Criminal Lawyers
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- DirectorJames FloodElliott NugentStarsWarren WilliamSidney FoxAline MacMahonProsecutor becomes a defense attorney after an innocent man is sent to an electric chair.
- DirectorLewis AllenStarsEdward G. RobinsonNina FochHugh MarloweAfter an overly aggressive district attorney unknowingly sends an innocent man to the chair, he resigns, turns to drinking, and acquires a criminal clientèle.
- DirectorNicholas RayStarsRobert TaylorCyd CharisseLee J. CobbLawyer Tommy Farrell is a defender of crooks. Vicki Gaye encourages him to go straight, but mob king Rico Angelo insists otherwise.
- DirectorWilliam WitneyStarsVictor McLaglenJohn BaerKathleen CrowleyDan Mason, a twelve-year-old newsboy, is an expert at figuring all the angles; so, when Kink, veteran bartender at Billy's Steak House, catches him winning a big jackpot in the battered old slot machines that belong to seedy Tim Channing, he not only defies them to do anything about it but shows Tim how he can corner the slot-machine racket and, at the same time, put his big-racketeer competitors Tony Finetti and Angelo Di Bruno out of the running. Thusly begins a partnership between the larcenous---but big-hearted---Tim and the precocious newsboy that lasts and prospers while he is growing up. Reaching college age Dan studies law, showing a greater aptitude for finding loopholes in the law than an inclination to uphold it, despite the advice of his law-school Dean and the wholesome companionship of his roommate Roy Fellows, whose father is a retired judge. But Dan meets Roy's sister Fern and his family, and the sincerity and friendliness of Roy's parents and the open adoration of Fern make him begin to work on the right side of the law instead of against it. So, after graduating from law school, Dan agrees to go to work for his old friend Tim...but only if it is honest work. Tim promises him it will be, but then Finetti and Di Bruno show up from the old days and Tim is put into a compromising position..and things aren't going just exactly as Dan planned and Tim promised.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsTom ConwayMartha O'DriscollJune ClayworthSteve and his girlfriend are implicated in a murder, but they are innocent! Can they convince the authorities of it in time? Tom Conway and Martha O'Driscoll. He's running for public office. ..what they all must do to get out of it.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsJohn BarrymoreBebe DanielsDoris KenyonA successful attorney has his Jewish heritage and poverty-stricken background brought home to him when he learns that his wife has been unfaithful.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsSterling HaydenLouis CalhernJean HagenA major heist goes off as planned, but then double crosses, bad luck and solid police work cause everything to unravel.
- DirectorGordon DouglasStarsJames CagneyBarbara PaytonHelena CarterStarting with a violent prison break, clever, ruthless Ralph Cotter corrupts everyone around him.
- DirectorLee GarmesBen HechtCharles MacArthurStarsClaude RainsMargoWhitney BourneProminent lawyer shoots unfaithful girlfriend during quarrel, has to establish alibi.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsRita HayworthOrson WellesEverett SloaneFascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsWilliam PowellKay FrancisScott KolkWilliam Powell plays William Foster, a slick attorney who stays within the law, but specializes in representing crooks and shady characters. He's adept at keeping them out of jail, winning acquittals, and having decisions reversed, thus springing criminals out of prison. He is romantically involved with dancer Irene Manners (Kay Francis), who is two-timing him, although she wants to marry him. She kills a man driving while out with her other man, Jack Defoe (Scott Kolk), who takes the blame. Unfortunately, a ring Foster had just given Irene is found at the crime scene. Foster ends up defending Jack, but when the ring is found, he thinks he is protecting Irene, so pleads guilty to jury tampering, which he had done for the first time to save Irene. After his plea, the the prosecuting DA confides that Jack would have gotten off...
- DirectorJohn H. AuerStarsGig YoungMala PowersWilliam TalmanJohnny Kelly, who plans on resigning from the police force and leaving his wife the next day, has a very eventful last night on duty.
- DirectorCharles BrabinStarsWalter HustonJean HarlowWallace FordPolice Chief Jim Fitzpatrick ruthlessly goes after organized crime and is prepared to use brutal and violent methods to fight it.
- DirectorEdwin L. MarinStarsDennis O'KeefeAnn MorrissLewis StoneWhile the county bar association discusses ambulance chasing by unscrupulous attorneys, one of its members, Thomas Z. Brandon, leaves when he learns the location of an accident. After Thomas signs up the sole victim, who is only slightly injured, the city's representative, Simon Kelly, warns him to stop, as does his friend, alcoholic doctor Prescott, but Thomas hopes to get rich with this and other unethical cases. When ambulance chasing soon becomes illegal, Thomas remains a thorn in the side of Mr. Beaumont, head of the local street car company, because he uses trickery to win cases of dubious merit. One night, after Thomas has rushed with two of his shills to the scene of a major accident, he goes over to pretty Dorothy Mason and offers to be her attorney, even though she is not injured and his appearance there could mean disbarment. Thomas doesn't know it, but Dorothy is actually fronting for Calhoun, the street car company's lawyer, who is trying to entrap Thomas. After promising to win Dorothy's case, Thomas arranges for an examination by Prescott, but before that, she secretly is examined by three respected physicians hired by Calhoun. Prescott tells Dorothy she is fine, then gives her a list of things to memorize to fake her injuries. She then tells Calhoun where Prescott will be and he sends Kelly to pretend that he has been fired and wants to work Thomas' racket, then offers him $250- to help. Meanwhile, Dorothy goes to dinner with Thomas and, after consulting with Calhoun, takes him to a roller skating rink where detectives have followed "Floppy" Phil, Thomas's shill, and Mrs. Olson, the widow of a client who actually did die of his injuries. A melee erupts when a photographer takes pictures of the "grieving" widow, after which Thomas and Dorothy return to his office to find Prescott showing files to Kelly. Prescott is remorseful when he realizes his mistake, but Thomas tells him to get out, then has a change of heart and tries to call him back. It is too late, though, because Prescott has been killed by a car. After this, Thomas takes Dorothy to his apartment and reveals that he became an ambulance chaser because Calhoun had used phony witnesses in their first case as adversaries. She then realizes that she loves Thomas, but can't tell him what she has done. When she goes to Calhoun to quit, he threatens her, so she decides to quickly leave town. Thomas stops her, but Phil has found out who she is and tells him. Because he thinks she has been lying about her feelings, though, he says nothing to her. During their lawsuit, Dorothy first perjures herself about the accident, then, under cross examination, reveals that she has just married Thomas and will therefore be unable to testify against him in any misconduct case. After her testimony, Thomas refuses to have anything to do with her until she is arrested for perjury and Phil tells him that she was trying to save him all along. Thomas then goes to Calhoun and Beaumont offering to leave town if they let her go, but they won't until Thomas's persistence in stopping all public transportation through the use of archaic laws, and a trumped up drunk driving charge for Calhoun forces them to relent. Dorothy at first refuses to go with Thomas, but changes her mind when he promises to change and proves it by accepting a parking ticket from a policeman without trying to weasel out of it.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsWilliam PowellJoan BlondellDavid LandauIdealistic attorney Anton Adam makes headlines when he successfully beats high-profile legal eagle Granville Bentley in a murder case. Bentley asks Adam to become a partner in his law firm. But Adam's rising career takes a nosedive when he's framed by John Gilmurry, a prominent New York racketeer, and a sexy actress in a trumped-up breach-of-promise suit. The only constant in Adam's life is the loyalty and unrequited love of his secretary Olga.
- DirectorLambert HillyerStarsJack HoltJean ArthurNat PendletonThe assistant (Arthur) of a sleazy lawyer (Holt) is determined to end his cheating ways.
- DirectorJack ConwayStarsLee TracyMadge EvansFrank MorganAn ambulance-chasing lawyer gets tangled up with a female investigator out to end his shyster ways.
- DirectorWilliam ClemensStarsMargaret LindsayGlenda FarrellWarren HullNovice attorneys Mary and 'Dot' open their own practice, confident that their futures looks bright. But after months of rising debt and falling income, Mary stumbles into the employ of racketeer Frank Gordon. Financial worries behind them, Mary and 'Dot' start representing the dregs of Morgan's society. But will Mary's conscience--not to mention the intervention of her D.A. boyfriend--allow her to continue?
- DirectorFrank McDonaldStarsAnn DvorakJohn LitelCarlyle Moore Jr.Victor Shanley had once been New York City's most-acclaimed crime-fighting, crusading District Attorney and the scourge of the underworld. But the workaholic demands of the job led him to drinking and alcoholism. Dismissed from office in disgrace and divorced by his wife, Carol, Shanley soon found himself a gutter-drunk. But when hired by gangster Al Kruger, racketeer in charge of a hot-car ring, Shanley is soon back on top and made rich in the process, and relishing the revenge he had taken on the law-and-order faction he bitterly thought had done him an injustice. Shanley befriends a young engineer, Bob Terrell, who had inadvertently gotten mixed up with Kruger's mob, and gets Bob a job with an aircraft-factory in Tennessee. But Kruger, fearful that Bob might have knowledge that will incriminate him, has his henchman "Slim" Jacobs murder the young man. Shanley vows to get revenge on Kruger.
- DirectorJack HivelyStarsLee TracyBarbara ReadPatric KnowlesJed Marlowe is a brilliant, scheming, unscrupulous criminal lawyer whose specialty is defending criminal he knows is guilty but gets them off through loop-holes or bribery. Then his daughter, misled by her father's courtroom performance, but unaware of his back-room tactics, marries the killer her father has just unjustly save from the electric chair. What's a poor father to do?
- DirectorChristy CabanneEdward KillyStarsLee TracyMargot GrahameEduardo CiannelliCriminal lawyer Barry Brandon visits the nightclub of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with spoiled society girl Betty Walker. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group is guilty, just to get even with Larkin for a rebuke. On the same night in court, Madge Carter is on trial for disorderly conduct; Brandon volunteers to defend her and proves that the case against her is a frame-up. Finding that she is penniless, Brandon hires her as his secretary and falls in love with her. Brandon is appointed district attorney and has ambitions of becoming state governor. When he has dinner at Betty's home and gets drunk, she maneuvers him into marrying her. Later, Madge is a witness when Larkin shoots down a fellow gangster. By threatening Brandon's life, he forces her to commit perjury at his trial and say he fired in self-defense. Brandon, the prosecuting attorney (who has had his marriage to Betty annulled) knows she is lying but doesn't know why.
- DirectorThomas CarrStarsLaraine DayRicardo MontalbanRichard CarlsonThree jurors are ripe for bribery by the lawyer (Richard Carlson) of a playgirl up for murder.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsGeorge BrentVirginia BruceBrenda MarshallAssistant District Attorney Stephen Forbes, an impressive orator with a long list of convictions, resigns when an innocent boy is convicted and the real murderer confesses too late. He opens a cheap law office and his secretary Joan Reed goes with him. Business is bad until he ties up with J.B. Roscoe, the contact man between city hall and the underworld. Forbes moves to a swanky office and adds two people to his staff - his younger brother John, who he helped through law school, and Celia Farraday. Celia helps John win his first case and the two fall in love. John realizes his brother's firm isn't honest and wants to break the underworld contact. He opens Steve's safe for federal authorities hunting evidence against Roscoe. But the latter plants enough circumstantial evidence against John that the latter is convicted of murder and sent to death row.
- DirectorGeorge Nicholls Jr.StarsWalter AbelFrieda InescortNeil HamiltonLady lawyer Portia Merryman (Frieda Inescourt) defends woebegone Elizabeth Manners (Heather Angel), who is on trial for shooting her lover Earle Condon (Neil Hamilton).
- DirectorRichard WhorfStarsEdward ArnoldFrances RaffertyRay CollinsBlind detective Duncan Maclain relies on his working senses to piece together an assortment of clues to solve a case of murder.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsEdmund LoweEvelyn BrentConstance CummingsAn ambitious lawyer uses circumstantial evidence to help convict an innocent man then tries to make amends with his family.
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsJohn BarrymoreHelen TwelvetreesJill EsmondAttorney Tom Cardigan is the discontented "mouthpiece" for Vanny Powers' mob. When Tom takes sweet June Perry as his mistress, she tries in vain to redeem him. But Powers decides Tom would be even more useful to him as District Attorney, which he arranges with surprising ease...despite Tom's warning that "if I go on the other side, I'll stay there." Soon, Tom's ambition leads him to ditch June for the daughter of political boss Ulric. The crisis arrives when Powers goes on trial for a killing...witnessed by June.
- DirectorJohn H. AuerStarsRobert CummingsHelen MackLyle TalbotFred, a young lawyer fresh out of school, climbs quickly to success as the mouthpiece for a gangland mob. His friend Paul, however, reaches equally quick success - in the district attorney's office. Inevitably, they meet on opposite sides of the courtroom.
- DirectorDudley MurphyStarsEdward EllisAnita LouiseRobert BaldwinFlossie, girl friend of gangster Tony Marco, is released from the state penitentiary. With Marco and Ballou, his lawyer, she goes to Corinthia to deliver a letter to "Link" Boggs, from her cell-mate who died while in the prison. The woman had been sent to prison by Boggs, and there had given birth to a baby daughter. Boggs adopted the child, named her Honey, and had bought her up as his own. District Attorney Boggs enrages John Ralston, virtual owner of the town, when Boggs refuses to prosecute a Ralston employee who had stolen his week's wages two days before payday because he needed it to meet payment on a new stove for his mother. Ralston threatens to have Boggs recalled. The court-room scene is witnessed by Marco's group, and Ballou seen an opportunity to keep Marco from prison, who has been indicted in the Big City by District Attorney Donnelly, by getting a change of venue. Ballou takes the letter so he can use the information about Honey to blackmail Boggs.
- DirectorArthur LubinStarsLloyd NolanBarton MacLaneLola LaneA criminal uses his knowledge of the law for his not-very-legal purposes, betraying friends along the way.
- DirectorGeorge B. SeitzStarsOtto KrugerUna MerkelBen LyonA brilliant, successful criminal defense attorney's life is turned upside down when he takes on a case of a murdered woman who turns out to be an old flame who left him 10 years ago.
- DirectorRobert Z. LeonardStarsRed SkeltonCara WilliamsJames WhitmoreA diamond cutter in search of his birth parents gets caught up with con men who want to get their hands on a rare diamond.
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsGail PatrickRobert PrestonOtto KrugerThe Bar Association disbars attorney Tyler Cradon when it appears that he was implicated in the murder of a prominent vice crusader. Cradon, not wishing to be without an income and impressed by the way Joan Carroll handled a small-town murder, poses as a real-estate agent and offers to get her into his friend's law firm. Placed in Roberts' office, running a front for Cradon, Joan is taught every trick of the trade. With her cases all prepared for her, she goes from one courtroom victory to another, soon becoming the darling of the underworld and the despair of all law-enforcing authorities. Her performances impress young assistant district attorney Bradley Kent, and romance buds despite Kent criticizing her connections. But when Roberts asks her to defend a notorious racketeer who has murdered a policeman, she realizes that Kent was right and immediately joins the district attorney's office as a deputy. Learning that the authorities are on Roberts' trail, she goes to see Cradon, whom she still believes to be a hard-working, honest real-estate agent, to warn him about the kind of company he is keeping.
- DirectorWilliam C. McGannStarsEdmund LoweRose HobartJames StephensonA district attorney tackles the "Wolf of New York" who is the mastermind behind a multitude of murders and robberies plaguing the city.
- DirectorJohn BrahmStarsOtto KrugerDouglass MontgomeryJulie BishopLaw school graduate Paul Maddox, adopted son of Senator Robert Maddox, accepts an offer to join the law firm of William "Bill" Mellon, brilliant but unscrupulous criminal attorney. Mrs. Maddox is actually Paul's real mother, although neither the Senator nor Paul know it, and Bill Mellon is his father. Yes, it is one of "those" plots. Paul is at first critical of Mellon's sharp practices, but he relents when Ann McItyre convinces him it's all within the law, a fact most law school graduates would have learned in law school. Gambler Georgie Evans comes to Mellon and tells him he has just killed Harrison, another underworld character, and insists it was in self defense. Mellon coaches Evans in how to tell his story to the police, then sends him to police headquarters to give himself up, and then assigns Paul to follow up on the case. While Evans and Paul are on separate routes to the police station, Evans stops by Harrison's and kills him under circumstances corresponding with Mellon's fool-proof alibi version already supplied before the act. Truly a good example of why it is best to consult an attorney before committing a rash act. Mellon learns of this post-dated action but, for a large sum of money from Evans, agrees to have his firm represent him and assigns Paul the task. Paul, of course, wins Evans an acquittal. Paul later learns that the killing was committed after Evans had retained Mellon and quits the firm. Paul's moral snit does not extend past the point of allowing his adopted-father's influence getting him appointed Assistant District Attorney. Paul begins a probe against malpractice in the law profession, and Mellon hires Mitchell to dig up scandal on state officials sponsoring the probe. Mitchell does this even better than Mellon anticipated, especially when he comes back with the truth about Paul actually being Mrs. Maddox' own son. When Mitchell refuses to give up the papers with the proof, he and Mellon struggle and Mitchell dies from a shot from his own gun. Mellon is charged with murder and Paul is the prosecutor. Will Paul send his real Pa to jail for life?
- DirectorD. Ross LedermanStarsRalph BellamyMarguerite ChurchillJohn GallaudetAn alcoholic attorney becomes embroiled in blackmail and murder when he continues to aid a falsely-accused client.