Ann Carver's Profession

Ann Carver's Profession (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Entertaining curio from Columbia has Fay Wray playing a wife turned brilliant lawyer who must defend her estranged husband (Gene Raymond) when he is accused of killing a nightclub singer (Claire Dodd). This is an extremely interesting little gem that manages to be entertaining as a film but also because of the way it showed women and race of the time. The husband ends up leaving the wife because she's making more money than him, which is something he's embarrassed about. Seeing a woman work here way up without using sexuality is something else not all that common from films of this era. The way the film views race is another interesting thing because Wray's first big trial is a black woman charged with dating a white man but not telling him she was black. This entire courtroom scene is rather jaw dropping as even blackface doesn't seen as out of date as this sequence. We see the attorney bring in "questionable" black women who might be white. The entire sequence is surreal, strange and certainly something you probably won't see in too many movies. The biggest problem with the film comes in the final ten minutes when the trial of the husband actually starts. The actual ending is a downright disaster but even worse is how we get to that ending with a certain speech inside the court. It was so bad I actually wanted to hit the mute button. Wray turns in a decent performance, although I think she goes a tad bit over the top during some of the court scenes. Raymond, Dodd and the rest of the supporting cast do fine work and the director keeps everything moving at a nice pace. This is yet another forgotten film that popped up on Turner Classic Movies and it's one more should check out as it gives us a rather interesting insight to some rather strange topics.

Fay Wray made this the same year as she did King Kong. In this one, she stars as Ann Carver, a working girl who becomes a successful attorney - pretty far ahead of her time! She marries Bill (Gene Raymond) an architect who has big plans, but isn't as successful as he'd like to be. They run into legal trouble, and its up to Ann to try to get them out of it. A lot of clever lines and fun scenes, well done by the cast. Raymond and Wray make a very believable couple, and the script flows with no pot holes or plot-holes. Claire Dodd is in the cast, and one of my favorites, Jessie Ralph, as Terry, the over-dramatic housekeeper. This was made just prior to the film code enforcement, as we can tell by the courtroom scenes, and the backless dresses on F. Wray. "Ann Carver" has a lot in common with "The Bride Walks Out", kind of a remake by RKO in 1936, which also starred G Raymond, but this time with B. Stanwycke. Written by Robert Riskin, who won the Oscar for writing "It Happened One Night". Directed by Edward Buzzell, who directed a couple of the Marx Brothers films. Good, fun entertainment, even if the ending is a little weak.

Lest We Forget, Before Women were Propelled into the Workforce by Necessity During World War II, the Professional Female was a Somewhat Controversial Anomaly. Hollywood did use the Situation Frequently During the 1930's as the Depression Made Things More Gender Equal as the Economic Suffering Dispersed Like a Plague Among the Populace.

In this One Fay Wray is a College Graduate Along with Her Football Star Husband (Gene Raymond) and His Career as an Architect is Stalling and She Decides to Pursue Her Own Status as a Lawyer. She Abandons Her Wifely Duties as Her Amiable Husband Becomes More and More Frustrated.

It is an Interesting Bit of Antiquity and has Some Things of Interest Including a Bizarre Courtroom Scene at the Beginning that Concerns Itself with Society's Segregation. It Shows its Pre-Code Pedigree as Hubby has an Affair and Shacks Up with Claire Dodd and the Sex and Drinking are On Display Quite Freely.

The Ending will Certainly Disappoint Women Libbers as it Resorts to a Standard Conservative Courtroom Speech About a Woman's Place. Fay Wray is Given an Opportunity to Show Some Acting Chops in the Same Year She would be Immortalized in One of the Best Films Ever Made. One She would Forever be Associated. Later in Life She Stated..."I have now realized that King Kong was my friend."

This film will certainly surprise fans of Fay Wray as much as it has surprised me (thanks to TCM). For once, she is not the uncomprehending, defiled screaming victim with her clothes torn off by man or beast. She is an articulate and resourceful lawyer. Her (Canadian) diction and poise are admirable and she comes off almost as the prototypical Hitchcock icy blonde heroine. She shows that can she hold her own in any setting, be it drama or comedy. The film also benefits from the charms of the attractive Gene Raymond - saddled here with a boozing, accident-prone mistress - and the technical advances that allowed talkies to progress to an art of their own with a moving camera, well-suited music and decent sound without awkward silences. The story will be considered a bit dated, however, or "of its time" as they say, one of Ms. Wray's court victories consisting in demonstrating that a jilting lover cannot be found guilty of breach of promise for the simple fact that it is impossible for a man to state with any conviction whether his intended has any Black ancestry. It makes for convincing courtroom antics but its conclusion still is: How dare a Black woman expect that a white man should marry her? Gentlemen of the jury, draw your own conclusions. Add to this that her final plea is an impassioned indictment of her own frivolity for pursuing a lawyer's career and neglecting her wifely duties and you will see the many problems this films faces in attaining political correctness. Having said this, the main character's persona is still miles removed from "Legally Blonde".

There are some films that stand the test of time. "Ann Carver's Profession" DEFINITELY isn't one of them.

This 1933 film stars Fay Wray, Gene Raymond, and Claire Dodd. The story will leave you in shock.

Raymond plays a college football star, Bill Graham, who now is working his way up in business, except that he feels stagnant. His wife Ann (Wray) was an attorney, and now she's his wife, and they're very much in love. One night at a party, she criticizes a big attorney for the way he's trying a case, and he wants to hire her. Her husband is thrilled for her and very proud.

Ann becomes a star overnight when she replaces the lead attorney on a case that will have your jaw drop to the floor. A man is on trial for consorting with a black woman he claims he did not know was black. She is on the stand and has to show her shoulder so that everyone can see her skin is darker than it is on her face. Ann wins the case by bringing women in wearing bathing suits and asking the prosecution to pick out the black women.

Okay, we made it through. The boss is so impressed that he gives her $5,000, equal to $84,000 today - this is when people made something like $100 a month, and that was a good salary. Her husband has just gotten a raise, but when she shows him her check, he doesn't say anything about it.

As Ann becomes more famous, Bill feels like he's going nowhere. He takes a job singing in a nightclub, which in the beginning Ann wanted him to take. Now, she's embarrassed and furious. He meets a woman there who is crazy about him; he starts drinking and the two have an affair. One night, she dies by accident. Bill is arrested for her murder. Ann defends him.

Ann is clearly portrayed as the villain here, putting her career before her husband and becoming haughty. Today when she got married, she would have kept working. In those days, the husband was considered a failure if his wife worked. Two-career households are very difficult, no one is denying that, and finding time together takes work and commitment. But that isn't what Ann Carver's Profession is about. It's about the importance of a woman putting her husband and her husband's ego first and taking a back seat.

Someone mentioned Fay Wray's acting in the courtroom scene as being over the top. Watch John Beal's courtroom speech in Madame X. Today it seems over the top. Back then, that was considered good acting. A lot of actors came from the stage and brought that training to film, and I think the acting on stage back then was a little bigger than we see today. As Bette Davis said, "Actors today want to be real. But real acting is larger than life." If you see this listed on TCM, take a look at it. It's a wonderful look at the mores and attitudes back then, so different from what they are today. The cast is good, and the film moves quickly. It's an artifact -- in fact, it's an antique.