Roy Del Ruth's Upperworld, 1934

Roy Del Ruth was an efficient and workmanlike director for Warner Brothers in the thirties. His films are brisk and snappy views of the working classes, at least until 1934.  In 1934 the new Production Code started to be enforced and Upperworld seems to be a film that started before code enforcement but was changed before it was released, with the title gaining a perhaps unintended irony, suggesting that if one is rich and powerful enough one can get away with murder.

Warren William plays a railroad magnate who is lonely when his wife of fourteen years, played by Mary Astor, spends all her time socializing, even sending their young son off to military school to get the "proper" education.  William (much less sleazy than in his pre-code films) falls in love with a lively dancer, played by Ginger Rogers.  Rogers' agent, played by J. Carrol Naish, tries to blackmail William and accidentally kills Rogers while shooting at William, who then kills Naish and covers up the crime, making it look like murder and suicide.  William then bribes the police commissioner who throws in jail a cop who saw William's car at the scene.  William is eventually caught by fingerprints, goes to trial, is acquitted and sails to Europe with his wife, with whom he has reconciled.

I'm giving more detail of the plot than I usually do because it illustrates how the production code, once it went into effect, elevates marriage and wealth over the struggles of the working class, which was once the bread-and-butter of Warner Brothers.  What does come through in the released version of the film is the energy and inventiveness of the working classes:  Ginger Rogers singing "Shake Your Powder Puff" in burlesque, Andy Devine as a chauffeur who hangs out at the public library to read and pick up interesting girls, Robert Greig as the unflappable butler, John Quale as a put-upon janitor, Sidney Toler as an incorruptible beat cop, etc.  Cinematographer Tony Gaudio uses a mobile camera to explore the obsequious world of a railroad magnate's office as well as the cozy world of a chorus girl's apartment.