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The Worst Film Ever

Sadly Over-hyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is part love story and part courtroom drama. Otto Kruger plays, Kent Barringer, a supremely confident trial lawyer who just can't lose, but is ultimately selfish and soulless. A woman begs him to work Pro Bono on the case of her father who is accused of murder, but after promising to do so, Kruger ignores her. When he finally gets around to reviewing the facts of the case, he realizes he is connected with it in a very personal way, and this realization ultimately leads him to a new approach on life.The film is entertaining but a bit too melodramatic and fantasy-bound for my tastes. Kruger is proficient in his role and great fun to watch. I look forward to seeing more of his work since is the first film I've ever seen him in. The supporting cast does good work yet there aren't any standouts.Fun Fact: This is the earliest on-screen appearance of a pinball machine.

Character actor Otto Kruger (48 and looking a decade older, at least by contemporary standards) stars as a rich and successful womanizing criminal defense attorney. His latest affair is with a typical blonde pickup (Isabel Jewell) who claims her love is sincere but Kruger is indifferent and basically thinks of her as little more than a bedroom toy. Kruger is equally blasé about the guilt or innocence of his clients and knows most of them are guilty, including his latest, painted matron Irene Franklin, "the Tiger Woman" as the tabloids call her.Young Irene Hervey begs for Kruger to take her father, a man falsely accused of murdering his promiscuous wife, as a client but Kruger cannot be bothered, however when he finds Hervey can be of some benefit in Franklin's case he promises to help her. After trying to renege on his word, Kruger is shocked to discover that Hervey's murdered stepmother is in fact is the old flame of his past, the woman he never got over and the root of his hardened heart. Devastated to learn of her death, Kruger goes on a bender that leaves him near death and unable to defend Hervey's father, who is ultimately sentenced to the electric chair. Sobering up, Kruger plots to trap the real killer but will there be enough time to stop the electrocution? This is a fairly good little melodrama done with typical MGM polish even if it's clearly a minor picture for the studio. Kruger is quite superb for most of the film, utterly unsympathetic in the first half and a sudden, effective change of character later on with splendid work as a drunk with pneumonia. Unfortunately, the last reel is pretty ridiculous (if effectively tense) and smacks more of a lurid poverty row programmer than the classy MGM production it had been up until this point.Una Merkel is second-billed presumably because she was the only MGM contractee in the film however her role is fairly minor although she does have some classic Una wisecracks and as always is an asset to any film. The movie offers a nice role for character-starlet Isabel Jewell in one of her more sympathetic parts. Ben Lyon, entering the downswing of his career, is good as Kruger's junior partner.The movie is stolen by Irene Franklin as the plump and painted good-time "Tiger woman" on trial. I've never heard of or seen Franklin before, she apparently was a big vaudeville star in the early decades of the 20th century and here in 1933 looks years younger than her 57 years. She's sensational in her "Mary Boland meets Marjorie Rambeau" type of role and it's incredible that this film didn't launch her into a career as a much in-demand character actress in this era (she went on to many other films but in most of them appear to have played bits). It's regrettable even here her part is rather small as Franklin is most definitely the life in THE WOMEN IN HIS LIFE.

This is a women's picture but it's packed as a mystery. Otto Kruger is the star. He was an interesting actor: He had a long career -- from silents through low budget pictures in the forties. Distinguished looking, doubtless a good actor. But he never made it nor does he ever really convince.Here he is a hotshot lawyer. He's carrying a still-burning torch for a woman. Women who currently surround him are treated like tramps.We meet him dispatching one criminal case. Another client comes to him soon after and that's where the real plot begins.The supporting cast is good. But there is no real mystery. There's no mystery in the sense of who did it; who will be punished, and how and when. Furthermore, there is no mystery about what stereotypes are going to be employed about the various characters.The supporting cast is fine. But that's what everyone is: supporting cast. The acting is unremarkable. Yes, Una Merkel has her usual verve. But that is an acquired taste. And it's irrelevant to this movie.

Otto Kruger stars as a gifted criminal defense lawyer, Kent Barringer, in this well directed and fast paced crime drama. Barringer is a troubled, cynical man, who's wife left him ten years before for another man. He must now face his past when he is shocked to discover that his ex-wife was the victim of the man that he's defending for murder. This is a well plotted little budget film with an excellent cast, with MGM's usual first-rate production values. Staring along with Kruger, are old pro's like Una Merkel, Roscoe Karns and surprisingly Isabel Jewell, usually typecast as a gum chewing bimbo -- here getting to play a good girl with brains.