Cinefórum-Clásico

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 Within the Law was Talmadge's last silent crime drama, a bizarre variation of the common woman's film plot device of the working girl marrying the boss. This was its second of four film incarnations (the 1932 version with Joan Crawford was entitled Paid). The poor shopgirl, unable to find a job after prison, decides to take her vengeance on society while staying within the law. We next see her several years later armed with a smart lawyer, an expensive house, and a beautiful and elegant wardrobe. She is the head of a blackmailing ring operating legally under the cloak of breach of promise suits. We see that she is quite efficient in her business, but from her clothes and demeanor we also see that she is a lady despite her shopgirl origins, particularly when compared with her lower class associate, who still dresses badly and sticks her chewing gum on chairs in expensive restaurants. Thus, she is able to marry her former employer's son as her revenge. The film leads the audience to an interesting conclusion: the police are corrupt and the greed and stupidity of underclass criminals dooms them to failure, but follow the example of the ruling class and conduct only legal outrages, and be rewarded with wealth, a stunning wardrobe, and marriage to the boss's son.
It is interesting to compare the differing interpretations of Talmadge and Crawford in the same part. Crawford is more convincing as a woman angry enough to take such a revenge and with the street smarts to do it. Talmadge is more bewildered and terrified in the courtroom scene at the beginning of the film, but low-key for the rest of the film, while giving the character enough sentiment to believably fall in love with her intended victim. Of course, the scenarios differ in several particulars along those same lines--more cynical in the Crawford version while trying to instill sympathy for the character in Talmadge version, and are fairly typical of the differences between women's films in the 20s and the 30s. The other players are excellent as well, particularly Lew Cody in an unusual sympathetic part. An interesting contrast to these two versions is the Ruth Hussey version of 1939, a post-code version in which she continually berates herself for being such a bad girl.
Print viewed: 35mm from the Library of Congress, some jumpy footage at the end of reel 2.