Name

The Image of Lawyers in Street Angel (Part 3)

Date

2013-11-04

Introduction

The film Street Angel, released on 24th July, 1937, is the first Chinese film portraying the interaction between modern lawyers and the common people.
The well-groomed yet cold and detached lawyer in Street Angel reflects the socialist position of Yuan Muzhi, the scenarist-director.
Nevertheless, the image of the law firm came from somewhere else, which is probably from the American movie Counsellor at Law, premiered in the Cathay Theatre in Shanghai on 8th February, 1934.
Counsellor at Law was based on the stage play of the same name wrote by Elmer Rice. The director, William Wyler, who was also the director of Roman Holiday and Ben-Hur, won the Academy Award for best director on three occasions during his career. However, Counsellor at Law did not make a hit at Shanghai while some film critics gave high credits to its techniques presenting the space in the law firm.
Yuan Muzhi adopted the filming techniques used at the beginning of Counsellor at Law in presenting a skyscraper in which the law firms situated.
The law firm in Counsellor at Law located at the 27th floor. But the tallest building in Shanghai at that time, the Park Hotel, had 22 floors only. Yuan did not indicate the firm in Street Angel located at which floor. He just emphasized that it is “within the clouds”.
Without sufficient funds, Yuan Muzhi could not build an impressive firm scene like the Counsellor’s, but he did his best to use implications and filming techniques to help the audiences imagine how fashionable and luxurious the law firm is.
The image of the law firm built by Yuan Muzhi is actually different from reality. The most obvious difference is the typewriter sound in the background, for at that time most of the lawyers still use Chinese writing brush to make documents. As for the luxurious firm in a skyscraper, it seemed like a distant dream for most of the Chinese lawyers in Shanghai. In conclusion, the imaginary law firm scene in Street Angel is actually the reflection and transformation of lawyer images in Hollywood movies.