For the Defense

William Powell is an unscrupulous lawyer who always seems to get his clients, whether they're innocent or guilty. Kay Francis is the lady who loves him. Or does she? While the film starts out rather slow, we find out almost halfway through the film, she thinks she's in love with another man, who wants to marry her. The pace picks up, due to a car accident they had. From there, it gets even more intricately involved, culminating in a rather abrupt albeit upbeat ending. This was a good little film, though not as great as I might have hoped, considering the lead actors. Also, the film definitely feels old and doesn't have the freshness a quick programmer would have. If you like the leads, you'll probably be pleased, but all in all, I've seen better films with Kay and William.

A most entertaining Paramount Picture in which William Powell enacts what was to become a common-place role as a fast-talking lawyer (based on real-life William Fallon), but handles the part with such verve and charisma it still fascinates today.

Cromwell's strikingly forceful direction helps no end, as does the superb acting of Kay Francis in a difficult study of a woman torn between two loves—a role which she handles to perfection. An excellent support cast includes fine studies by William B. Davidson (in his best role ever) and comedian James Finlayson (minus his trademark mustache) in a rare, dramatic part.

"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.

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 (1930)

*** (out of 4)

Exciting drama from Paramount has lawyer William Foster (William Powell) at the top of his game. He's a lawyer who plays strictly by the book but what rubs people the wrong way is that he gets criminals and thugs off of their crimes. Foster's skill is put to the test when the woman he loves (Kay Francis) asks him to defend a man that Foster knows loves her too. Things take a complicated turn when Foster learns that it was the woman who actually did the crime.

Back in the 1930s it wasn't uncommon for Hollywood to take newspaper headlines and wrap them into a movie. This film is partially based on the career of lawyer William Fallon who was flawless when it came to defending some of the biggest criminals of the era. FOR THE DEFENSE is a really good movie that has some terrific performances, a rather good story and an ending that really packs a nice little punch. The film manages to keep you caught up in the story from the opening credits up until the very end so fans of classic Hollywood are really going to enjoy this.

I think the greatest thing about the picture is the performance of Powell. When watching his films today it's amazing to see how easy he makes acting look because he could pretty much transform himself into any type of role and this here is what he is best at.

This is a very smart character, constantly thinking and constantly on the movie. Powell plays this with ease and manages to build a real character. Francis is also very good, although her role isn't nearly as memorable. William B. Davidson also deserves a lot of credit as the District Attorney who can never beat Foster and sees him getting criminals off as a major problem for the safety of the country.

The story itself has a couple nice twists and turns along the way and there's no doubt that director John Cromwell knows how to handle the material and he keeps the film moving at a very nice pace. The great thing about Turner Classic Movies is that you can always stumble across films with actors that you know but perhaps films you haven't heard of. It's really too bad that FOR THE DEFENSE isn't better known today because it's a perfect example of a great cast, a strong story and how these small movies used to be made for quality.