In their third pairing, William Powell and Myrna Loy are married with a daughter. He's a lawyer, and she's bored, as she confides to exposition device Una Merkel. Powell is hard at work and gets Rosalind Russell (in her screen debut) off on Murder One, and gets off with her, too. Miss Loy has a harmless flirtation with Harvey Stephens and writes him letters which, Stephens tells her, could easily be misinterpreted by her husband. That will be $50,000. So she shoots him and flees, and soon enough there's an arrest in Stephens' murder: Isabell Jewell. Meanwhile, Powell has dumped Miss Russell and proposes a trip to Europe, but Miss Loy persuades him to take Miss Jewell's case.
It's a nicely written and directed soap opera-cum-courtroom thriller, and for the era, there aren't too many errors in court procedure. Of course, I rate Powell as always superior, and Miss Loy is very good. Miss Merkel doesn't get many wisecracks, but there's certainly value for money with appearances by Edward Brophy, Jessie Ralph, Herman Bing, and the usual much-storied cast members working as extras here.
It's a nicely written and directed soap opera-cum-courtroom thriller, and for the era, there aren't too many errors in court procedure. Of course, I rate Powell as always superior, and Miss Loy is very good. Miss Merkel doesn't get many wisecracks, but there's certainly value for money with appearances by Edward Brophy, Jessie Ralph, Herman Bing, and the usual much-storied cast members working as extras here.