial relationship (cut from the remake due to the production code).
We also see seductive women paraded through court. And there's a scandalous death where the husband has been mixed up with a chick of ill-repute (Claire Dodd). Of course, his wife will defend him.
But all of this is mere window dressing to get to the big display at the end...where Miss Wray's character stands near the jury box and nobly blames herself for her husband's misfortunes.
She pleads with the jurors to find her husband not guilty. Then she renounces her legal career so that she can take her proper place inside the home. This action will supposedly restore the balance.
Since this is a film produced by a man- Harry Cohn- and written by a man- Robert Riskin- we know that the man in the story will be triumphant in the end.
Until we get to the part where the wife surrenders her career, there are some fine scenes. Mostly, I enjoyed those moments where she is depicted as a shrewd and cunning defense attorney. She is not above playing dirty in court to win against big boy prosecutors. She is seen as an attractive woman with a brain.
Columbia remade the story in 1938 as THE LADY OBJECTS. That time Gloria Stuart played the lead role. Miss Stuart is almost too glamorous, and I would believe her as a model not a high-powered lawyer. Wray's performance has more gravitas.
As for Mr. Raymond's efforts, he has a thankless lead role that is basically a supporting role until the last act. He projects the right amount of boyish charm and sex appeal, but he's made to "suffer." He is stuck playing a husband on the sidelines, whose masculinity and self-worth is overshadowed by his wife's success.
Raymond's character is a football hero turned architect, who happens to sing on the side. But in the remake, the husband is turned into a full-fledged singer, and there's more emphasis on music.
What I like about the story is the idea that the husband and wife are college graduates, and they intend to use their degrees. In this case, both become part of the working world and get a chance to shine, though the woman's achievements are made to take a backseat to her husband's achievements.
Since ANN CARVER'S PROFESSION is set in late 1932 and was shot in early 1933, several precode elements are present. For example, there is a trial involving a shocking interracial relationship (cut from the remake due to the production code).
We also see seductive women paraded through court. And there's a scandalous death where the husband has been mixed up with a chick of ill-repute (Claire Dodd). Of course, his wife will defend him.
But all of this is mere window dressing to get to the big display at the end...where Miss Wray's character stands near the jury box and nobly blames herself for her husband's misfortunes.
She pleads with the jurors to find her husband not guilty. Then she renounces her legal career so that she can take her proper place inside the home. This action will supposedly restore the balance.
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