After watching enough of these pre-Code movies, you begin to notice a few recurring themes: women in lingerie for one contrived reason or another, references to an unmarried couple having had sex by showing them having breakfast, and men who aren't inclined to take 'no' for an answer, continuing to badger or paw a woman until she consents to go out with him. You'll find all of those things in 'Skyscraper Souls', an average movie for the time period which held my interest, but was not exceptional.Warren William plays the part of an executive whose passion is to erect and own a giant skyscraper, and he does well in the role. His character seems nice enough on the surface, well-spoken and polite, but it turns out that he'll do anything to get what he wants, including screw over his business partners, and tell his long-time mistress (a woman in the office) that he'd love to get married to her, but his wife won't consent to a divorce – when in fact he hasn't asked her for one. Hedda Hopper is fantastic as his wife, by the way, in the small role she has. When he notices his mistress's secretary, played by the lithe Maureen O'Sullivan, he starts putting the moves on her. O'Sullivan is also being aggressively pursued by a very annoying bank teller (Norman Foster) who she (somehow, painfully, argh) starts falling for, thus setting up one of the movie's conflicts.One of the problems the movie has is that none of the characters are all that likable. That's not a requirement for a great film of course, and it's nice to see nuance and realism – but in this case, when it's heading for the ending it's heading for, it's hard to feel what the director Edgar Selwyn is trying to make us feel. Another problem is that it's a bit of muddled mix of drama and romantic comedy, which meanders about. The parts that relate to the corporate scheming bog down, although the insider trading and stock speculation is mildly interesting given it was just a few years after the great stock market crash. Overall, though, it's just a bit jumbled. Watch it for Warren William's smooth evil, and for the spirited and beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan, and you may enjoy it more than I did.

Although Skyscraper Souls develops several good characters, the primary focus is on Warren William the ruthless William Randolph Hearst like tycoon who is obsessed with not only building, but totally owning the world's tallest skyscraper. To emphasize the point of how big this building is, the New York City background shows the newly constructed Empire State Building quite a few feet shorter than Warren William's edifice.All the other characters in the film revolve around William like so many planets to his sun. Beginning with of course his long suffering wife Hedda Hopper and this may very well have been her best acting part, before she became one of the reigning gossip columnists of movie land. Hedda's not even trying to hold on to him other than financially, Warren just writes her check as she needs in and she keeps her free spending ways. The Marion Davies of the story is Verree Teasdale, William's eternal secretary/mistress who knows where all the bodies are buried in his business. A young woman working as a stenographer in his bank, Maureen O'Sullivan has captured William's attention, but Teasdale watches her like a mother hen and Teasdale's the jealous type. Young bank teller Norman Foster is courting Maureen, but he hasn't a prayer with William intruding on the picture.These are the personal associates, but the business ones are also revolve around William as he is determined to break any one who wants to gain control of his building. Chief among his rivals is George Barbier who is quite the rich womanizer himself, but is hardly in William's class for brains.Coming out in 1932 I'm not sure how the movie-going public took to this story about the rich playing with stocks, so many lost their own nest eggs to just such speculation. William is the kind of tycoon people loved to hate that year.The climax of Skyscraper Souls comes at a big price for William. He gets his edifice, but loses everything else. Let's just say it's quite the melodramatic ending, but still effective. Although the film is firmly dated in the Great Depression, Skyscraper Souls will still grab you by the emotions and by the wallet.

Maureen O'Sullivan was MGM's favourite ingenue and she was used quite frequently throughout the 30s. Her most famous role was as the refined Jane to Johnny Weismuller's Tarzan of the Apes but she was usually around as a sweet young thing in such high quality films as "The Thin Man" (1934), "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" (1934), "David Copperfield" (1935) and "Anna Karenina" (1936). "Skyscraper Souls" provides her with a different type of role. In this "Grand Hotel" of the business world she plays the mercenary Lynn who is drawn to Dwight and the luxury he can give her.Tom (Norman Foster), a brash and pretty obnoxious bank teller, tries to pick up pretty Lynn Harding (a ravishing Maureen O'Sullivan) but she doesn't fall for his "charms" - she only has eyes for her boss, the cold and ruthless David Dwight (Warren William). Sarah (Verree Teasdale) is Dwight's secretary and former mistress, who has taken Lynn under her wing. Dwight wants to merge with Seacoast Bank because he stands to lose his entire fortune if he doesn't - it means retrenchment of workers but he doesn't care!!! "The Flat-Iron Building....the Dwight building could put it in it's vest pocket"!! He sees that Sarah is looked after with a trust account of $100,000!!! Lynn works late and finds herself at Dwight's party, where he plies her with champagne until she forgets where she is and falls asleep in Dwight's bed. Sarah gives Tom a tip to put all his money in Seacoast shares - he has been complaining about the fact that he is too poor to tempt Lynn.Dwight, though, is going to sell short - and that sets the film up for a climax as the market fails and lives are ruined. Myra (Helen Coburn) is broke and goes to Slim (Wallace Ford) in desperation. Slim gambles on the stock market and loses everything and in his despair prepares to rob Jake (Jean Hersholt) a jeweller. Slim is accidentally locked in the time lock safe - he is dead when it is opened the next day. Helen Coburn must take the award as the most callous young woman in films. Desperate to get away from her husband Bill (who seems like a nice chap in the couple of scenes he has) she thinks nothing of going off with Bill and saying nothing about Slim, knowing that he is locked in the vault. Another couple, who do make a go of it are Jenny LeGrande (Anita Page) a model/prostitute and Jake, a jeweller. Typical racy dialogue exchange between them - Jake "you shouldn't gamble...I can afford it, I'm in a very old business", Jenny "Yeah?? Well so am I"!!!Sarah confronts Dwight about his involvement with Lynn - they are already planning to go away together with Lynn posing as his "ward". Of course at the end Lynn falls into Tom's arms - she has shown that she is completely mercenary and a gold-digger, so who knows if they will be happy. Warren William is his usual perfect self - he had a habit of playing ruthless, chauvinistic men ("Beauty and the Boss" (1932), "Upperworld" (1934)) but still making you like and admire him. Aside from Warren William, Verree Teasdale gave the best performance in the film as the loyal but cast off mistress.Highly, Highly Recommended.

This movie is almost like combining a soap opera like the TV show HOTEL and combining it with the 1930s film THE MATCH KING. This is because throughout this modern skyscraper, many stories involving infidelity and financial ruin abound. And, of all the tales, the most pervasive and impressive is the character Warren William plays--a guy who has leveraged his empire to the hilt and stands on the verge of great success or bankruptcy--much like William's true-life character from THE MATCH KING. The story also has a decent amount of sleaze compared to later films since it was made in the early days of the Hay Office that controlled violence and morals in films. In the early days, they weren't as strict and studios didn't take them all that seriously--this is VERY evident in this film as it pulls very few punches in telling this entertaining tale.By the way, almost equally entertaining is another film that apparently is a re-working of this Warren William film. "Manhattan Tower" is a low-budget film with a heck of a lot of entertainment value despite its very low budget. Currently, you can watch or download this film through IMDb and compare it to "Skyscraper Souls". Wow...these two films would sure make a nice double-feature.