Claire Trevor is a young "Career Woman" in this 1936 film also starring Michael Whalen, Isabel Jewell, Eric Linden, Gene Lockhart, and Virginia Field.
Trevor plays Carroll Aiken, soon to graduate from law school. She attends court to see the famous attorney Barry Conant in action. He is a showman but while doing his shenanigans, he spots Carroll and later makes a big play for her. She's not interested. She also tells him that as soon as she graduates in a week, she's returning for a time to her home town in the midwest.
Carroll's memories of the town, she soon realizes, need some adjustment. She resumes a friendship with Gracie Clay (Jewell) and even gives her a dress.
Later, at a 4th of July celebration, Gracie is found by her strict and awful father (Charles Middleton) as she consoles the boy she loves (Linden). When they arrive home, Gracie's father whips her.
Trying to get away from him, she hits him with a hairbrush, and he falls down a flight of stairs and dies. Though just a beginner in the law, Carroll agrees to represent her.
Carroll is overwhelmed in court, with the judge giving bad rulings - and it's obvious the jury is dying to convict Gracie. Not only that, the town disapproves of Carroll because she is a female lawyer. In walks guess who, Conant, to help in his unique way.
Enjoyable film, and though the monologue Trevor does is melodramatic and calls for emotional acting, Trevor does a beautiful job of keeping it more natural. Whelan is a riot with his courtroom antics, and Isabel Jewell is very sympathetic as the poor defendant.
It's not the greatest, but the actors all did a good job. Eric Linden, Jewell's love interest, came from the theater and returned to it permanently in 1941.
