The Law in Her Hands (1936)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

William Clemens

Writers:

George Bricker (screenplay)
George Bricker (story)

Release Date:

16 May 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

Plot:

Novice attorneys Mary and 'Dot' open their own practice, confident that their futures looks bright. But after months of rising debt and falling income...

Plot Keywords:

Courtroom | Ethics | Racketeering | Gangster | Extortion

Cast

Margaret Lindsay	...	Mary Wentworth
Glenda Farrell	...	Dorothy 'Dot' Davis
Warren Hull	...	Asst. Dist. Atty. Robert Mitchell
Lyle Talbot	...	Frank 'Legs' Gordon
Eddie Acuff	...	Eddie O'Malley
Dick Purcell	...	Marty
Al Shean	...	Franz
Addison Richards	...	William McGuire
Joseph Crehan	...	Dist. Atty. Thomas Mallon
Matty Fain	...	Augie Simelli (henchman #1)
Milton Kibbee	...	Herman Sturm (as Milt Kibbee)
Eddie Shubert	...	Harry Morton

Runtime:

58 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2070)

Company:

First National Pictures

A dated women-as-lawyers movie where the legal profession takes a bashing.

I had a hard time accepting the wise-cracking Glenda Farrell as a lawyer, and I suppose the writers did too. She's Margaret Lindsay's partner but never does any lawyering, and is there mostly for comedy. So is Eddie Acuff, their process server who is always bandaged after being beaten by the party he served, in a running gag. Perhaps I am a bit naive, but I was put off by the tricks the lawyers pulled to win their cases. We see Robert Emmett Keane plant a pint of whiskey in a coat pocket to cause Lindsay to lose a case, which teaches her to play a few tricks herself. She gets a phony mother to sit by a gangster client and plays on the sympathy of one juror, who causes a hung jury. Worse, while Farrell distracts the turnkey, she creates a phony photograph, in the prison cell no less, using lipstick on a client to simulated blood, in order to invalidate his confession. These acts are not only unethical, but also illegal. Of course, at the time she was working for racketeer Lyle Talbot, and she does try to quit when he faces charges of poisoning seven children by accident. All Talbot was trying to do was scare the milk producers into joining his "protective association." After Talbot murders a witness and wounds Assistant District Attorney Warren Hull, who saw him do it, he forces Lindsay to defend him by threatening her and Hull, whom she loves. But Lindsay still has a bag of tricks to use in his trial.

The performances are average, with no one actor particularly standing out. The 1930's male mentality about marriage is also present: Hull wants to marry Lindsay only if she quits being a lawyer and settles down to run his household.