Vet director W. S. Van Dyke helmed Penthouse, a Pre-Code crime film, starring Warner Baxter as a lawyer and Myrna Loy as a call girl who helps him with murder case.
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The film features Charles Butterworth as the butler, Mae Clarke as the murder victim, Phillips Holmes as the suspected murderer, and C. Henry Gordon as the gangster who planned the murder.
The script is by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, based on Arthur Somers Roche’s novel.
Oscar winner Warner (The Cisco Kid, 42nd Street) Baxter plays Attorney Jack Durant, who defends racketeer Tony Gaziotti (Nat Pendleton) against a high-profile murder charge and waives his fee. His staid law firm feels his taking the racketeer on reflects badly on them, and they go their separate ways.
His upper-class girlfriend Sue Leonard (Martha Sleeper) turns down his proposal. Shortly afterward, Sue agrees to marry Tom Siddall (Phillips Holmes) if he gives up his mistress, Mimi Montagne (Mae Clarke).
Mimi returns to her former lover, gangster Jim Crelliman (C. Henry Gordon). Shortly after, Mimi is found dead, and Tom holding revolver in his hand. Sue begs Jack to defend Tom, and he agrees, despite threatening anonymous calls.
In the end, the good-bad girl Gertie is packing to leave, thinking that Jack is getting back together with Sue. But he proposes marriage with plans to take her to Europe.
When Gertie claims that “she is no lady,, he tells her that she will do–until one comes along. (A line that could never have been used in the post-Code era).
Warner Baxter was borrowed from Warner for this film.
The film was the first pairing of Loy and director Van Dyke, who would later direct many of the Thin Man films which would make Loy a star.
Scribes Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett went on to write the scripts for 3 of the 6 Thin Man films: The Thin Man (1934), After the Thin Man (1936), and Another Thin Man (1939).
After directing Penthouse, Van Dyke predicted that Loy would be a big star given the right roles. He was, of course, right. In a year, Loy would become a major star with the popular The Thin Man film series.
Recycling:
It was later remade as a more sanitized feature, Society Lawyer (1939), without the risqué pre-Code dialogue.
Cast
Warner Baxter as Jackson “Jack” Durant
Myrna Loy as Gertie Waxted
Charles Butterworth as Layton
Mae Clarke as Mimi Montagne
Phillips Holmes as Tom Siddall
C. Henry Gordon as Jim Crelliman
Martha Sleeper as Sue Leonard
Nat Pendleton as Tony Gaziotti
George E. Stone as Tim Murtoch
Robert Emmett O’Connor as Police Lieutenant “Steve” Stevens
Raymond Hatton as Angel, Short bodyguard
Arthur Belasco as Tall bodyguard
Samuel S. Hinds as Law firm partner
Theresa Harris as Lily
Tom Kennedy as Joe
Credits:
Produced, directed by W. S. Van Dyke
Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, based on Penthouse (novel, 1935) by Arthur Somers Roche
Produced by W. S. Van Dyke
Cinematography Lucien N. Andriot, Harold Rosson
Edited by Robert J. Kern
Music by William Axt
Production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by Loew’s Inc.
Release date: September 8, 1933 (U.S.)
Running time: 90 minutes
W. S. Van Dyke Filmography
The Land of Long Shadows (1917)
The Range Boss (1917)
Open Places (1917)
Men of the Desert (1917)
Gift O’ Gab (1917)
Sadie Goes to Heaven (1917)
The Lady of the Dugout (1918)
The Hawk’s Trail (1919)
1920s
Daredevil Jack (1920)
Double Adventure (1921)The Avenging Arrow (1921)The Boss of Camp 4 (1922)Forget Me Not (1922)White Eagle (1922)According to Hoyle (1922)The Destroying Angel (1923)The Little Girl Next Door (1923)The Miracle Makers (1923)Half-A-Dollar-Bill (1924)The Beautiful Sinner (1924)Loving Lies (1924)Winner Take All (1924)Gold Heels (1924)The Timber Wolf (1925)The Trail Rider (1925)Ranger of the Big Pines (1925)Barriers Burned Away (1925)Hearts and Spurs (1925)The Desert’s Price (1925)The Gentle Cyclone (1926)War Paint (1926)Winners of the Wilderness (1927)California (1927)Eyes of the Totem (1927)The Heart of the Yukon (1927)Foreign Devils (1927)Spoilers of the West (1927)The Adventurer (1928)Under the Black Eagle (1928)Wyoming (1928)White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)The Pagan (1929)
1930s
Guilty Hands (1931)
Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931)
Trader Horn (1931)
The Cuban Love Song (1931)
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
Night Court (1932)
Penthouse (1933)
Eskimo (1933)The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)Laughing Boy (1934)Manhattan Melodrama (1934)The Thin Man (1934)Hide-Out (1934)Forsaking All Others (1934)I Live My Life (1935)Naughty Marietta (1935)Rose Marie (1936)San Francisco (1936)His Brother’s Wife (1936)The Devil Is a Sissy (1936)Love on the Run (1936)After the Thin Man (1936)They Gave Him a Gun (1937)Personal Property (1937)Rosalie (1937)Marie Antoinette (1938)Sweethearts (1938)Stand Up and Fight (1939)It’s a Wonderful World (1939)Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)Another Thin Man (1939)
1940s
I Take This Woman (1940)
New Moon (1940)
I Love You Again (1940)
Bitter Sweet (1940)
Rage in Heaven (1941)
The Feminine Touch (1941)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
Dr. Kildare’s Victory (1942)
I Married an Angel (1942)
Cairo (1942)
Journey for Margaret (1942)
