“COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20328, 11 June 1934, Page 3

“COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW”

John Barrymore Gives Fine Portrayal.

“ Counsellor at Law,” the featured attraction at the Crystal Palace Theatre this w*eek, is a picture worth seeing. It deserves that recommendation not only for the fine acting of John Barrymore in the title-role, but also for the character of the story and the splendid cast which portrays it. Essentially it is Barrymore’s film, but the host of minor roles calls forth an aggregate of acting talent that gives unusual strength to the production. Barrymore is cast as a famous barrister in New York, whose whole life is bound up in his work, and his beautiful wife. She is socially “ above ” him, but of weak character, and eventually leaves him when he is most in need of assistance. His reactions to these two phases of his life form the theme of the story. The .whole story is enacted inside the walls of a Fifth Avenue office, yet the scene is for ever changing as it takes colour from the manv dramas that come within its scope It has as much life force as “ Grand Hotel ” without that picture’s extravagance of expression. Amorous murderesses, corrupt politicians, faithful servitors, the socially vapid, loving motherhood, fierce, exultant boyhood with a clamorous ideal, the serious, the vain and the merely silly, all have their place in the plot—but above it all is the magnificent figure of the man and the counsellor. To all of them he is as a god. Their troubles melt under his guidance, yet he is as incompetent to handle his own difficulties as they are to handle theirs. There can be no question of the acting mastery of Barrymore. He stands alone in a big cast, handling a big role and making it bigger still by the sincerity of his portrayal and the force of his personality Bebe Daniels, Doris Kenyon, Mayo Methot, Onslow Stevens. Marvin Kline John Dailey and Vincent Sherman are oustanding among the many supporting players in the drama. A good supporting programme includes one of the popular “ Vaudeville on Parade ” novelties, a magic carpet scenic of the Canary Islands and a “ Strange as it. Seems ” novelty.