Phyllis Haver plays the sexy but fickle and material-minded wife of shopworker Victor Varconi, who seems a nice but dullish fellow. While at he's at work, Haver invites 'sugar-daddy' Eugene Pallette upstairs, not realizing that he is intending to dump her, owing to her extravagance. When Pallette refuses to cough up anymore cash, she shoots and kills him, leading to a spectacular and amusing trial.
Along the way, we have a wonderful prison scene with inmates being presided over by matron May Robson, a vindictive D. A. splendidly played by Warner Richmond, and a crooked lawyer in the form of Robert Edeson. Further amusement is provided when Varconi has scraped up $2,500 (rather a lot for a chap who works in a tobacco shop) for the defense and has to cough up the same again. He then decides to rob the fellow to get the remainder, finding it is in fact crooked money as well, having been delivered by thug Walter Long in an all-too-brief cameo, before the climactic trial. Oh, and the nice, pretty cleaning lady (Virginia Bradford) has a yen for Varconi...
The direction of CHICAGO is credited to Frank Urson, who was unknown to me, possibly due to his career being cut short by his death the following year. Other notable credits are Peverell Marley, Mitchell Leisen and Leonore Coffee, and the whole thing is very handsomely presented, with a nice score from Rodney Sauer.
