Counsel for Crime

Oct 14, 1937

1h 1m

★ 5.8

One Word from Him... And Five Lives Are Doomed!

Overview

Otto Kruger once again plays a dynamic, bombastic attorney in Columbia's Counsel for Crime. Kruger plays William Mellon, a shifty shyster whose underhanded methods loses him the love of his sweetheart Anne (Nana Bryant), who subsequently marries a powerful senator (Thurston Hall). What Mellon doesn't know is that Anne has borne him a son, whom the senator has adopted. Reaching adulthood, Paul (Douglass Montgomery) opts for a legal career himself, taking a clerical job with his own father's firm. In typical "B"-picture, Mellon is charged with murdering one of his more odious clients -- and Paul is appointed prosecuting attorney in the case.

Genres

Romance

Crime

Drama

Production Companies

Columbia Pictures

Counsel for Crime Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

William Mellon

Otto Kruger

Paul Maddox

Douglass Montgomery

Ann McIntyre (as Jacqueline Wells)

Julie Bishop

Sen. Maddox

Thurston Hall

Mrs. Maddox

Nana Bryant

Friday

Gene Morgan

Edwin Mitchell

Marc Lawrence

Asa Stewart

Robert Warwick

George Evans

Stanley Fields

A sewerage worker's dead body is found inside a manhole in Mumbai. An ageing folk singer is tried in court on charges of abetment of suicide. He is accused of performing an inflammatory song which might have incited the worker to commit the act. As the trial unfolds, the personal lives of the lawyers and the judge involved in the case are observed outside the court.

6.9

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

Aug 19, 1950

Ralph Cotter, a ruthless criminal, escapes violently from a farm prison. Then, he seduces a dead inmate’s sister, gets back quickly into the crime business, faces corrupt local cops who run the city’s underworld and meets a powerful tycoon’s whimsical daughter.

7.1

...And Justice for All

Oct 19, 1979

An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is forced to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial under the threat of being disbarred.

3.4

The Defenders: Choice of Evils

Jan 18, 1998

The Defenders are a crack team of lawyers dedicated to one principle - the accused is innocent untill proven guilty. This time, they defend a man wrongly convicted of murder.

7.3

Lenny

Nov 10, 1974

The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the establishment as too obscene for the public.

7.2

Bridge of Spies

Oct 15, 2015

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers' only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan, recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man's freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel, the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.

7.4

Law Abiding Citizen

Oct 15, 2009

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

0.0

Hitman Lawyer

Apr 21, 2023

Lawyer Shindo Kai is an undefeated ace, also working as a hitman who punishes criminals exploiting legal loopholes. While secretly serving justice, he hides his true identity as the illegitimate son of Gondo Heihachiro, a yakuza boss. When Gondo's group is attacked by the rising Mayhem gang, Kai, having recently lost a case due to sabotaged evidence, investigates the betrayal. His pursuit of the truth leads to a bloody reckoning.

6.0

The Woman in the Hall

Oct 27, 1947

Lorna Blake, (Ursula Jeans) is a widow with two daughters. She augments her slender income by using her children to extort money - visiting the houses of the rich to tell a pathetic story and beg for help. And Lorna makes a rich capture when Sir Halmar Bernard, (Cecil Parker), proposes to her. She tells him that she has only one daughter, Molly (Jill Freud, credited as Jill Raymond). When her other daughter, Jay (Jean Simmons), is arrested for forging a cheque, she refuses to help her.

7.1

Adam's Rib

Nov 18, 1949

A woman's attempted murder of her uncaring husband results in everyday quarrels in the lives of Adam and Amanda, a pair of happily married lawyers who end up on opposite sides of the case in court.

7.4

The Verdict

Dec 8, 1982

Frank Galvin is a down-on-his-luck lawyer and reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing, when a former associate reminds him of his obligations in a medical malpractice suit by serving it to Galvin on a silver platter—all parties are willing to settle out of court. Blundering his way through the preliminaries, Galvin suddenly realizes that the case should actually go to court—to punish the guilty, to get a decent settlement for his clients... and to restore his standing as a lawyer.

6.3

Above Suspicion

May 21, 1995

Dempsey Cain is an honored cop, a loving husband and father, and mentor to his handsome younger brother. Then a drug dealer's bullet paralyzes him for life and Dempsey's world is shattered. Suddenly, his wife and brother seem to care less about him than for each other, and a million-dollar insurance.

6.3

Class Action

Mar 15, 1991

A liberal activist lawyer alienated his daughter Maggie years ago when she discovered his many affairs. Now a conservative corporate lawyer, Maggie agrees to go up against her father in court. To gain promotion, she must defend an auto manufacturer against charges that their explosion-prone station wagons are unsafe. As her mother begs for peace, Maggie takes on her dad in a trial that turns increasingly personal and nasty.

6.4

The Story of Temple Drake

May 6, 1933

The coquettish granddaughter of a respected small-town judge is stranded at a bootleggers’ hide-out, subjected to an act of nightmarish sexual violence, and plunged into a criminal underworld that threatens to swallow her up completely.

6.6

The Killer Is Loose

Feb 3, 1956

A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies meek bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam Wagner accidentally kills Poole's young wife, and at his trial Poole swears vengeance against Wagner. Poole begins his plans to get revenge when he escapes his captors.

0.0

Final Verdict

Sep 9, 1991

A trial lawyer risks losing his family and career when he defends a client who he knows to be guilty as charged.

5.5

Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case

Oct 30, 1980

Based on the well-publicized Oregon criminal case of the late 1970s, this film dramatizes the unique dispute in which Greta Rideout instigated the prosecution of her husband, John, charging him with raping her.

4.3

The Story on Page One

Dec 1, 1959

An adulterous couple is accused of murder after the woman's husband is shot and killed during a scuffle. A high-profile court case tells the story.

6.8

Criminal Lawyer

Aug 23, 1951

A drunken attorney tries to sober up in order to defend a friend in murder case.