Skyscraper Souls
1932 Directed by Edgar Selwyn
Synopsis
A Drama That Soars Half Way to Heaven and Reaches Half Way to Hell!
Skyscraper Souls is a Pre-Code 1932 drama film starring Warren William and Maureen O'Sullivan. The film was directed by Edgar Selwyn and is based upon the novel Skycraper by Faith Baldwin. The film depicts the aspirations and lives of several people in the Seacoast National Bank Building. Among them is David Dwight, the womanizing bank owner who keeps his estranged wife happy by paying her bills. His secretary Sarah wants him to get a divorce so they can marry.
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Hollywood will never really change. For instance, every time there's a new theme, trend or style getting any kind of traction, they all jump at the wagon like idiots. Back in the early 30s it wasn't teenagers in a dystopian future or vampires and werewolves making teenage girls giddy. Back then they lined up multi-line stories around a location, involving larger casts and intervening stories. From Grand Hotel, Dinner at Eight and Twentieth Century, to the tale of the Seacoast National Bank Building-skyscraper in Skyscraper Souls.
Comparing to the other movies at that particular wagon, this one has a rather modest cast in the hands of Edgar Selwin. Not that all those others were filled with stars either, but they…
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Hollywood will never really change. For instance, every time there's a new theme, trend or style getting any kind of traction, they all jump at the wagon like idiots. Back in the early 30s it wasn't teenagers in a dystopian future or vampires and werewolves making teenage girls giddy. Back then they lined up multi-line stories around a location, involving larger casts and intervening stories. From Grand Hotel, Dinner at Eight and Twentieth Century, to the tale of the Seacoast National Bank Building-skyscraper in Skyscraper Souls.
Comparing to the other movies at that particular wagon, this one has a rather modest cast in the hands of Edgar Selwin. Not that all those others were filled with stars either, but they…
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In 1932 saw a new style of movies in Hollywood. The multi-story ones popularized by Grand Hotel with it's cheap knock-off Hotel Continental along with the skyscraper themed ones like Manhattan Tower and this one - Skyscraper Souls. Where several stories and destinies happen at the same time and effect each other while the world around them keeps on moving.
And Skyscraper Souls is quite good. None of the others similarly themed ones of 1932 could touch the Oscar winning Grand Hotel, but this is the closest in quality to it. Warren William as the skyscraper owner, ruthless businessman and ladies man dominates the story and Maureen O'Sullivan is charming as the innocent one. Those are the main ones, but there are a few other good ones too with sad destinies. It's far from a happy movie. Actually the end is quite brutal in it's melodrama, but there are a couple of happy ends too.