Topaze (1933) review

Professor Auguste A. Topaze (John Barrymore), an expert in chemistry who (for whatever reason) is trapped teaching children, gets canned from his position for "favoritism" when he gives his student Charlemagne (Jackie Searl) poor marks (because the kid's a brat); later, he's hired by that child's industrialist father Baron Philippe de La Tour-La Tour (Reginald Mason) to work as a "consulting chemist" for his company and promote his fraudulent "curative water."  This is a little-discussed but incredibly potent statement about the difference between the high ideals of education (the Ivory Tower) and their application in the real world, where "villainy" is often rewarded and good deeds are not (our protagonist learns this the hard way) ... and where supposedly upstanding men openly carry on affairs (Myrna Loy gleefully plays Coco, the mistress).  Some have criticized The Great Profile's performance but I feel he makes the transition from innocence to experience quite smoothly in less than ninety minutes.