For the Defense

In their second of 6 screen-team efforts, William Powell and Kay Francis excel in this courtroom melodrama. Controversial lawyer Powell receives a quasi-marriage proposal from actress girlfriend Francis. "After all these months, don't you think that would be rather silly?" he replies. Francis, disappointed, decides to rendevouz with a boozer pal (Scott Kolk),she has been keeping on the side in case her "Powell affair" fizzled. With Kay at the wheel, Kolk pawing her in a drunken haze -- she hits and kills a roadside bystander. Francis begs Powell to defend Kolk who is taking the rap for her. Kolk gets off the hook and Powell learns about his liason with Francis. I won't give away the ending, but Francis must have been grateful for finally having a role at Paramount that was rather substantial and chock full of emotional complexities. FOR THE DEFENSE was her 10th film at the studio and they seldom built up her parts. This was her 2nd of 5 films with director John Cromwell.

In the late teens and through much of the 1920s, defense lawyer William Fallon was unbeatable. In 120 murder cases, NONE of his clients were found guilty! While this might have made him famous in and of itself, his clients were a Who's Who of the scum of the day. Fallon defended mobsters, pimps and other low-lifes! The film "For the Defense" is based, in part, on Fallon's life--as is Warren Williams' film "The Mouthpiece"--which came out just two years later.

This film begins with William Powell playing William Foster--a hot-shot attorney who is known as much for getting off his slimy clients as his courtroom theatrics. However, while he seems like he's on top of the world, he has two serious problems--his drinking (which, in real like killed Fallon when he was still quite young) and his girlfriend, Irene (Kay Francis). The problem with Irene is that she loves Foster but he's unwilling to marry her (and the film STRONGLY implied they have been cohabiting) and she is entertaining a proposal of marriage from another guy!

One night when Irene is stepping out on Foster with this other man, she is driving during a hit and run death. Why she runs is never really believable, as she was neither intoxicated nor at fault as her drunk boyfriend sitting next to her really caused the accident. However, she leaves the scene and the boyfriend stays and takes responsibility-- saying that he was driving. And, since he was drunk, it looks like prison time for the guy. Naturally, Foster is called in to defend the guy--and the case ends up ruining Foster. How and why? See the film.

This movie is, in some ways, typical of many of the Pre-Code films. As I mentioned above, it is implied that Foster and Irene were doing the horizontal hokey-pokey ('sex' for those who prefer the more direct way of saying things). And, the film does glorify Foster (at least to a degree). But, it also shows that eventually evil is punished and Foster gets his comeuppance. Entertaining but a bit of a disappointment, as some might hope for more salacious Pre-Code shenanigans.

But, for that matter, what movie did William Powell and Kay Francis team up in that wasn't a fine example of movie-making? William Powell plays William Foster, a flamboyant and successful defense lawyer that reminds me of Powell's Thin Man character except, unlike Nick Charles, William Foster is an unhappy man at his core. He gets drunk and pretty much stays that way to soothe this unnamed pain, not to add to the edge of a giddily happy life. His long-time lover, Irene Manners (Kay Francis), is the one thing he claims he can depend upon, but whenever he says this you get the feeling that he counts not even on that. Marriage is out of the question from Foster's standpoint, but Kay wants matrimony and finds someone who offers it in a less interesting package than Foster in the person of wealthy Jack Defoe. Jack and Irene meet late one night and take a ride in Jack's car to talk things out about the future - Irene is still unsure about how she wants to proceed. Irene is driving because Jack had been drinking. When Jack gets fresh, he causes the car to swerve and Irene hits a pedestrian. Jack sobers up quickly at this point and tells Irene to run away so he can claim responsibility for the wreck alone as he fears for Irene's reputation whether she is named as the driver or just a passenger. Unfortunately for Jack the pedestrian is dead. Also unfortunately for Jack, he still has the smell of alcohol on his breath when the police arrive.

Now Jack is up for manslaughter. Foster has never liked Defoe because he considers him a spoiled brat, and now Irene is begging Foster to defend Defoe in spite of that, all the time trying to keep from Foster the fact that she was with Jack that night and that they were talking marriage. Defoe is maintaining the same charade as Irene. Meanwhile the district attorney and the police have had just about enough of Foster winning every case he takes and are keeping a close eye on his business practices. Who will go to jail? Will anybody go to jail? Watch and find out.

William Powell and Kay Francis were always great together because they usually played less than perfect people that made the perfect couple. Regardless of how things worked out for them at the end of their films, you just felt their characters were soul mates. This film is a great showcase of their talents when they were at the peak of their popularity in the 30's.

I love this period in film. I'm particularly attracted to the detective genre because it had a significant role in shaping how movies work.

A key personality in this, especially in the pre-code period, was the free-spirited fellow. Later he would be a tough guy, but in this era he was more likely to be interested in sex and partying. The actor that works best in this is William Powell, who happened to be working at a time when the industry was full of experiments. Rather than work hard on making a film perfect, they just rattled off this guess and that, try to see what worked. Unlike today, what worked was a moving target as the vocabulary and viewers matured.

This is such an experiment. Here the "detective" is a brash lawyer. The job changes slightly but the tweaking of the police and the DA is as with most from this period. Also constant was the notion that the key character could control the world around him to some extent. In this case, the lawyer pays a particularly high price, but is able to twist the story precisely as he would wish.

By itself, its uninteresting. In the context of hundreds of other movies that deal with what would become noir mechanics, it matters. And because it is in that period where honesty about sex was allowed, it has an edge.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

"For the Defense," from 1930, is loosely based on the career of William Fallon, who never met a client he couldn't convince a jury was not guilty.

William Powell plays William Foster, whose specialty is challenging cases, defending some real low-life characters. He always manages to have them found not guilty, and he doesn't rely on any unethical practices to do it.

Foster is seeing Irene Manners, a glamorous dancer (Kay Francis), who wants to get married. Foster, it seems, has some problems with commitment.

Irene has another man, Jack Dafoe (Scott Kolk) who is interested in her and wants to marry her. However, she wants to wait until she can explain the situation to Bill, whom she truly loves.

One night, Jack talks her into going for a drive with him. He's plastered, so she drives. The two are arguing when Irene hits a man in the street, who dies.

Jack sobers up quickly and tells her to hide. He takes the rap. She in turn begs Bill to defend him. Bill is jealous of Jack and doesn't want to take the case, but when Irene swears there is nothing between them, he accepts.

During court, the prosecutor questions Jack and asks if a woman was with him, which he denies. The prosecutor then tries to submit a ring of Irene's, found in the car, as evidence. When Foster sees it, he knows Irene was lying.

Good movie directed by John Cromwell, which moves quickly and has a wonderful performance from Powell and a good one by Francis. They made a great team. Powell could do drama and comedy with equal facility. You'll see none of the lighthearted Thin Man here.

Certainly worth a look. It doesn't have any of what made pre-code different - this could have been made after the code - but it's still good.