The Mouthpiece

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The Mouthpiece
Directed by James Flood
Elliott Nugent
Written by Frank J. Collins
Earl Baldwin
Joseph Jackson
Starring Warren William
Sidney Fox
Aline MacMahon
Music by Bernhard Kaun
Cinematography Barney McGill
Editing by George Amy
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates May 7, 1932
Running time 86 mins
Country United States
Language English

The Mouthpiece is a 1932 crime drama film starring Warren William and directed by James Flood and Elliott Nugent. It was produced and distributed by Warner Brothers.[1]

Selected cast

Plot

Vincent Day is a prosecutor who is on the fast track to success. When a man he zealously prosecuted all the way to the electric chair is found innocent, he becomes distressed and quits his job. At the suggestion of a friendly bartender, he decides to switch teams and become a defense attorney specializing in the representation of gangsters and other unsavory people. He will use any tactic to get his clients acquitted, up to and including drinking a slow-acting poison from a bottle of evidence to prove that the substance isn't lethal. The jury acquits the man not knowing that immediately after, Day rushes into a Mob doctor's office for a pre-arranged stomach pump.

Celia Farraday is a young secretary recently arrived in the city from a small town in Kentucky. When Day makes play for her, she spurns his advances, loyal to her fiance, Johnny. When the fiance is framed for a crime committed by one of Day's clients, Day's affection for Celia not only prompts Day to defend Johnny by implicating his client in the crime, but to reconsider his life of getting criminals out of jail sentences. However, his associates send him a message that his departure will not be allowed. He lets them know that he has all of their secrets in a safe-deposit box, along with instructions for the bank to forward the contents to the District Attorney in the event of his unnatural death. They call his bluff and he is shot while leaving his office to attend Celia's wedding. On the way to the hospital, he tells his faithful secretary that the criminals were wrong to call his bluff and that the information will be on the way to the DA. The movie leaves it ambiguous whether Day, shot several times, will survive his wounds.

References

  1. ↑ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931-40 by The American Film Institute, c.1993

External links

Films directed by Elliott Nugent


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