Glenn Reynolds has been posting lately on movies about lawyers. He’s mentioned The Verdict, Absence of Malice, and The Paper Chase. Sweeping past some obvious fairly recent candidates like The Rainmaker and The Devil’s Advocate since I’m a fan of old movies I’d like to suggest some older movies about lawyers or that feature lawyers that you might find interesting.
Young Mr. Lincoln
Although this picture is ostensibly about the young Abraham Lincoln, it’s a rather different take on him: a young lawyer just getting started. Touching performance by Henry Fonda. Don’t miss the great scene in which he stands down an angry mob storming the jail to lynch a couple of young men accused of murdering a law officer. After the mob leaves the mother of the two young men asks him “Who are you?” to which he responds “I’m your lawyer”.
All That Money Can Buy
Dramatization of Stephen Vincent Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster. Edward Arnold’s Daniel Webster matches wits with Walter Huston’s Mr. Scratch to save the soul of a farmer who’d foolishly sold his soul to him. Academy Award-winning score and Best Actor nomination for Walter Huston.
The Paradine Case
Gregory Peck falls in love with the accused poisoner he’s defending played by Alida Valli. This is a courtroom melodrama directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a remarkably attractive cast. Except for Charles Laughton, of course.
Witness for the Prosecution
Billy Wilder’s adaption of Agatha Christie’s play features great performances by Charles Laughton as the attorney for the defense, Tyrone Power as a heel, and an astonishing performance by Marlene Dietrich.
Anatomy of a Murder
This movie about a rape case was considered extraordinarily frank for its time. Directed by Otto Preminger with strong performances by James Stewart, Arthur O’Connell, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, George C. Scott, and the irreplaceable Eve Arden.
Trial
Will idealistic law professor Glenn Ford realize that wily communist Arthur Kennedy is using him for his own nefarious ends? This 1955 picture is clearly a product of its times and is interesting if only for that reason.
I don’t read Instapundit much anymore, but if someone is not mentioning To Kill a Mockingbird, I spit in the general direction of their briefs.
Not a big fan of the courtroom dramas — I do recall a radio production of the Scopes Monkey trial I liked and have an old cassette tape of around here somewhere.
And Philadelphia was one of the few movies I’ve seen in a theatre where I felt like tearing up, not that I did mind you, that would just be wrong, but Philadelphis was Kapra-corn for the 90s.
Yes. What prompted this post in the first place were the 50th anniversary commemorations of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird (which I read shortly after it came out).
Philadelphia was good. So was Inherit the Wind. I appeared in productions of that in high school as the Williams Jennings Bryan character (as well as of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial). Which reminds me of another pick: A Few Good Men.
I should have figured Mockingbird was in the air. I’m a bit defensive, since I know that the Elites tends to think Harper Lee is overrated and contemporary views find Gregory Peck a little too ambivalent.
Otherwise, my wife loves Adam’s Rib, as she loves about any Tracy/Hepburn. I love parts of Chicago, particularly where Richard Gere is tap-dancing through a closing argument. I like “In Cold Blood” and “A Man for All Seasons” but they seem to be in different genres than ‘lawyer movies.’
Son and I have been involved in a long term project watching old movies. I would add Judgment At Nuremburg. If you think of it, we need some good recommendations for older, classic foreign films, a genre I dont know well.
Steve
What about Twelve Angry Men?
I’ve never seen it but heard much about it. Does it live up to it’s reputation as a classic?
It’s a truly great picture with uniformly tremendous performances and taut writing and direction. IMO it should be required viewing in every high school civics class in the country.
No lawyers in it at all, so it doesn’t qualify.