Penthouse (film)
| Penthouse | |
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theatrical poster
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| Directed by | W.S. Van Dyke |
| Produced by | Hunt Stromberg |
| Screenplay by | Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett |
| Based on | Arthur Somers Roche (novelist) |
| Starring |
Warner Baxter Myrna Loy |
| Music by | William Axt |
| Cinematography |
Lucien N. Andriot Harold Rosson |
| Edited by | Robert Kern |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Penthouse is a 1933 American Pre-Code crime film starring Warner Baxter as a lawyer and Myrna Loy, as a call girl who helps him with a murder case. It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, based on a novel by Arthur Somers Roche. The film was later remade as the more sanitized Society Lawyer (1939), without the risqué pre-Code dialogue.
Attorney Jack Durant (Warner Baxter) successfully 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 as a client reflects badly on them; when he refuses to give up his exciting new line of work, they go their separate ways. His upper class girlfriend Sue Leonard (Martha Sleeper) turns down his proposal and breaks up with him for the same reason. Shortly afterward, Sue agrees to marry Tom Siddall (Phillips Holmes), but only if he gives up his mistress, Mimi Montagne (Mae Clarke). Although Tom offers Mimi a generous settlement, she becomes furious.
Mimi quickly returns to her former lover, gangster Jim Crelliman (C. Henry Gordon). He has her get Tom to meet her at a raucous party. After they go out on the balcony to talk, a shot is heard; the revelers find Mimi dead, and Tom with a revolver in his hand. A pawnbroker named Levitoff tells the police that he sold Tom the gun the same day. Sue begs Jack to defend Tom. He agrees, even though he gets an anonymous phone call telling him to stay out of it.
Jack asks Tony to find out what he can. Tony introduces him to Gertie Waxted (Myrna Loy), who was Mimi's friend and at the party. She tells him that she arrived after the murder, but he thinks she still may know something useful, so he invites her to spend the night in his suite. To her great surprise, however, he sleeps on the couch.
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