The Mouthpiece

One of the better movies of 1932, "The Mouthpiece" features a tour de force performance by Warren William as a brilliant but corrupt prosecutor with a weakness for dames, drink and dollars but who is redeemed by a stubborn moral sense that sometimes overcomes his vices. The screenplay, by the prolific but tragically short-lived Joseph Jackson (whose other work includes such gems as "Safe in Hell" and "One Way Passage"), is both hard-edged and witty, with many of the funniest wisecracks delivered memorably by the incomparable Aline MacMahon as William's loyal secretary, the type of role that might have been played by Joan Blondell or Glenda Farrell had the studio casting dice landed another way. The familiar Warners-First National stock company appears in full force including Guy Kibbee as a speakeasy bartender; Noel Francis as a golddigger; J Carrol Naish as a gangster; Walter Walker as a district attorney. The diminutive Sidney Fox persuasively plays a secretary in William's firm who helps to set him on the right path.