dougdoepke Maybe I was expecting too much, given the superior ratings from Maltin and TCM. It's a good film but hardly memorable. The plot itself amounts to a routine crime plot—not really a mystery. However, the movie's strengths are not found in the storyline. Rather they're found in the characters and in a provocative subtext. Baxter's excellent as the shyster lawyer who pretends to principles even as he maintains underworld ties (Pendleton). Holmes, Clarke, and Sleeper are also excellent as attractive youngsters; at the same time, it's too bad they drop out of the story as soon as they do. Nonetheless, reviewer Neil Doyle is right, although it's probably an unpopular opinion— Myrna Loy is indeed miscast as a call girl. She's got all the properly suggestive lines, but her natural bearing and classy demeanor are simply unsuited to a wanton role. My guess is that the producers wanted a classy dame since Baxter must end up marrying her. Still and all, those traits that make her such a perfect Nora Charles, also make her an implausible call girl. All things considered, Clarke would have been more suitable as the call girl, but marrying her brassier character would have also been less believable. So I guess the producers were in something of a bind.There is of course a lot of naughty innuendo as can be expected from this pre-Code era. But what surprises me in the subtext is the forced confession from pint-sized Murtoch (Stone). It's not just Durant (Baxter) who's threatening to shoot a man and frame the little gunsel. It's the cops too, including police Lieutenant Stevens (O'Connor), and no one appears surprised that the cops would collude in such a heinous criminal act. It's as if in this film, they do it every day. No wonder the impending Production Code put such rigid strictures on how cops could be portrayed, given the social unrest of the time. On the other hand, 1933 is also the headline era of Capone and a wide-open city of Chicago, so maybe the script is not far off the mark, after all.Anyway, I guess from other postings that Pendleton's rather comedic Tony Gazotti is a matter of taste. I would have preferred a harder case gangster that would have made Baxter's Durant an even more ambiguous character than he is. Nonetheless, the number of nice touches (the elevator man; the brassy girl leaving the bar), along with Van Dyke's smooth direction, help make this an interesting and entertaining 90 minutes. But 3.5 stars out of 4 (TCM), it's not.

J B Thackery This film contains all the elements of a great gangster story. It is a perfect example of 1930's big city gangster films. Yet it does not fall into a stereotypical mold at all. It is entertaining throughout. Just when you think it is going one way, it goes the other, building the suspense and irony until you realize it is not going to be a typical story.All the players keep in character and hold your attention with crisp and refreshing dialogue. Baxter and Loy are so in tune with one another, and you do not get the feeling they are acting.And isn't it neat to see Nat Pendleton play a smart, in-charge guy for once, instead of just a bumbling half-wit mob henchman. (Though he is always likable in that role, it surprised me to see what a smart guy he really was!) The plot of this film is genre-based, yet quite original and full of all the necessary elements: virtue, vice, mystery, false suspicion, resolution of mystery, resolution of false suspicion, romance, heavy action, jazz, and many doors that seem to want to open, but just the right ones open at just the right intervals to keep you entertained throughout this gem of a film.

MikeMagi "Penthouse" is a first-rate example of "they don't make 'em like that anymore." The tale of a society lawyer turned criminal defense attorney -- out to prove the innocence of the accused murderer who waltzed off with his fiancée -- zips along. The dialog of the fabled Hackett-Goodrich team is sassy and clever. The relationship between lawyer Warner Baxter and Nat Pendleton as the racketeer who's his guardian angel perks up the plot. But it's Myrna Loy as the call girl who joins forces with Baxter to nail the real killer who shines. There are certain people the camera finds irresistible. And here, as the most lovable fallen woman of the pre-code era, Loy demonstrates the impish allure that would light up the screen for years to come.

Cutter-2 I knew virtually nothing about this movie before I saw it. At one time I may have seen that Leonard Maltin thought highly of it but Leonard has thought highly of more than a few duds. However, this was anything but a yawner!! That I have always thought W. S. Van Dyke was unappreciated as a director may also be a factor in my opinion of the movie.I found Penthouse to be thoroughly enjoyable. Although never a big Warner Baxter fan, he was very convincing as an ostracized `society lawyer'. Loy, who was directed by Van Dyke in three of her best pre-Nora movies, is what can only be described as a call girl. Loy as a call girl is not nearly as difficult to believe as the name of the character she plays, Gertie Waxted. Myrna never remotely looked like a Gertie Waxted, regardless of her occupation and any call girl with a name like Gertie Waxted would have changed it.I would imagine this was released pre-code during 1933 because the innuendo between Baxter and Loy was anything but subtle especially the first night and morning after Loy spends in Baxter's apartment (in separate rooms). The exchange where Myrna tells Baxter she was disappointed she did not have to defend her honor the previous evening is classic. At the same time, one has the opinion she would not have put up much of a fight. The supporting cast of Butterworth, Clark, Nat Pendleton, one of my all-time favorites, and Gordon is excellent. Butterworth's deadpan `I hope this will teach Mr. Durant (Baxter) only to take murderers from the best families' line at the end of the movie is unforgettable.The Plot Summary accurately describes the situation so there is no need to dwell on it here. The two aspects of the plot that carry the movie are Loy as a very believable call girl and Pendleton as a gangster who is devoted to Baxter for getting him off on the proverbial murder wrap. To most classic movie fans, Loy is Nora Charles, William Powell's wife or Milly Stephenson. Loy as a believable call girl is no easy feat. In post-code Manhattan Melodrama one had to read between the lines to see anything wrong with Myrna as Blackie's girl who moves over to William Powell. In Penthouse, Myrna as a call girl punches you in the face.