Smart Woman

A special prosecutor trying to clean up the town and a lady lawyer tangle in court, but get romantically involved on the outside.

Lowly Allied Artists (Monogram) assembled an A-list cast, pretty good production values, but then put a no-name director (W. Blatt) with all of 3 directorial credits in charge. The results are flatter than they should be, and I suspect his lack of a sure hand is partially to blame. Unfortunately, Bennett who can be quite sparkling is deadly serious here, somewhat out of sync with Aherne's lighter touch, while I suspect wisecracking O'Shea (Johnny) and the droll Gleason (Corkle) were brought in to liven things up. And, of course, on the sinister side there's that grinning old cobra Otto Kruger as the crooked D.A..

The plot's pretty complicated with an unexpected twist near the end. I couldn't figure out, however, whether the storyline was supposed to be a drama with comical overtones or a romantic comedy with dramatic overtones. Either way, it's a mild disappointment given the cast and battery of writers. (In passing—note that Bennett's lady lawyer wears a hat in court while defending her client. This may be the only time I've seen an officer of the court wearing a hat while court is in session. Nothing hangs on this; I'm just curious.)