COURTROOM DRAMAS
by Foetuse | created - 29 Nov 2017 | updated - 08 Apr 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama
The jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler
Votes: 865,859 | Gross: $4.36M
2. 12 Angry Men (1997 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 117 min | Crime, Drama
Twelve men must decide the fate of one when one juror objects to the jury's decision.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott, Hume Cronyn, Ossie Davis
Votes: 17,087
3. 12 (2007)
PG-13 | 159 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Twelve jurors must decide the fate of a Chechen adolescent charged with murdering his stepfather.
Director: Nikita Mikhalkov | Stars: Sergey Makovetskiy, Sergey Garmash, Apti Magamaev, Nikita Mikhalkov
Votes: 15,365 | Gross: $0.13M
4. Paths of Glory (1957)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, War
After a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready
Votes: 212,414
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Approved | 129 min | Crime, Drama
Atticus Finch, a widowed lawyer in Depression-era Alabama, defends a Black man against an undeserved rape charge, and tries to educate his young children against prejudice.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
Votes: 333,033
6. JFK (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Votes: 170,000 | Gross: $70.41M
7. A Few Good Men (1992)
R | 138 min | Drama, Thriller
Military lawyer Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee defends Marines accused of murder. They contend they were acting under orders.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon
Votes: 287,545 | Gross: $141.34M
8. Philadelphia (1993)
PG-13 | 125 min | Drama
When a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic-small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Roberta Maxwell, Buzz Kilman
Votes: 258,213 | Gross: $77.32M
9. Primal Fear (1996)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An altar boy is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.
Director: Gregory Hoblit | Stars: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton, John Mahoney
Votes: 247,262 | Gross: $56.12M
10. A Time to Kill (1996)
R | 149 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter, inciting violent retribution and revenge from the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey
Votes: 181,768 | Gross: $108.77M
11. Sleepers (1996)
R | 147 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized. Thirteen years later, an unexpected random encounter with a former guard gives them a chance for revenge.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric
Votes: 237,660 | Gross: $49.10M
12. The Devil's Advocate (1997)
R | 144 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
An exceptionally-adept Florida lawyer is offered a job at a high-end New York City law firm with a high-end boss--the biggest opportunity of his career to date.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones
Votes: 402,175 | Gross: $60.98M
13. The Rainmaker (1997)
PG-13 | 135 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An underdog lawyer takes on a fraudulent insurance company.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight
Votes: 82,916 | Gross: $45.86M
14. The Hurricane (1999)
R | 146 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Denzel Washington, Vicellous Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 102,517 | Gross: $50.67M
15. Runaway Jury (2003)
PG-13 | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A juror on the inside and a woman on the outside manipulate a court trial involving a major gun manufacturer.
Director: Gary Fleder | Stars: John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman
Votes: 104,651 | Gross: $49.44M
16. Michael Clayton (2007)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit.
Director: Tony Gilroy | Stars: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Michael O'Keefe
Votes: 174,111 | Gross: $49.03M
17. The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A lawyer defending a wealthy man begins to believe his client is guilty of more than just one crime.
Director: Brad Furman | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy
Votes: 253,879 | Gross: $58.01M
18. The Paradine Case (1947)
Approved | 125 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A happily married London barrister falls in love with the accused poisoner he is defending.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn
Votes: 12,392
19. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Mystery
An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 71,381 | Gross: $11.90M
20. Inherit the Wind (1960)
Passed | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
Based on a real-life case in 1925; two great lawyers argue the case for, and against, a Tennessee science teacher accused of the crime of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Dick York
Votes: 32,792
21. Inherit the Wind (1988 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, History
A biblical orator opposes a liberal lawyer defending a man for teaching Darwinism in the 1920s South.
Director: David Greene | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards, Darren McGavin, John Harkins
Votes: 614
22. Inherit the Wind (1999 TV Movie)
PG | 113 min | Drama
Based on a real-life case in 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.
Director: Daniel Petrie | Stars: Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott, Lane Smith, Tom Everett Scott
Votes: 2,032
23. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Approved | 179 min | Drama, War
In 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich
Votes: 85,580
24. Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995 TV Movie)
R | 131 min | Drama, Thriller
Lawyers and the media argue the alleged child abuse at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California.
Director: Mick Jackson | Stars: James Woods, Mercedes Ruehl, Lolita Davidovich, Sada Thompson
Votes: 4,187
25. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
PG | 105 min | Drama
After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple's young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry
Votes: 154,802 | Gross: $106.26M
26. The Verdict (1982)
R | 129 min | Drama
An outcast, alcoholic Boston lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason
Votes: 46,009 | Gross: $54.00M
27. The Verdict (2016 TV Movie)
95 min | Drama
Can it be justified to shoot down a civilian plane, converted by terrorists into a deadly suicide missile? Can "human arithmetic" be a legal calculus?
Director: Lars Kraume | Stars: Burghart Klaußner, Martina Gedeck, Florian David Fitz, Lars Eidinger
Votes: 1,327
28. Het vonnis (2013)
111 min | Crime, Drama
A Belgian business executive takes on his country's justice system after a procedural error that released his wife's murderer drives him to take matters into his own hands.
Director: Jan Verheyen | Stars: Koen De Bouw, Johan Leysen, Veerle Baetens, Jappe Claes
Votes: 3,084
29. My Cousin Vinny (1992)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Crime
Two New Yorkers accused of murder in rural Alabama while on their way back to college call in the help of one of their cousins, a loudmouth lawyer with no trial experience.
Director: Jonathan Lynn | Stars: Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Macchio, Mitchell Whitfield
Votes: 140,679 | Gross: $52.93M
30. Erin Brockovich (2000)
R | 131 min | Biography, Drama
An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, David Brisbin, Dawn Didawick
Votes: 221,540 | Gross: $125.60M
31. The Insider (1999)
R | 157 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora
Votes: 180,302 | Gross: $28.97M
32. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester
Votes: 137,957 | Gross: $8.18M
33. Witness for the Prosecution (1982 TV Movie)
97 min | Drama
Leonard Vole is accused of murdering an elderly rich woman, and the only alibi to him depends on his wife Christine.
Director: Alan Gibson | Stars: Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Beau Bridges, Donald Pleasence
Votes: 1,121
34. A Soldier's Story (1984)
PG | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An African-American officer investigates a murder in a racially charged situation in World War II.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar, Art Evans, David Alan Grier
Votes: 11,412 | Gross: $21.82M
35. The Judge (2014)
R | 141 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Big-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.
Director: David Dobkin | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton
Votes: 201,999 | Gross: $47.12M
36. Find Me Guilty (2006)
R | 125 min | Biography, Comedy, Crime
In the late 1980s, a low level gangster named Jackie DiNorscio defends himself in court in what became the longest criminal trial in American judicial history.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Ron Silver, Alex Rocco
Votes: 36,262 | Gross: $1.17M
37. Fracture (2007)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After shooting his wife, Ted confesses his crime and asks the court to move his case to trial. He represents himself against Willy, a successful lawyer. But there's more to the case than meets the eye.
Director: Gregory Hoblit | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike
Votes: 219,025 | Gross: $39.02M
38. The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama, War
When a U.S. Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardises the ship, the first officer is urged to consider relieving him of command.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray
Votes: 29,915 | Gross: $21.75M
39. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1988 TV Movie)
PG | 100 min | Drama, War
A full-length adaptation, originally staged as a play, of the court-martial segment from the novel "The Caine Mutiny".
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Eric Bogosian, Jeff Daniels, Brad Davis, Peter Gallagher
Votes: 733
40. Arbitrage (2012)
R | 107 min | Drama, Thriller
A troubled hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.
Director: Nicholas Jarecki | Stars: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, Tim Roth
Votes: 54,857 | Gross: $7.92M
41. In Cold Blood (1967)
R | 134 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Two ex-cons murder a family in a robbery attempt, before going on the run from the authorities. The police try to piece together the details of the murder in an attempt to track down the killers.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart
Votes: 29,162
42. Jagged Edge (1985)
R | 108 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A wealthy woman is murdered in her beach house. The husband is allegedly knocked out first. He inherits all. He has a female ex criminal prosecutor represent him in court.
Director: Richard Marquand | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Peter Coyote, Robert Loggia
Votes: 16,828 | Gross: $40.50M
43. The Accused (1988)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama
After a young woman suffers a brutal gang rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, Bernie Coulson, Leo Rossi
Votes: 40,053 | Gross: $32.07M
44. A Cry in the Dark (1988)
PG-13 | 120 min | Biography, Drama
A mother whose child was killed in a dingo attack in the Australian Outback fights to prove her innocence when she is accused of murder.
Director: Fred Schepisi | Stars: Meryl Streep, Sam Neill, Dale Reeves, David Hoflin
Votes: 11,207 | Gross: $6.91M
45. Devil's Knot (2013)
Not Rated | 114 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a Satanic ritual.
Director: Atom Egoyan | Stars: Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon, Alessandro Nivola, James Hamrick
Votes: 23,862
46. The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Drama
A promising lawyer tries to handle his social and professional problems while climbing the ranks in Philadelphia.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Brian Keith
Votes: 4,275
47. Presumed Innocent (1990)
R | 127 min | Mystery, Thriller
As a lawyer investigates the murder of a colleague, he finds himself more connected to the crime than anyone else.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Harrison Ford, Raul Julia, Greta Scacchi, Brian Dennehy
Votes: 45,819 | Gross: $86.30M
48. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
PG-13 | 119 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.
Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Campbell Scott
Votes: 140,115 | Gross: $75.07M
49. The Conspirator (2010)
PG-13 | 122 min | Crime, Drama, History
Mary Surratt is the lone female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln. As the whole nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her reluctant lawyer to uncover the truth and save her life.
Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline
Votes: 30,016 | Gross: $11.54M
50. Rules of Engagement (2000)
R | 128 min | Drama, Thriller, War
An attorney defends an officer on trial for ordering his troops to fire on civilians after they stormed a U.S. embassy in a Middle Eastern country.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 50,334 | Gross: $61.34M
51. High Crimes (2002)
PG-13 | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A successful lawyer's husband is arrested for murdering nine villagers in El Salvador in 1988 as a US soldier under a different name. She decides to defend him in military court and find out the truth about what happened.
Director: Carl Franklin | Stars: Jim Caviezel, Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Adam Scott
Votes: 48,277 | Gross: $41.54M
52. North Country (2005)
R | 126 min | Drama
A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States, Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
Director: Niki Caro | Stars: Charlize Theron, Jeremy Renner, Frances McDormand, Thomas Curtis
Votes: 44,945 | Gross: $18.32M
53. Blood Oath (1990)
R | 108 min | Drama, War
The island of Ambon in Indonesia, 1945. During the War, the number of Australian POWs on the island had dropped from 1100 to less than 300 due to abuses by their Japanese captors. Capt. ... See full summary »
Director: Stephen Wallace | Stars: Bryan Brown, George Takei, Terry O'Quinn, John Bach
Votes: 961
54. Reversal of Fortune (1990)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
Wealthy Sunny von Bülow lies brain-dead, husband Claus guilty of attempted murder; but he says he's innocent and hires Alan Dershowitz for his appeal.
Director: Barbet Schroeder | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Ron Silver, Annabella Sciorra
Votes: 18,833 | Gross: $15.45M
55. Class Action (1991)
R | 110 min | Drama, Thriller
An attorney representing a traumatized accident victim finds that his opponent is a very familiar defense attorney - his own daughter.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Gene Hackman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Colin Friels, Joanna Merlin
Votes: 8,320 | Gross: $24.28M
56. Let Him Have It (1991)
R | 115 min | Crime, Drama, History
This drama reveals the controversial postwar 1950's London murder trial that sent an intellectually challenged young man to the gallows for a murder he did not commit.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: Tom Courtenay, Christopher Eccleston, Eileen Atkins, Rebecca Eccleston
Votes: 3,804
57. Guilty as Sin (1993)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A female lawyer takes an accused wife-murderer as a client, but finds herself morally compelled to betray him one way or another.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Rebecca De Mornay, Don Johnson, Stephen Lang, Jack Warden
Votes: 5,856 | Gross: $22.89M
58. In the Name of the Father (1993)
R | 133 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
An Irish man's coerced confession to an I.R.A. bombing he did not commit results in the imprisonment of his father as well. Meanwhile, a British lawyer fights to clear their names and free them.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Alison Crosbie, Philip King
Votes: 187,205 | Gross: $25.01M
59. Trial by Jury (1994)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Valerie is a juror in the trial of a mob boss. When her young son's life is threatened, she has no option other than to see that justice isn't done.
Director: Heywood Gould | Stars: Joanne Whalley, Armand Assante, Gabriel Byrne, William Hurt
Votes: 2,069 | Gross: $6.97M
60. Losing Isaiah (1995)
R | 111 min | Drama
The biological and adoptive mothers of a young boy are involved in a bitter, controversial custody battle.
Director: Stephen Gyllenhaal | Stars: Jessica Lange, Halle Berry, David Strathairn, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Votes: 6,556 | Gross: $7.60M
61. Murder in the First (1995)
R | 122 min | Drama, Thriller
An eager and idealistic young attorney defends an Alcatraz prisoner accused of murdering a fellow inmate. The extenuating circumstances: his client had just spent over three years in solitary confinement.
Director: Marc Rocco | Stars: Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Embeth Davidtz
Votes: 30,690 | Gross: $17.38M
62. Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, History
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to finally bring a white racist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Whoopi Goldberg, Virginia Madsen
Votes: 12,155 | Gross: $13.05M
63. The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
R | 130 min | Biography, Drama
The story of controversial pornography publisher Larry Flynt, and how he became a defender of free speech.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton, Brett Harrelson
Votes: 100,766 | Gross: $20.19M
64. Amistad (1997)
R | 155 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1839, the revolt of Mende captives aboard a Spanish owned ship causes a major controversy in the United States when the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island. The courts must decide whether the Mende are slaves or legally free.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 82,825 | Gross: $44.18M
65. Red Corner (1997)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An American attorney on business in China is wrongfully arrested and put on trial for murder, with a female defense lawyer from the country the only key to proving his innocence.
Director: Jon Avnet | Stars: Richard Gere, Bai Ling, Bradley Whitford, Byron Mann
Votes: 18,315 | Gross: $22.42M
66. A Civil Action (1998)
PG-13 | 115 min | Biography, Drama
A tenacious lawyer takes on a case involving two companies responsible for causing several children to be diagnosed with leukemia due to the town's water supply being contaminated, at the risk of bankrupting his firm and career.
Director: Steven Zaillian | Stars: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Kathleen Quinlan, Tony Shalhoub
Votes: 31,096 | Gross: $56.71M
67. Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
PG-13 | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A Japanese-American fisherman is accused of killing his neighbor at sea. In the 1950s, race figures into the trial. So does reporter Ishmael.
Director: Scott Hicks | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Max von Sydow, Yûki Kudô, Reeve Carney
Votes: 14,568 | Gross: $14.38M
68. Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
Ken Harrison is an artist who makes sculptures. One day he is involved in a car accident, and is paralyzed from his neck down. All he can do is talk, and he wants to die. In hospital he ... See full summary »
Director: John Badham | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti, Bob Balaban
Votes: 3,553 | Gross: $8.21M
69. The Star Chamber (1983)
R | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Frustrated with a legal system gone haywire, a secret society of judges hires hitmen to snuff out criminals who escape courtroom justice - but one young judge questions the ethics of their vigilante system.
Director: Peter Hyams | Stars: Michael Douglas, Hal Holbrook, Yaphet Kotto, Sharon Gless
Votes: 7,737 | Gross: $5.56M
70. Nuts (1987)
R | 116 min | Drama, Thriller
A high-class call girl accused of murder fights for the right to stand trial rather than be declared mentally incompetent.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden
Votes: 7,596 | Gross: $30.95M
71. Suspect (1987)
R | 121 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
When a homeless man is accused of murdering a Justice Department file clerk, a public defender is tasked with mounting his legal defense.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Cher, Dennis Quaid, Liam Neeson, John Mahoney
Votes: 11,692 | Gross: $18.78M
72. Music Box (1989)
PG-13 | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects.
Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Jessica Lange, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Frederic Forrest, Donald Moffat
Votes: 8,669 | Gross: $6.26M
73. True Believer (1989)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A cynical former civil liberties attorney now reduced to "specializing" in defending drug dealers becomes transformed by an eight-year-old murder case.
Director: Joseph Ruben | Stars: James Woods, Robert Downey Jr., Margaret Colin, Yuji Okumoto
Votes: 5,441 | Gross: $8.74M
74. 10 Rillington Place (1971)
GP | 111 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
What happened to the women at 10 Rillington Place? The story of British serial killer John Christie, who committed most or all of his crimes in the titular terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt, Pat Heywood
Votes: 9,794
75. And Justice for All (1979)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A lawyer is forced to defend a judge, while defending other clients, and trying to find punishment for the guilty and provide justice for the innocent.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Al Pacino, Jack Warden, John Forsythe, Lee Strasberg
Votes: 39,705
76. The Onion Field (1979)
R | 126 min | Crime, Drama
An LA police officer is murdered in the onion fields outside of Bakersfield. However, legal loopholes could keep his kidnappers from receiving justice, and his partner is haunted by overwhelming survivor's guilt.
Director: Harold Becker | Stars: John Savage, James Woods, Franklyn Seales, Ted Danson
Votes: 5,764 | Gross: $9.89M
77. Billy Budd (1962)
Approved | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, War
When a kind-hearted sailor is made to join an English vessel at war, he finds himself caught between devotion to his crew mates and obedience to their hated, cruel master-at-arms.
Director: Peter Ustinov | Stars: Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Rogers
Votes: 4,888
78. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
G | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarry.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Leo McKern
Votes: 37,174 | Gross: $28.35M
79. The File on Thelma Jordon (1949)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Assistant district attorney Cleve Marshall falls for the mysterious Thelma Jordon when she seeks help solving robberies of her aunt's estate.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Paul Kelly, Joan Tetzel
Votes: 3,184
80. I Confess (1953)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A priest, who comes under suspicion for murder, cannot clear his name without breaking the seal of the confessional.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne
Votes: 23,278
81. The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
Approved | 100 min | Biography, Drama, War
A dramatization of the American general and his court martial for publically complaining about High Command's dismissal and neglect of the aerial fighting forces.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Gary Cooper, Charles Bickford, Ralph Bellamy, Rod Steiger
Votes: 2,304
82. Trial (1955)
Passed | 105 min | Drama
Courtroom drama set in 1947 and underlying post-WW2 acute problems facing the USA such as stormy race relations and the growing threat of local communism.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy, John Hodiak
Votes: 1,190
83. The Wrong Man (1956)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Film-Noir
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone
Votes: 31,384
84. I Want to Live! (1958)
Approved | 120 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A prostitute, sentenced to death for murder, pleads her innocence.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent, Theodore Bikel
Votes: 7,370
85. Compulsion (1959)
Approved | 103 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Two wealthy law-school students go on trial for murder in this version of the Leopold-Loeb case.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Orson Welles, Dean Stockwell, Diane Varsi, Bradford Dillman
Votes: 7,508
86. Libel (1959)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Mystery
A shell-shocked World War II veteran with memory problems is accused of being an impostor by a former comrade.
Director: Anthony Asquith | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Massie, Robert Morley
Votes: 1,599
87. The Letter (1940)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort
Votes: 14,608
88. The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
Passed | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A nineteenth-century New Hampshire farmer makes a pact with Satan for economic success, then enlists famed orator Daniel Webster to extract him from his contract.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, Jane Darwell, Simone Simon
Votes: 5,615
89. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Western
When a posse captures three men suspected of killing a local farmer, they become strongly divided over whether or not to lynch the men.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn
Votes: 24,967 | Gross: $1.64M
90. Boomerang! (1947)
Passed | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The true story of a prosecutor's fight to prove the innocence of a man accused of a notorious murder.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb, Cara Williams
Votes: 5,062
91. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
After a divorced New York mother hires a nice old man to play Santa Claus at Macy's, she is startled by his claim to be the genuine article. When his sanity is questioned, a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he's not mistaken.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 54,934 | Gross: $2.65M
92. Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
PG | 114 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
A lawyer and a little girl must prove that a man claiming to be Santa Claus is the real thing.
Director: Les Mayfield | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, J.T. Walsh
Votes: 43,890 | Gross: $17.19M
93. They Won't Believe Me (1947)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable-sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.
Director: Irving Pichel | Stars: Robert Young, Susan Hayward, Jane Greer, Rita Johnson
Votes: 2,966
94. An Act of Murder (1948)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-line judge is tempted toward mercy-killing by his wife's terminal cancer.
Director: Michael Gordon | Stars: Fredric March, Edmond O'Brien, Florence Eldridge, Geraldine Brooks
Votes: 873
95. The Accused (1949)
Approved | 101 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A beautiful psychology professor tries to hide a self-defense killing.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey, Sam Jaffe
Votes: 1,100
96. Adam's Rib (1949)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
Domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell
Votes: 22,923
97. Knock on Any Door (1949)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An attorney defends a hoodlum of murder, using the oppressiveness of the slums to appeal to the court.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, John Derek, George Macready, Allene Roberts
Votes: 4,211
98. Fury (1936)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a wrongly-accused prisoner barely survives a lynch-mob attack and is presumed dead, he vindictively decides to fake his death and frame the mob for his supposed murder.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot
Votes: 13,728
99. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A unassuming greeting card poet from a small town in Vermont heads to New York City upon inheriting a massive fortune and is immediately hounded by those who wish to take advantage of him.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander
Votes: 23,231
100. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Passed | 116 min | Biography, Drama
The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden
Votes: 9,023
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