Counsellor-at-Law: A Play in Three Acts

(no dust jacket) [a serviceable reading copy, with moderate external wear, about 2 inches of board exposed at top of front cover, a few small white smudges on the front cover, old seller's price in unerasable red marker on ffep]. (3 B&W photographs) Rice's Broadway hit about a successful lawyer whose career is imperiled by the threatened exposure of a past ethical lapse. The original production, starring Paul Muni, premiered at the Plymouth Theatre in December 1931 and ran for the remainder of the season. After a summer break it resumed its run in September 1932, with Muni still toplining but the supporting cast now including a young Jules (later John) Garfield, in the featured role of "Henry," the office boy. It ran for three months in New York, then toured a bit, returning to N.Y. for a final two-week engagement in May 1933, at which point yet another young up-and-coming player was added to the cast: Thelma Ritter. (The brevity of that return engagement was due to Muni's contractual obligation to show up in Hollywood for the filming of I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. Garfield was reportedly offered a screen test at the time, but refused.) Meanwhile, Universal had snagged the movie rights to the Rice play; its 1933 film version was directed by William Wyler (his first "prestige" assignment after an apprenticeship in B-westerns and programmers), with John Barrymore in the lead (before he'd begun his slide into late-career self-caricature).

Product Info

Publisher: Samuel French

Year: 1931

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

ReadInk

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Country: United States