Counsellor at Law

Counsellor at Law is a 1933 American PreCode drama film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Elmer Rice is based on his 1931 Broadway play of the same title.

After directing a series of films he considered inconsequential, William Wyler was happy to be assigned to a prestigious project based on a play that had enjoyed successful runs on Broadway and in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Producer Carl Laemmle Jr. paid 150,000 for the screen rights, an unusually high price tag during the Great Depression, and to ensure the films success he hired Elmer Rice to adapt his own play.In early August 1933, Wyler met Rice in Mexico City, where he was vacationing with his family, for preliminary discussions about the script. Rice was loath to mix business with pleasure and assured the director he would begin working as soon as his holiday ended. On August 22, he shipped a first draft from his New York office to Universal Pictures. Wyler approved of the screenplay, and principal photography was slated to begin on September 8. ........

Source: Wikipedia