State's Attorney (1932)

Directed by

George Archainbaud

Genre

drama film, crime film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 19m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 8 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A high-powered lawyer defends criminals with great success, building a reputation for never losing a case. His life of easy victories and compromises comes under pressure from a new district attorney and his own conflicted conscience.

fast-pacedcynicalmelodramaticpre-codesharpgrittyslickintense

What happens

State's Attorney is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film made at RKO and starring John Barrymore. George Archainbaud directed and the film could more or less be considered a warm up for Barrymore when he later went to Universal to film the similar Counsellor at Law. Remade in 1937 and 1951 both titled Criminal Lawyer. The story was supposedly based on the life of criminal lawyer William J. Fallon, who defended 126 homicide cases without any convictions. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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