blanche-2 "Skyscraper Souls" is a precode film, from 1932, starring Warren William, Maureen O'Sullivan, Verree Teesdale, Anita Page, Norman Foster, Gregory Ratoff, and Jean Hersholt.This is the "Grand Hotel" of an office building, centering on Warren William, who plays ruthless businessman David Dwight. Dwight owns a large Manhattan skyscraper, the Seacoast National Bank Building, possibly based on the Empire State Building - it's a deco building and the lobby looks very similar. The Empire State Building opened a year before this film went into production.Maureen O'Sullivan plays an attractive young woman who works in the building. Norman Foster is Tom, the fresh bank teller after her, but she's a little more ambitious than his income can provide at the moment. Dwight is married but fools around. O'Sullivan is Lynn Harding, who is a protégé of Dwight's secretary Sarah, who has worked for Dwight for years. She really is a mother figure to Lynn.Dwight becomes interested in Lynn, which turns Tom against her, though nothing has happened. She becomes angry that he doesn't trust her.Dwight, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, destroys a lot of people in a stock manipulation so he can gain full control of the skyscraper. Due to Tom and Lynn fighting, Lynn now returns Dwight's interest in her. Sarah tries to stop it. Lots of sexual innuendo in this movie, and it leaves open the question of whether Lynn and Dwight got together. It seems that they did. She is ready to travel with him by ship. That's all I'll say about the ending.Good performances, with William just as cold as he could be, telling Verree Teasdale she had outlived her usefulness as his mistress because of her advanced age. She was 29. Quite dramatic and a good watch.

MikeMagi It's hard to believe that "Skyscraper Souls" was made only three years after the advent of sound. The complex, fluid production is set in the offices, elevators, shops and crowded lobby of a New York wonder, a skyscraper that towers over the nearby Empire State Building. It's the brainchild -- and obsession -- of banker Warren William who will do anything to keep it under his control. If that takes bankrupting his closest friends and allies, so be it. When not masterminding a shady stock manipulation, Williams is busily plotting how to dump his mistress, Verree Teasdale, in favor of a newly-hired, naive young secretary, Maureen O'Sullivan. The result is a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of ruthless ambition that could easily have been made today. And probably not as well. Among the stand-out cast members are Anita Page as a model-cum-hooker who can't believe that a decent man would want to marry her, Jean Hershholt as a lovelorn jeweler, future director Norman Foster as O'Sullivan's brash young boy friend, and Hedda Hopper (yes, that Hedda Hopper) as Williams' wife who's happy not to interfere in his extra-curricular love life as long as he writes out large checks.

Neil Doyle This Depression-era melodrama from MGM in the '30s contains several strong performances and interesting plot elements that place it among the better "big business" stories that Hollywood loves to make about ethics and morality. It's a forerunner of other such films, such as "Executive Suite" but has even more bite despite some of the dated elements of the story.WARREN WILLIAM is convincing as the owner of the world's tallest building who will stoop to anything to keep control of his luxurious hi-rise, which includes a swanky bachelor pad for his affair with his personal assistant (VERREE TEASDALE).A subplot involves the affair between MAUREEN O'SULLIVAN and a man in hot pursuit (NORMAN FOSTER), a bank teller who has trouble keeping her to himself once she is noticed by the wealthy William. It's one of O'Sullivan's best early roles (before she became Tarzan's Jane), and she does extremely well in it except for the way she jabs away at the keyboard as an office typist, which is almost laughable.Several strands of plot are smoothly entwined and lead toward a very melodramatic ending involving Warren William and his mistress. HEDDA HOPPER pops in once in awhile as William's wife who is always looking for a handout so she can keep a villa in Italy.After a shocking conclusion, there's a bittersweet ending for O'Sullivan and Foster. His extroverted character is a bit annoying at times but he certainly is a lively presence during the proceedings.This is an undiscovered gem worth seeking out if you're a fan of stories about big business. It's a sort of "Grand Hotel" in its own way.

Ron Oliver Utterly ruthless & immoral, the owner of New York's tallest building plots & schemes to keep control of his creation, trampling upon anyone who gets in his way. Others working in the great colossus also live lives of drama & everyday excitement. All these SKYSCRAPER SOULS will soon find themselves bound together by greed, lust, betrayal, suicide & murder.Practically screaming its pre-Production Code status, this neglected film is rather fascinating in the risqué development of its plot. Sex, both leering & suggested, plays an important role in the story. By making its hero a man both charming & completely treacherous, open to any underhand suggestion, it makes a lie out of Louis B. Mayer's assertion that all of MGM's product was family friendly. Even today, this is potent, powerful material. And absolutely engaging.Warren William is almost distressingly good as the unscrupulous building owner, around whom much of the action revolves. His blunt dishonesty almost makes chicanery respectable.The rest of the cast is equally proficient:Maureen O'Sullivan as a naive young secretary lusted over by William & loved by brash bank clerk Norman Foster.Gregory Ratoff, hilarious as a harried dressmaker.Anita Page as a brash prostitute/model beloved by noble jeweler Jean Hersholt.Verree Teasdale, William's mistress for 12 years, finally pushed to the breaking point.Wallace Ford as a radio announcer, tragically driven to desperation by his love of unhappily married Helen Coburn.George Barbier as a jolly fat debauchee, one of William's eventual financial victims.And Hedda Hopper, William's absent, knowing wife - very content with his money, but not his company.Movie mavens will also recognize Billy Gilbert as a lobby cigarette stand owner, Edward Brophy & Doris Lloyd as the man & woman in the elevator.