Lawful Larceny

... like something that might have come out of the silent era. And in fact,it did. It was a silent film and this version drags that one into the sound era with exactly the same plot from the original play.

Marion Dorsey (Bebe Daniels) has been away awhile on an extended trip. When she returns home her husband Andrew (Kenneth Thomson) confesses everything to her. He met a woman at a party, they became close, and the woman used that closeness to cause him to lose at cards and run up a big debt to her. He sold everything they had and yet he still owed more - 25 thousand dollars. He sees her for what she is now, but she has cleaned him out of his cash.

Marion comes up with a novel plan - She gets a job as the other woman's - Vivian's - secretary. Vivian also is trying to teach Marion in the ways of going for a gold in a man, right down to his gold fillings. But Marion came here with a purpose - that being to destroy Vivian's life the way hers was destroyed when she took Andrew's heart, his money, and his reputation. An odd bird is "the Judge" played by Purnell Pratt. He knows what Vivian is doing and how she is making her living, but he seems OK with it. The judge is just being way too Beta towards Vivian for his own good.

The camera can't move an inch at this point and so the actors have to all stand around together, leave the frame, and then the camera switches to where they have regrouped. Thus it is difficult to follow people from room to room. Still it is all so cleverly done, not the least of which is because not only is the sardonic Lowell Sherman playing the current lover of Vivian, he is the director as well. Sherman was successfully transitioning to director when he passed away at only age 46 in 1934.